fuel system cleaners?

[BlueExpedition]

talkin about the stuff you can buy and pour in your gas tank. i put some stuff in the expy and some guy tells my wife(supposedly he is a mechanic) that the stuff works great in the short run but in the long run its like getting a cortisone shot in that the stuff gums up in the system and has to be removed. is this true?


i posted about the problems i was having with the spark plugs a few days ago. with the fuel filter changed my wife got 415 miles on a tank and 75% of that was city driving.

i decided to use this stuff called Enzyme to clean the fuel system. its a fuel additive you can buy at the parts store. my dad swears it gave him almost 4mpg increase. but is this stuff likely to cause problems down the road? geez.

 

[joezek]

I use the blue enzyme fuel system treatment that they usually sell in the boating section at Walmart. You use something like 1oz per every 8 gallons. With our Altima it gave us 2-3 mpg on the highway gain. I haven't tried it yet on the EXP.

I'm a mechanic for 15 years in aviation, and worked on cars as a hobby for at least 10 years before that, and I've never heard someone say what you said about the injector cleaner causing the system to get gummed up.

What I have heard and read is that most injector cleaners are BS and really don't do anything. It's the "Placebo" effect- you pour in the injector cleaner and suddenly think it's running better, and notice how smooth it runs every time you stop at a light, and then floor it more often and it feels faster....There are a few ways to clean injectors, but usually those little bottles are a potion/snake oil of a few ounces of Jet fuel (diesel) and some toluene, mineral spirits, acetone etc. to fill the bottle up. The Jet Fuel is bad because it kills your octane, however it increases the BTU's, then they use the toluene to crank up the octane and prevent detonation. Meanwhile there's not a lot of cleaning going on.

I like the Seafoam fuel treatment, and also the BG fuel cleaners. I made my own pressure pot to pressure clean the injectors by connecting directly to the fuel rail, and unplugging the fuel pump. The engine runs on BG Injector cleaner only and its pressurized from the pressure pot. No gasoline goes through the injectors at all for about 5 minutes. After that, it's a whole new engine for about 10K miles.

 

[BlueExpedition]

that sounds exactly like what i just started using. i will keep an eye on it and see what happens.

 

[sngltrck1]

X2 on the Seafoam ... do a google search, there are even poems written in its honor!

Also search this forum for the most effective ways to use it cuz it
goes in more than just the tank.

 

[ghettoracer]

I use the Shell Complete Fuel System Cleaner for Trucks and its been pretty good stuff so far!