If the various expensive brands of unleaded and diesel do something good to 
your engine, is it worth buying a tankful of expensive once a month just to 
clean the crap out of the system?

On 17 Jun, 01:30, "John Rowland"
 wrote:
> If the various expensive brands of unleaded and diesel do something good to
> your engine, is it worth buying a tankful of expensive once a month just to
> clean the crap out of the system?

You can never clean the polluting crap out of your system as long as
you continue to drive.

--
World Carfree Network
http://www.worldcarfree.net/
Help for your car-addicted friends in the U.K.

Doug wrote:
> On 17 Jun, 01:30, "John Rowland"
>  wrote:
>> If the various expensive brands of unleaded and diesel do something good to
>> your engine, is it worth buying a tankful of expensive once a month just to
>> clean the crap out of the system?
> 
> You can never clean the polluting crap out of your system as long as
> you continue to drive.

Thanks for that, Doug

-- 
Abo

On Jun 17, 1:30 am, "John Rowland"
 wrote:
> If the various expensive brands of unleaded and diesel do something good to
> your engine, is it worth buying a tankful of expensive once a month just to
> clean the crap out of the system?

I used to buy super unleaded because a number of motoring sources said
you got better mpg and the shell version was supposed to have that
detergent in it. I eventually stopped because I didn't really notice
any mpg gains (if there were any they were small) and the engine
didn't seem any smoother. Perhaps it cleaned it but I've no way of
telling. Certainly its made no obvious difference. I'd recommend just
save your money and buy normal unleaded which all engines apart from
some high end sports car ones are designed for anyway.

B2003

wrote in message 
news:8a9ee61a-d1cc-46e2-a404-31565e0552b5@8g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
> On Jun 17, 1:30 am, "John Rowland"
>  wrote:
>> If the various expensive brands of unleaded and diesel do something good 
>> to
>> your engine, is it worth buying a tankful of expensive once a month just 
>> to
>> clean the crap out of the system?
>
> I used to buy super unleaded because a number of motoring sources said
> you got better mpg and the shell version was supposed to have that
> detergent in it. I eventually stopped because I didn't really notice
> any mpg gains (if there were any they were small) and the engine
> didn't seem any smoother. Perhaps it cleaned it but I've no way of
> telling. Certainly its made no obvious difference. I'd recommend just
> save your money and buy normal unleaded which all engines apart from
> some high end sports car ones are designed for anyway.

Normally I use the cheapest supermarket diesel, but a few months ago when I 
was on a long journey I accidentally put BP's "gold-plated" diesel in my car 
instead of ordinary diesel and was miffed at having to pay 91p instead of 
85p per litre for (those were the good old days when you could get diesel 
for well under a pound). The engine did seem to run a bit more smoothly and 
had less lumpiness when coming off the power or applying the power (*). A 
few months later I decided to put in another tankful of the expensive stuff 
to test fuel economy, but the difference for that tankful was less than the 
normal variation that I get from one tankful to another due to different 
mixtures of urban and motorway driving.


(*) Could this be due to a slight blockage in the injectors so they can't 
deliver very small amounts of fuel, going abruptly from moderate flow to no 
flow?

In article <8a9ee61a-d1cc-46e2-a404-31565e0552b5@
8g2000hse.googlegroups.com>,  says...

> I used to buy super unleaded because a number of motoring sources said
> you got better mpg and the shell version was supposed to have that
> detergent in it. I eventually stopped because I didn't really notice
> any mpg gains (if there were any they were small) and the engine
> didn't seem any smoother. Perhaps it cleaned it but I've no way of
> telling. Certainly its made no obvious difference. 

That's because you need a car that can alter the engine timing to take 
advantage of it....



-- 
Conor

I only please one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't 
looking good either. - Scott Adams

"Mortimer"  wrote in message
>
> (*) Could this be due to a slight blockage in the injectors so they can't 
> deliver very small amounts of fuel, going abruptly from moderate flow to 
> no flow?
I've  used v-power and BP ultimate a few times - despite the experts in the 
car mags saying it was a waste unless your ecu was either set up for the 
improved fuel or adapted automatically I found that the cars just seemed 
very slightly quicker and more responsive.

Going back to bog stadard fuel for a while and then using v-power didn't 
appear to make any change/improvement this time  so the possibility of it 
cleaning the fuel injectors may be correct

Mind you a mate was advised at a mercedes main dealer try not to use 
supermrket diesel and stick to the big brands  (He'd taken the car back as 
it was rather slow, sluggish and slow to start  (clk 270)- they used a fuel 
cleaner and it wa s much improved)

Conor  gurgled happily, sounding much like they
were saying:

>> I used to buy super unleaded because a number of motoring sources said
>> you got better mpg and the shell version was supposed to have that
>> detergent in it. I eventually stopped because I didn't really notice
>> any mpg gains (if there were any they were small) and the engine didn't
>> seem any smoother. Perhaps it cleaned it but I've no way of telling.
>> Certainly its made no obvious difference.

> That's because you need a car that can alter the engine timing to take
> advantage of it....

...and the base ignition map needs to be set for 98RON or higher. Knock 
sensors retard ignition, they don't advance it beyond the base map.

Mind you, both my current (1990) and last (1996) car certainly would do 
that. Not that I tend to bother buying anything other than 95, unless 
it's only a very small price difference (2p or so).

Doug wrote:
> On 17 Jun, 01:30, "John Rowland"
>  wrote:
>> If the various expensive brands of unleaded and diesel do something good to
>> your engine, is it worth buying a tankful of expensive once a month just to
>> clean the crap out of the system?
> 
> You can never clean the polluting crap out of your system as long as
> you continue to drive.

Demonstrating Duhg hasn't a clue about anything.

-- 
John Wright

"What would happen if you eliminated the autism genes from the gene pool?

You would have a bunch of people standing around in a cave, chatting and
socialising and not getting anything done!" - Professor Temple Grandin

John Rowland wrote:
> If the various expensive brands of unleaded and diesel do something good to 
> your engine, is it worth buying a tankful of expensive once a month just to 
> clean the crap out of the system? 

I came across a car not too long ago which would not tick over in a 
regular way - the revs were generally too high and unstable. After half 
a tank of V power (put in accidentally so I'm told) the tick over became 
normal - normal revs and completely stable. Must have been the extra 
detergents in the fuel I reckon.

-- 
John Wright

"What would happen if you eliminated the autism genes from the gene pool?

You would have a bunch of people standing around in a cave, chatting and
socialising and not getting anything done!" - Professor Temple Grandin