I was thinking about this yesterday when I drove my outback for the first time in 11 months and it was idling roughly and accelerating poorly.

 

I know I should of put some stable in the tank but did not. also did not put any dry gas in.

 

after 40 miles I did top off with 7 gallons of 91 octane gas and for the 40 mile trip home and it ran like old times. i.e. very well with good performance.

 

so I was wondering if these fuel injector cleaners, dry gas, and other fuel additives really work?

 

or just use the recommended octane gas or maybe an occasional bottle of alcohol?

 

I have used "guaranteed pass" on my older cars when they didn't pass smog on the first go around and then every single time after using this stuff, they passed smog easily.

Edited December 16, 201411 yr by roadsubiedog

I know that Seafoam works to clean the fuel system.

 

Used to believe in Gum Out for fuel system cleaner. But it seems to have changed from back then, talking '60's, '70's era.

 

But those are the 2 Brands I prefer over the rest of them.

 

11 - 12 months really doesn't matter on the gas. I've fired up engines on 3+ year old gas. Yeah, they didn't run real good at first, but they fired up and ran. Took a bit to get them going, but they ran on the old gas.

 

Had many tell me to use Stable(?) for storing seasonal equipment. Tried it, not happy with the results....

Engines seemed to be way harder to start the 1st time when that season came back around.

Edited December 16, 201411 yr by TomRhere

As far as additives go, I've found that on really high mileage cars (mine have 225k and 260k) the lucas injector cleaner make a very noticeable difference in mileage. Doesn't seem to do boo-squat in lower mileage cars, at least for me.

 

For small engine storage, I run them dry, then put some coleman fuel in them and run them dry again. That stuff leaves no residue/varnish at all and I've never had a problem since I started doing that. I also put stabil in everytime I buy gas for them. I've had way to many carbs gum up on me in the past, so I don't take any chances anymore.

Depends on what your using them for.

 

Dry-gas and Heet products are nothing more than fancy alcohol. Alcohol absorbs water, up to a certain amount, and it will then mix with the fuel so it can be burned.

 

Kind of a neat experiment to can do with gasoline to determine its water content. Pour about 100 mL into a graduated cylinder, add about 10-20 mL of distilled water. Cap it off and shake vigorously for about a minute, then let it settle. All of the water will settle to the bottom of the cylinder. Compare the amount of water that settles to the amount you added earlier. If you added 10mL and now have 18mL of water, the water content was approximately 8mL or 8%.

 

This only works with ethanol gas. Non-ethanol gas should not absorb any water.

Lucas injector cleaner definately will improve mileage for a few tanks.

Do not use heat in ethanol gas! Most gas stations run e10 ethanol which means its already 10% alchohol. So puting heat in ethanol gas is just compounding the problem that e10 gas has of absorbing moisture out of the air.

For ethanol mix gases I like to run startron fuel treatment. Startron is the only fuel additive that actually treats phase separation that plaugues ethanol gas.

 

The reason I know about ethanol gas is because I worked a service center and we had tons of issues with water in the gas. There are tons of headaches caused by this fuel that not many people know.

 

I do like berrymans b12 and Lucas fuel injector cleaners

Edited December 18, 201411 yr by mikaleda

Also ethanol gas has a shelf life of 3 months, Nonethanol gas has a shelf life of 2+ years. Storing a car with ethanol gas in the carb will ruin the rubber in the carburator. Best to use a good fuel stabilizer, another good use for startron

Don't buy ethanol crap gas if you don't have too. I get 34mpg without it. http://pure-gas.org

The way that auto parts places and certain service joints throw fear into car owners that somehow their fuel systems is clogged is pretty contemptible.  It reminds me of how doctors and nutritional promoters are always trying to sell product and unnecessary procedures, because "sickness" is a lot more profitable than wellness and prevention.  

 

But I have used Chevron's Techtron product and Lucas, never noticed any improvement though.  Overuse can damage the car.