Additives: Which ones are good?

I have no experience with Heet or the STP product you mention...

2) Apparently works well for its intended purpose, but I prefer not to use it due to the possibility of reduced heat transfer and/or clogged heater cores.

3) Supposedly an excellent fuel system cleaner but should be unnecessary if you start with a clean engine in good tune and only use good, brand name gasoline.

I'll add a plug for one other product that I've used with success; GM's "Top Engine Cleaner." Now available in spray cans, on an old carboned up engine does remove some carbon (but will lay down a nice smokescreen while doing so.) It is available at my FLAPS as well as I assume GM dealers.

For the most part I don't feel the need to use any other additives/supplements, although I do have two bottles of AutoRX that I bought because of the surprising (given the nature of the product) number of glowing reviews on BITOG. I was going to use it to clean out an old Studebaker V-8 that ran sweet but was sludged inside; however, when I tore the engine down to put new gaskets in it, I found enough of a ridge at the top of the bores that instead of a quickie gasket and seal job I ended up simply replacing the engine with a freshly rebuilt Avanti engine that my friend conveniently had on the shelf - hence, I still have the unused AutoRX, since my Porsche has had a steady diet of synthetic for years so I assume that the engine should be clean inside.

Which reminds me; the Avanti engine didn't come with rocker shafts, so I reused my old ones - I meant to get some rebuilt ones (they're known for passing lots of oil and letting the heads fill up with oil at high RPM when worn) but have never ordered them due to other things going on. thanks for reminding me!

nate

Nate Nagel wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news3.newsguy.com:

I tried that stuff. Made absolutely no difference to my oil consumption. None at all.

Auto-RX probably has its applications, but those applications are not found in engines that have had their oil changed every 1.5 months or 2,500 miles without fail for 15 years and 260,000 miles.

Guess I should add my experiences to BITOG ("Bob is the Oil Guy", for the uninitiated).

Another ''trick'' I read about many years ago,I don't think it particulary pertains to an additive though.If you have water in your gas and if you just happen to have some whiskey on hand,the whiskey will ''cut'' the water in the gas and supposely make your engine run ok again.I do love those ''tricks'' cuhulin

RainX if your windshield wiper stops working.It works ok for about two or three days. cuhulin

snipped-for-privacy@webtv.net wrote in news:16405-45CA9352-217@storefull-

3257.bay.webtv.net:

We're talking oil in this thread, not gas.

And the "trick" you mention won't do much to remove water from your fuel when whiskey is half water already...

?? From the OP: "1. Heet. (gasoline additive)"

And such a waste.

An ice clogged gas line can be life threatening in cold climates. I always carry some alcohol based gas line antifreeze.

"cavedweller" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@s48g2000cws.googlegroups.com:

You're right. The big problem with stupid Web-TV is that nobody ever quotes what he's replying to, causing just this sort of confusion.

I hate whiskey. I would consider it more of a waste if it was beer that was added to the gas. :)

Keep your gas tank topped up as much as you can as often as you can and you won't ever need that crap.

One of the problems with methanol is that it will take on water and separate out of the gasoline. Not a strong point, if you have more than just traces of water. You can end up with a pool of water-methanol mixture on the bottom of the tank, and it doesnt burn very well.

So in a sense, this is a smart alcohol that seeks out water. If you have ice already in lines, filters, etc and there is no flow, you are dead right. It can have no effect, *

The wise bird puts a good additive in the tank at regular intervals during the winter, especially where the temperatures can drop very low.

I used to put in a bottle of additive with every other fillup.

I didn't expect it to make any difference in oil consumption; I was more hoping to scrub out the oil passages inside the crank, etc. and get some of the sludge out that wasn't easily removable by manual means. But like I said, I ended up going with a fresh engine with hot- tanked block etc. so I didn't get to try it.

nate

Of that list Techron and Heet seem to do what they advertise. Bars-leak is the most harmless of the stop-leaks and is OK in an emergency. Oil stop-leaks are a bad idea because they do long-term damage to gaskets, although they sometimes do "sorta work" by making the gasket swell a little in the short term.

If you need reduce moisture in gasoline this might do the trick. A far better solution would be to solve the cause of the problem. I live in an area where summers are very hot and humid and moisture buildup has yet to be a problem in either my cars or lawn mower. For most of us this is probably a waste of money.

In an emergency when the leak isn't major it will work. It is not a permanent solution though and if the cooling system is partly plugged up from minerals, etc., a hole sealer might make things worse.

A waste of money considering how highly formulated gasolines are already.

I've used leak stoppers on several older cars, and as with other fixes in a bottle they will hold the problem at bay for a while. They are not a permanent fix though.

I'm sure it's not the best solution, but in the past I've had very good luck with using black pepper to stop cooling system leaks. However, if you let the car sit for long periods (and neglect to fix the actual problem), the pepper can sometimes be undone, so you have to add a fresh treatment in. And it makes your radiator smell like soup. I've never had good luck with Bars-leak though.

Back in the day, I heard of using transmission fluid mixed into a tank of gas to clean up your fuel system. It may have been myth, and almost certainly wouldn't be something you'd want to try for a fuel injected system, but has anyone heard of that?

--Jeff

I've used Bars on a car that had a leaky heater core- got me through the season until I could tear into the dash in warm weather. Every time I've had a more serious cooling system leak (leaky core plug, radiator, water pump, etc.) I've just FIXED it rather than fool around with stop-leak.

No, but I've heard of putting a quart of ATF in with the engine oil to de-sludge an engine. It was always based on the assumption that ATF has "tons and tons" of detergent additives, which isn't true at all. Transmissions stay so clean inside because they don't get combustion by-products squirted into them like an engine does, not because the ATF has super-detergent qualities.

That does not happen everywhere, *. Remember we are an international newsgroup.

The wise bird does what he needs to do to keep going and not screw up more than he fixes. You qualify as a Wise Bird. (They dont shit in their own nests either ;>)

I was living in Europe when I added gasoline conditioner in the winters. I have no idea where the OP was from.

Still unnecessary even if you don't keep the tank topped off. The refiners add anti-water stuff in the winter formulations for gas. If you have water in the tank you have a real problem that requires a real solution (dropping the tank).

In the USA that may be true, but it is not universally true.

I have used Bar's Leaks before and it did work for me untill I got around to removing the radiator and taking it to a radiator shop for proper repair. cuhulin