I use Techron once in awhile and IsoHeet once a month. Seafoam through the intake a few times a year.

 

Didnt someone post a few days back according to "some engineer" about using 50/50 DOT3 & water for an engine clean when discussing a plenum / engine clean? sure i have it bookmarked .... somewhere

 

Look at the MSDS sheets for any cleaner you put in your car, half of them are basically just naptha! I use Redline SI-1, very high in cleaning agents (Poly Ether Amine), and the official fuel system cleaner you'll be given by BMW if you ask for some...

 

I've tried a wide variety of them and the only one I've had consistent positive results with is Redline.

 

The Redline is my go to cleaner of choice.

 

I use the Techron and it seems to do a good job. I've added it before long trips and gotten a 2-3 mpg boost in the first tank. The mileage dropped with subsequent fill ups though. I also once took my dads car to the beach; 15 mpg down; dropped in a cheap gas station bottle of STP; and got 20 mpg on the way back.

The primary ingredient on them might be naphtha but that's probably just to dilute the stuff so it can be poured. I use whatever is the cheapest fuel injector cleaner at the time when I run injectors through my ultrasonic cleaner. I use naphtha as the working fluid and I know from experience that adding the cleaner makes the mix less pleasant to work with. Really eats the oils out of your skin.

 

Techron does have a comparable amount of PEA to Redline, so worth using, unlike some of the other trash about!
TBH if you're using an ultrasonic cleaner I would just use straight gas or white spirit - I have one too, that's what I use, and it doesn't seem to make a difference if I add a cleaner. It's the vibration that does the cleaning, not so much the fluid.

 

BTW by "white spirit" I mean what you filthy foreigners might call ethanol, straight alcohol - I use Methylated spirit, which is the same stuff but with Methanol added to stop the drunks buying it. Over here, "White spirit" is actually a replacement for turpentine as a paint thinner/brush cleaner for oil-based paints. But I think you call it "white spirit" or "white gas"? The stuff you use in a Trangia camping cooker, anyway!

edit - apparently you call it "denatured alcohol" over there.

 

BTW by "white spirit" I mean what you filthy foreigners might call ethanol, straight alcohol - I use Methylated spirit, which is the same stuff but with Methanol added to stop the drunks buying it. Over here, "White spirit" is actually a replacement for turpentine as a paint thinner/brush cleaner for oil-based paints. But I think you call it "white spirit" or "white gas"? The stuff you use in a Trangia camping cooker, anyway!

White gas here is naphtha which has about the same weight fraction as gasoline but without all the additives. We use it in our Coleman camping stoves

What you are calling "white spirit" we would just call ethanol. Your "methylated spirit" we call denatured alcohol.

 

Beat ya to it... but "white spirit" over here is oilier than ethanol - and god help you if you drink it!

 

So redline, seafoam and techron are the favourites in this crowd so far. We could get this going a few pages, I'm sure

 

Seafoam has no real cleaner in it at all - look at it's MSDS - http://seafoamsales.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/MSDS_seafoam_EN.pdf
"pale oil", Naptha, and isopropyl alchohol. Nothing in there is going to do any real cleaning, and you could make the stuff yourself - pale oil is just a bog standard light oil, and the Naptha and IPA - well, you know! No PEA there at all.

 

I don't think they have to put the PEA on the MSDS since it has no CAS number. Look here: https://cglapps.chevron.com/msdspds/MSDSDetailPage.aspx?docDataId=283264 the MSDS for Techron doesn't list PEA either, just fuel oil, mineral oil (white spirits), naphtha, and trimethylbenzene. CRC lists PEA in their Guaranteed to Pass stuff http://apkgroup.com/msds/English/CRC%20(218)/75060-6%20(10-03-2012).pdf

MSDS are a good resource but not always complete.

 

I've used seafoam, gumout, techron, and b12 chemtool. In my experience for fuel cleaner it goes like this:
1.seafoam
2.techron
3.b12
4.gumout.

 

I did read that the new, "better" Techron contains no PEA - but we don't get the stuff over here so I wouldn't be able to try it. Redline does great for me...

 

I'll add Lucas gas treatment every couple months. While the info/chart below is a couple years old (2012) supposedly there's no need to add alcohol-based fuel treatments to E10 fuel. Kind of makes sense since sure don't want there to be suggested E15 fuels which damages/overheats small engines.

http://www.fueltestkit.com/is_gas_additive_safe_with_e10_list.html

 

I like Techron, never tried (or seen actually) redline around here. Seafoam I run through the intake every so often, though I don't know if it does anything honestly . I think I tried gumout once and it did absolutely nothing.

 

the best "you can find it anywhere" products are techron, gumout all-in-one, gumout regane (ignore the other gumout products)

 

Seafoam

/end thread

 

Err, does nothing but create smoke...

 

im a strong believer in octane boost and clean combustion. gents once you have cleaned everything out switch to straight gas with octane boost to keep it that way. ethanol blended fuels are bad for our motors,fuel systems,sensors etc
here in canada our reg gas is 87 octane 15% ethanol/butane/gasline antifreeze,, mid grade 87octane, and prem 91 no ethanol. i run shell V-power with stp or lucas octane thru all gas motors i have.attached a write up on it. didnt mean to highlight page.. cheers

 

Interesting if your reg gas up there is already E15 and it's just starting to show up at some stations down here. Our mid or "plus grade" gas is 89 octane and maybe the same up there?

I'll never run E15 in my chain saws, weedeaters, back-pack leaf blower, mowers, generator, and other small gas engine equipment. And it's strange to see cats installed on many new generators, mowers, some other small gas-powered equipment, which is a mandate.

Fed warning sign which is supposed to be installed on the E15 gas pumps.

I'm a firm believer in using Sta-bil in the gas cans for stored fuel for my generator. Have to keep at least 5-10 gals around to prep for power outages since I live in the woods and trees do come down on the electric lines.

I used to use both STP and Gum-out fuel injector cleaners in our Jeeps but didn't seem to do a whole lot so switched to Lucas. Found Lucas to be a whole lot cheaper if you buy it in the gal jug then use the small bottle for measuring it to add to a full tank of gas.

 

not sure what you mean?

 

The smoke you see after putting Seafoam in your plug holes and letting it sit, then firing it up - it's the pale oil burning off. Not removing carbon or anything else.
If you really want to clean your carbon deposits out, get the engine warmed up then feed a pint or two of water in through a vacuum line, bit by bit - the water flashes into steam, breaks up the carbon, and it comes out the exhaust.
For best results, do it with the tailpipe close to a nice white wall. It won't be white any more after doing it - but you can always hose it off.
Ever seen the cylinder of a car with a blown head gasket, where coolant has been leaking into the cylinder (s)? Sparkly clean, like a new engine.
Just remember to change your oil soon afterwards.

 

I use the Lucas Oil treatment/cleaner whenever I actually remember to use it, which is probably once a month.

 

lucas products are awesome! on my 99 sport i did a complete sensor replacement(tps,aic,O2s)
k/n intake, s/s header magnaflow cat/muffler 2 1/4" and run shell V-power with octane boost.
as well as full synthetic fluids in everything and wow what a diffrence from stock jeeps i wheel with

 

I did the water treatment a few times on my Jeep before the first Seafoam treatment. I do believe that water cleans carbon from the combustion chamber well enough but it doesn't do anything for the valves. I pulled the intake after the water treatment so I could change freeze plugs and the valves were still cruddy. After the first Seafoam it ran noticeably better. I've done the Seafoam three times in the last year and when I pulled my intake a month ago to swap for the 99 intake my valves and the inside of my intake were spotless. No carbon build up at all. I just bought a can of the aerosol Seafoam. Probably nothing left to clean in my engine but I'm going to give it a try soon.

 

i put all new everything and run shell vpower and if my motor idles funny in anyway power loss or bad milege ill use tps cleaner and lucas octane and go for a 140-150kph ride on the hwy
to burn out the grime

 

O_O ...... $5.63 per gallon of premium gas... I don't think I have much room to complain about our $4 per gallon of premium anymore.. Where are you? I want to say Canadialand but not sure..

 

4hrs north of toronto. i get awesome milege out of my jeep 99 sport 450-550 kms per tank and i drive the hell out of it im very hard on tires btw!! lol