about every other fuel up (aroud every 600 miles or so) i try to put some sort of "fuel injector cleaner" or "octane booster" into my tank. now over the years i have tried A LOT of the products out there , and i have really only noticed maybe 2 or 3 that made a difference.... and not a jaw dropping difference mind you!

I have a few questions:

* is it overkill to do it this often?
* am i wasting money by doing this? does anyone here really see a benifit by doing this?
* is there a diffrence between octane booster and fuel injecter cleaner? they kinda claim to do the samething
* I read on this site that adding these additives actually gum up your injectors and other parts. Is this true?
* I know there are a TON of these products on the market, but are there any that people here would actually recommend? I have read on the forum a lot of mixed revues.

 

do a search on seafoam.

 

my diesel tech teacher always told me....

"there's no such thing as a can of un-f***"

the $$ you spend on those items dont recover the cost, except maybe seafoam

 

To answer your questions directly:

1) Yes I think it is overkill.
2) Benefit is marginal at best. If you buy a good detergent gasoline and keep up with your maintainence you'll be okay.
3) Octance boosters and fuel injector cleaners primarily consist of alcohol additives. Alcohol will both break off carbon and increase octane.
4) "Gumming" is a misnomer. What actually happens is that chunks of carbon will break away causing problems. You want to melt the carbon slowly, not break it off in chunks.
5) The only products that I've seen reliable, repeatable sucess with are BG products. Unfortunately, some of their products may not be available to you being part of the general public. Contact your local BG sales rep for details.

The long and short of it is, there is no "mechanic in a can". Keep up with your maintainence and use quality gasoline, oil, grease, etc. wherever possible. Your rig will perform better and repairs will be fewer.

 

cool thanks for the responds, i think i will read more into seafoam. From what I have read on this site, it is pretty highly recommended. I think I will give it a shot and perhaps quit throwing money down the drain on all these fuel additives!

 

if you really want to clean out your engine, pull a vaccuum line and suck a TINY ammount of water into it. i mean a very small ammount. it'll turn into steam and clean all that carbon out.