Fuel System Cleaner Good Or Bad ?
Probably won't hurt, if you don't use it too frequently, but probably won't do much good either. Better to remove you injectors and have them professionally cleaned and flow tested.
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 29,798
Likes: 128
From: London, Ontario, Canada
Snake oil. So in other words, don't waste your money.
These cleaners only work on very slight deposits and have the potential to end up putting all kinds of gunk through the fuel system.
These cleaners only work on very slight deposits and have the potential to end up putting all kinds of gunk through the fuel system.
Not true. Seafoam works ok for a "fuel system cleaner", though it does very minimal cleaning, seeing as its not given enough time to sit and desolve deposits of gunk. Better off just cleaning injectors like said and the rest of the stuff replace or clean as you can, or as needed.
EDIT: yes, most are just snake oil, like you already said...
EDIT: yes, most are just snake oil, like you already said...
Snake oil. So in other words, don't waste your money.
OK, I have to relate my recent experience w/ this now.
Just recently I decided to try Lucas injector cleaner and top end lube. I chose it because it was also a top end lube and figured I could just add it instead of my premix (still using OMP as well for safety).
It says can not be over-used on the bottle and that it treats 100 gallons of fuel.
Gas tank was on empty so I put half the bottle in and boosted over the gas station (just 1/2 boost as I didn't want to break anything if it detonated from the decreased octane). I boosted over, because I wanted my 2ndaries to open and get cleaned. It smoked a fair deal
Then I added the rest of bottle and filled the tank. I did multiple top speed runs and headed up the nearest mountain to try to get as much WOT time as possible.
Well, my car runs much smoother and has more low rpm power. It may be better injector spray pattern.
It could also be the lack of my normal 50:1 premix helped break in the engine some more.
It has ~10,000 miles on it, but w/ the heavy premix it has been gaining compression very slowly. Last time I saw an improvement like this was after the hillclimb- after a full season of Auto-X and ~5,000 miles daily driving!
OK, I have to relate my recent experience w/ this now.
Just recently I decided to try Lucas injector cleaner and top end lube. I chose it because it was also a top end lube and figured I could just add it instead of my premix (still using OMP as well for safety).
It says can not be over-used on the bottle and that it treats 100 gallons of fuel.
Gas tank was on empty so I put half the bottle in and boosted over the gas station (just 1/2 boost as I didn't want to break anything if it detonated from the decreased octane). I boosted over, because I wanted my 2ndaries to open and get cleaned. It smoked a fair deal
Then I added the rest of bottle and filled the tank. I did multiple top speed runs and headed up the nearest mountain to try to get as much WOT time as possible.
Well, my car runs much smoother and has more low rpm power. It may be better injector spray pattern.
It could also be the lack of my normal 50:1 premix helped break in the engine some more.
It has ~10,000 miles on it, but w/ the heavy premix it has been gaining compression very slowly. Last time I saw an improvement like this was after the hillclimb- after a full season of Auto-X and ~5,000 miles daily driving!
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