fuel system additives

james west

curious to know if anyone uses fuel additives and what kinds? THANKS!!

Chuck33079

If you're talking about "octane boosters" they're snake oil. Don't bother. Some of the fuel system cleaners do work as advertised. Techron concentrate has some good reviews.

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DEpointfive0

I use them for shitz n giggles every once in a while. I also run some methanol at times or IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) in small doses to get water out of my tank if there is any.


(I don't recommend IPA unless you can get 100% alcohol. I work at a lab so I have access to all the cheap/free HPLC grade chemicals I want)

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Chuck33079

For that I'd just use HEET. It's almost 100% methanol.

For an octane booster that really works, use toluene or xylene. It's not really cost effective anymore, but it works.

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DEpointfive0

Lol, I know, but why spend $3 a bottle on that when I can get it more pure at work for free, hell. Even if I paid for it, we buy methanol for... 1.93/liter and IPA at 3.68/liter


And yeah, they aren't cost effective at all anymore. Such a shame

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SouthArk370Z

Methanol in small doses should be OK but it can be corrosive and leach plasticizers from "rubber" parts. Modern cars seem to handle MeOH much better than classics.

Ethanol in small doses will work great. If you can get 90+% EtOH, I'd go with that instead of MeOH.

Not sure about IPA. Might be able to get some idea of suitability by looking up properties in "CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics" (if you're doing HPLC, you probably have one handy) and comparing to MeOH and EtOH.

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SouthArk370Z

At least one other thread about this on this site. General consensus seems to be that the vast majority of additives are worthless at best and possibly harmful. There are some additives that can do some good if used periodically (eg, a half-pint or so of alcohol once or twice a year to flush out water) but, for DDs at least, no additives are needed with every fill up. If you are supercharging, an octane booster might be of value.

Same with oil additives.

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DEpointfive0

It's not much, but I don't think even a gallon of methanol in a tank would hurt anything even over time. Gasoline is already some baaaaad shít, methanol ain't any worse for the most part, annnnd you can run it with some Marvel Mystery Oil to prevent leeching if that's a fear (people used to do that when running gallons of Xylene as an octane booster)

I just wouldn't use ethanol (we have 99% I believe, because the other 1% is methanol) because it burns really dirty.


Fun fact, MMO is about 1% lard

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luigi90210

I use fuel system cleaners. Other than those though I'd stay away from any octane booster or some crap like that.

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phunk

Ethanol is a great fuel additive. I recommend about 85%

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DEpointfive0

Yeah E85-ish is great. Except for when it's E50 and E90 and you can't tell the difference, lol
And ethanol just burns really dirty.

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phunk

They make gauges for that... but I never needed it! As for dirty?? no way!

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DEpointfive0

Didn't know they did, but good to know!

And I can't tell if there is sarcasm on the last part... I want to assume yes because I know you're a smart guy

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phunk

Well that depends... if you are talking about what comes out the tailpipe, sure... but as for what it does to the rest.. spotless!

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1slow370

the only conceren with e85 and dirtiness is for the tank filter lines and seals. All modern seals are e85 compatible for the most part, and the only issues you get with sediments are caused from dissolved water corrosion, which actually isn't as bad in the long run when compared to laquering gas and that when you get water in a tank of real gas it just sits in the tank where as e85 will dissolve and burn it. this is why it is much harder to get a bad tank of e85

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