A Note About Gasoline and By Products

[fmdog44]

I post this from Handyman Pro because of the last statement. "Avoid all other gas additives". Typically, we see "others may be suitable" type suggestions. It shows a pic of CHEVRON Techroline.
Are There Any Gas Additives Worth Using?
No ‘magic’ or ‘revolutionary’ additives will increase your fuel efficiency. However, some owners like to add fuel-system cleaning additives periodically. Many companies make the type you add to your tank. The most effective ones have polyisobutylamine (PIBA) and polyetheramine (PEA), so look for one of those ingredients on the label. Follow the product’s directions for treat rates. Avoid all other gas additives!

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[Tone]

It's our understanding from the manual for a 3.5 EB that using Top Tier gas is recommended, either 91 for daily and 93 for towing. There is a detergent agent in these fuels.

Ours runs like a top, and idles smoothly, on those grades. With 93, it doesn't even feel like the engine is running.

https://www.toptiergas.com/gasoline-brands/

 

[mkinttrim]

I use chevron techron once a year even though I use shell 87 octane gasoline. I dont waste money on premium fuel. I'm at sea level and truck runs perfect and I get 20 plus MPG

 

[fmdog44]

I use chevron techron once a year even though I use shell 87 octane gasoline. I dont waste money on premium fuel. I'm at sea level and truck runs perfect and I get 20 plus MPG

On the advice of a lifelong mechanic many years ago said every few thousand miles add a bottle of Techroline to a tank of Chevron Premium even for 87 octane motors. Make sure your number of gallons meets the number on the bottle for full effectiveness.

 

[Tone]

There's a major difference between cleaning a house every day versus once a year.

With 91 and 93 there's 23 to 26 mpg.

 

[mkinttrim]

On the advice of a lifelong mechanic many years ago said every few thousand miles add a bottle of Techroline to a tank of Chevron Premium even for 87 octane motors. Make sure your number of gallons meets the number on the bottle for full effectiveness.

Yeah, I haven't turned 20K yet, bought the truck 9/10/21

 

[Eighthtry]

Techron is used in Top Tier Gasoline.

Run a bottle of Techron through occasionally. It cleans fuel injectors. Low mileage, part time driving is particularly hard on injectors. I run Techron through the cars I have that are seldom run. 2 Drivers/5cars. What was I thinking?

 

[JExpedition07]

At 209 bar/3000 psi I don’t think the 5.0 is leaving any room for the high pressure system to get dirty. Not much debris that are going to hold on to anything with 3,000 psi of force flinging through…

 

[Eighthtry]

Thank you for your thoughts. You have never pulled injectors.

 

[Tone]

Techron is not in all gas. It's proprietary to Chevron, Texaco and Caltex.

 

[Eighthtry]

I agree on the distribution. Shell has one. There are a couple of others.

I don't know about the rest of the engine line but Ford has both direct injection and port injection for each cylinder on a 5.0. The direct injection gives them the most headache. That is where Techron comes in handy.

I had a 2010 Cadillac CTS V. 6.2 factory supercharged 556 hp, 553tq port injection. About 75,000 miles on it at the time. It was my primary road car. I started it up in the garage one day and thick blue smoke went everywhere. It completely filled my oversized 3 car garage and was pouring out of the door. It cleared up after 25/50' or so. It smoked like it had no rings in it. After that it was intermittent. Happened about 6 or 8 times. It occurred heat soaked or cold. It was very embarrassing to have a performance car smoking like that at a car show.

I finally went to O'Reilly's and bought 6 bottles of Techron. I put one per tank for six tanks. I never had the problem again. Went on to 203,000 miles before I sold it. If it had gone into the dealer it would have cost me 8 injectors.

I had read in one of my car magazines years ago that Techron was the real deal. I'm sold.

 

[XLT22]

Additives are a waste of time. The ethanol blended into motor gas now does more "cleaning" than anything you're going to buy off a shelf. That doesn't even get into the EPA standards which over the years have upped the average detergent content and the top tier program takes that a small step further.

It's the same story with diesel fuel. Lubricity additives are a waste with nearly all on-road diesel being blended with some amount of bio-diesel or renewable diesel. That small blend more than makes up for the removal (mostly) of sulphur in the fuel. The problem with American diesel is its low cetane compare to the Euro stuff. ExxonMobil was the only domestic I'm aware of offering a product with a small cetane bump under their Diesel Efficient banner. Using additives for cetane improvement can offer a mileage benefit but not enough to make up the cost from what I found years ago with a Duramax.

 

[dochawk]

Techron is a concentrate of what Chevron uses to meet Top Tier standards.

in many places (like here), "generic" gasoline comes to town, and the various brands add their potion.

Adding a jar of Techron gives generic gas a coupe of times top tier rating, but it isn't different than a couple of tanks of top tier.

 

[Eighthtry]

Well, I guess I experienced my second miracle of note and was dead asleep when it happened.

First was graduating college on time (double dead rocket science degree). I was dead asleep most of those 4 years.

Second, I translate that reply to mean it would have eventually scrubbed itself clean (except the problem repeated infrequently over a series of a few months). But it took 128,000 miles for it to never repeat again. That is left handed math (I am right handed and admittedly struggle with addition/subtraction tables). 75,000 miles to get there. Have the problem. Use the product. 128,000 miles to never repeat.

Replacing injectors because that is a common problem is exactly what I would have expected to hear from the tricycle scientists at the dealership. Admittedly I did not seek their opinion. However, they were likely correct with that analysis, just not satisfactory to me when on commission. I admit my solution was a band-aid based on junk science, but, as with ivermectin, seemed worth a try.

Another disclosure of note is my 2010 CTS V had only 8 injectors to clean. A 5.0 has 8 port and 8 direct, so I admit to not having a direct correlation.

Maybe I should have gone ahead and replaced the injectors and it might have gone another 128,000 miles to never repeat. I will never know. With highway miles being around 90% of my driving it was worth the additional expense (at least in my opinion, which I much admire) if it cleared. I can assure you that replacing all injectors would have been exponentially more expensive

Picked the following up from the rocket scientists at google AI. Not that it can be trusted, but at least it makes sense to me.

Effects of alcohol on fuel injectors

Water absorption and corrosion: Alcohol is hygroscopic, meaning it absorbs water from the atmosphere. When the fuel becomes saturated with water, the ethanol and water can separate, forming corrosive, unusable fuel that can damage the injector (water absorbed in alcohol also increases power, but that is another discussion).

Clogging and reduced fuel flow: The deposits loosened by ethanol can clog the injectors. This leads to a reduced fuel supply, a phenomenon sometimes called "coking".

Carbon deposit formation: Alcohol mixtures can alter the fuel spray pattern, increasing the fuel's tendency to form carbon deposits on the injector tip, a process known as coking.

Reduced atomization: The build-up of carbon deposits on the injector tip can affect the fuel spray pattern, leading to poor fuel atomization. This can result in a drop in engine performance and an increase in emissions.

How to minimize alcohol-related problems

Use fresh fuel: Store ethanol-blended fuels for the shortest possible time to minimize water absorption.

Maintain a full tank: Keeping your fuel tank as full as possible reduces the amount of air (and thus moisture) it contains.

Use a fuel injector cleaner: Regularly use a high-quality fuel injector cleaner to help dissolve deposits.

Choose quality gasoline: Opt for name-brand, high-quality gasolines that contain detergent additives, which help keep injectors clean.

I rest my case. I am not prepared to discuss the merits of the different fuel injector cleaners. I'm happy even if my expanation of what I did and how I cured it, using Chevron as a crutch, is BS. But so was ivermectin.

 

[XLT22]

Well, I guess I experienced my second miracle of note and was dead asleep when it happened.

First was graduating college on time (double dead rocket science degree). I was dead asleep most of those 4 years.

Second, I translate that reply to mean it would have eventually scrubbed itself clean (except the problem repeated infrequently over a series of a few months). But it took 128,000 miles for it to never repeat again. That is left handed math (I am right handed and admittedly struggle with addition/subtraction tables). 75,000 miles to get there. Have the problem. Use the product. 128,000 miles to never repeat.

Replacing injectors because that is a common problem is exactly what I would have expected to hear from the tricycle scientists at the dealership. Admittedly I did not seek their opinion. However, they were likely correct with that analysis, just not satisfactory to me when on commission. I admit my solution was a band-aid based on junk science, but, as with ivermectin, seemed worth a try.

Another disclosure of note is my 2010 CTS V had only 8 injectors to clean. A 5.0 has 8 port and 8 direct, so I admit to not having a direct correlation.

Maybe I should have gone ahead and replaced the injectors and it might have gone another 128,000 miles to never repeat. I will never know. With highway miles being around 90% of my driving it was worth the additional expense (at least in my opinion, which I much admire) if it cleared. I can assure you that replacing all injectors would have been exponentially more expensive

Picked the following up from the rocket scientists at google AI. Not that it can be trusted, but at least it makes sense to me.

Effects of alcohol on fuel injectors

Water absorption and corrosion: Alcohol is hygroscopic, meaning it absorbs water from the atmosphere. When the fuel becomes saturated with water, the ethanol and water can separate, forming corrosive, unusable fuel that can damage the injector (water absorbed in alcohol also increases power, but that is another discussion).

Clogging and reduced fuel flow: The deposits loosened by ethanol can clog the injectors. This leads to a reduced fuel supply, a phenomenon sometimes called "coking".

Carbon deposit formation: Alcohol mixtures can alter the fuel spray pattern, increasing the fuel's tendency to form carbon deposits on the injector tip, a process known as coking.

Reduced atomization: The build-up of carbon deposits on the injector tip can affect the fuel spray pattern, leading to poor fuel atomization. This can result in a drop in engine performance and an increase in emissions.

How to minimize alcohol-related problems

Use fresh fuel: Store ethanol-blended fuels for the shortest possible time to minimize water absorption.

Maintain a full tank: Keeping your fuel tank as full as possible reduces the amount of air (and thus moisture) it contains.

Use a fuel injector cleaner: Regularly use a high-quality fuel injector cleaner to help dissolve deposits.

Choose quality gasoline: Opt for name-brand, high-quality gasolines that contain detergent additives, which help keep injectors clean.

I rest my case. I am not prepared to discuss the merits of the different fuel injector cleaners. I'm happy even if my expanation of what I did and how I cured it, using Chevron as a crutch, is BS. But so was ivermectin.

There is no "case" here. Ethanol blended fuels have been a staple for decades now. People talk about them like it arrived on the scene 5 years ago and everyone's vehicle is now a ticking time bomb. I've been working on vehicles professionally for 2+ decades now and can't even begin to tell you when I've seen varnish in a fuel system. With modern detergents and ethanol in the blend the fuel systems are always squeaky clean.

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