Engine Additives

Oil Additives:

When auto manufactures design engines, they are not thinking about the necessity of having to use additives. Your engine is a engineering marvel, designed to run for a long time. With a good maintenance program on the owner’s part, today's automobile engines can run over 200,000 miles. Most automobile engines are adequately protected from wear at start-up when they use motor oil as recommended in the owner's manual. Moreover, it is uncommon for engines to experience premature failure caused by wear, whether they have been treated with any oil additive or not. Although there is argument on both sides on the use of oil additives, some are apparently worthy of consideration. There are about 50 products on the market that state that their treated engines sustained 50 percent less wear than test engines run with premium motor oil alone. Many of them being just duplicate products under different names from the same company. The price for a pint or quart of these engine oil additives runs from a few dollars to much more. As to whether these products really work, or do harm, is up in the air. There are many champions on the side of using additives. They use them often and swear by them. One simply cannot ignore the success some of them have had, using various oil additives. Those that participate in the racing circuit, be it car, motorcycle or boat, would not run a damaging product in their very high dollar engines. Most, but not all oil additives consist of 50 weight engine oil blended with Polytetrafluoroethylene or zinc (Zinc D) dialkyldithiophosphates. Interestingly oil companies have been decreasing the amount of zinc-d because evidence indicates that zinc-d causes deterioration of catalytic converters. Note: If you use a synthetic oil, such as Mobil 1(It is a "fully synthetic" formulation that helps extend engine life, reduce oil breakdown and minimize engine wear), you are advised "not to use any engine treatments or additives". Mobil claims that the use of an engine oil additive is not recommended, either by Mobil or by virtually any vehicle manufacturer. In fact, it may void your new-car warranty. Fuel Additives:

STP (there are many others) Gas Treatment is the most well know, used in your gas tank it will dry up any water (Dehydrating) in the tank. It will also keep the fuel line from freezing up in the winter. Your engine will run more smoothly and start more reliably with its use in the winter. You will want to add one entire container just before filling up. Do this about every other fill up in the winter or any cold months. A little water, even a few drops, can do a lot of harm to your engine performance.

You can also use what is called *dry gas for this same purpose, it is an ethanol-based additive used in automobiles to prevent any water in the fuel from freezing, or to restore combustive power to gasoline spoiled by water. It is a liquid that is added in to the fuel tank, that absorbs the water and keeps it in solution. (Some brands contain methanol and some contain isopropyl alcohol).

If you already have ethanol in your fuel, there is no point in adding dry gas to fuel that already contains a significant percentage of ethanol.

*DO NOT use it around heat or flame or while the engine is running, as it is flammable.

Fuel Injection Cleaner:

Clean fuel injectors are a necessity for peak engine performance, fuel economy and emissions. If the injectors are dirty and can't deliver their specific dose of fuel, performance, fuel economy and emissions are all going to suffer. Dirty injectors can't flow as much fuel as clean ones, nor can they deliver the correct spray pattern that is so essential for clean, efficient combustion.

Rather than spending your money on fuel injector cleaners, spend the money on a new fuel filter every few years. That's the single best thing you can do to protect your injectors. And if you have an older, fuel injected car that ran for a long time on gasoline without detergents, the injectors might be causing it to run poorly, then you can try some fuel injector cleaner. The stuff does work. If you are determined to do some preventive maintenance on your Fuel Injection system, One of the best additives is polyether amine. It keeps injectors, valves and combustion chambers clean without the help of any additional fluidizers, keep in mind that it costs more than twice as much as the other commonly used additives.

Unfortunately, some of the cause of injector systems getting clogged is that some gas suppliers have cut back on the amount of detergent they add to their fuel or have switched to cheaper and less effective additives.

Engines using fuel injection do require some slightly different fuel system maintenance! The normal wear and tear with today's engine temperatures and changes in gasoline quality suggests

some buildup of olefin wax, dirt, water and many other additives. In this case, you should visit your dealer or garage and have them clean your fuel injection system. High-mileage engines as well as engines that are used mostly for short stop-and-go driving are the most likely in need of injector cleaning. The benefits realized by injector cleaning obviously will vary depending on the condition of the injectors prior to cleaning and how badly they were clogged. Injectors that are very dirty will show a more noticeable improvement in performance than ones that have only a light accumulation of deposits. Either way, performance, fuel economy and emissions should all be better after a cleaning.