Do additives really work??

[CommodoreVS]

Do fuel additives such as cleaner/fuel system and octane boosts etc.. really work or just a scam??

[TI3VOM]

They all work mate, companies don't spend millions to development a product that doesn't work.
A lot of people say that octane booster doesn't work but it has to, the higher the octane rating the the more power can be made.

[PRAVX II S]

When i was a apprentice and went to tafe a student ask this same question the teacher said the additive harms your engine can degrade seals hoses,etc etc

[WogBoyz]

Ive been told to stay away from octane boosters as there a waste of money and can do more damage then good, also been told they kill ur 02 sensors and cats... but all i use is a good injector cleaner and thats it.

[DAKSTER]

They all work mate, companies don't spend millions to development a product that doesn't work.
A lot of people say that octane booster doesn't work but it has to, the higher the octane rating the the more power can be made.

Higher octane doesn't necessarily mean more power. LPG is 110 octane, but the motor isn't built or tuned to take advantage of that, so it actually performs worse in a duel fuel setup compared to good old 91 octane petrol.

Companies don't spend millions developing this stuff. They spend millions advertising it. They are pretty much all the same chemicals in the same proportions, its not rocket science.

Its like those silly vortex things they advertise - put in your air intake to get an extra 20% power with no downsides. Nonsense, if they worked the car companies would install them factory, its a no-brainer. Given the amount of cash that has been invested over the years on airflow etc, its highly likely one of those things in any modern car would cost you power and fuel, not improve it.

Some products have a specific or necessary purpose, like injector cleaner or upper cylinder lubricant for older cars that are not suited to unleaded fuel. Most of them are just an extra way of wasting your money without getting a hangover, and are more likely to do your car harm than good.

[ari666]

putting mothballs in your fuel tank will have the same effect as octane boosters.

they are an absolute gimmick

[Munz]

just throw a chev badge on and you'll have all the power you want

fuel cleaner: run bp ultimate
octane boost: run bp ultimate

[mr calais 5.0]

I have been told by a few mechanics that the injector cleaner cleans the junk out of the tank, pump and sends it into the injectors and motor..

[WELSHH]

just throw a chev badge on and you'll have all the power you want

fuel cleaner: run bp ultimate
octane boost: run bp ultimate

agreed, stick to ultimate, thats all i do and my engine runs smoother and is more responsive. bit more at the pump but its worth it in my opinion.

[Critical Jim]

I personally think the majority of the products you see on the shelves are gimick's.

I mean its not like you can simply pull the engine apart to see if it's working.

That said I do use the occasional bottle of injector cleaner.

[kcpwns]

surely injector cleaner isnt a fake?

[TI3VOM]

Higher octane doesn't necessarily mean more power. LPG is 110 octane, but the motor isn't built or tuned to take advantage of that, so it actually performs worse in a duel fuel setup compared to good old 91 octane petrol.

Companies don't spend millions developing this stuff. They spend millions advertising it. They are pretty much all the same chemicals in the same proportions, its not rocket science.

Its like those silly vortex things they advertise - put in your air intake to get an extra 20% power with no downsides. Nonsense, if they worked the car companies would install them factory, its a no-brainer. Given the amount of cash that has been invested over the years on airflow etc, its highly likely one of those things in any modern car would cost you power and fuel, not improve it.

Some products have a specific or necessary purpose, like injector cleaner or upper cylinder lubricant for older cars that are not suited to unleaded fuel. Most of them are just an extra way of wasting your money without getting a hangover, and are more likely to do your car harm than good.

Holden specify that a higher octane rated fuel will give more power to there cars. I also left that comment that I made about the octane booster with the final words being "the higher the octane rating the more power can be made" as I know that you need a tune to suit the higher octane rated fuel to make a real power difference.

Companies that have millions to spend on advertising there products have spent millions creating them previously, it's as simple as that!
What makes one product better that another? development that's what! The amount of time involved when using machinery and testing a product while at the development stages of designing it cost's a lot of money. That's not including trying to make something better than it already is, which costs even more money.

Car companies don't always put stuff into cars just because it works, light weight wheels should be standard as they would save you fuel, how about they put a small/subtle yet effective roll cage into cars as standard? that would save a few lives I would think. Why not have a flat base under every car like the ones that the skyline GTR's have, it creates less drag which gives better fuel economy? Why don't they do this?
It's because they don't put things like that into cars as they make the car with the bare essentials needed 98% of the time.

How many of you have opened up an engine to check the before and after condition of it after using additives in a controlled test with the said products? most likely no one which means that all the comments so far have been pure speculation!

I am not saying that every additive product works miracles and I am not saying that octane booster works on standard cars either.

[DAKSTER]

TI3VOM...

Holden specify that a higher octane rated fuel will give more power to there cars. I also left that comment that I made about the octane booster with the final words being "the higher the octane rating the more power can be made" as I know that you need a tune to suit the higher octane rated fuel to make a real power difference.

Then its not just a 10 dollar bottle of additive, its a tune as well. Try the tune on its own, you will get a similar effect. Or buy higher octane fuel than your car is normally supposed to use, without a tune, and see if you can notice any difference apart from your lower bank balance.


Companies that have millions to spend on advertising there products have spent millions creating them previously, it's as simple as that!
What makes one product better that another? development that's what! The amount of time involved when using machinery and testing a product while at the development stages of designing it cost's a lot of money. That's not including trying to make something better than it already is, which costs even more money.

Its not as simple as that at all. At some point, sure, someone has put some money into development. Not as much as you think though, its all pretty basic chemistry. Then every other manufacturer has copied it. The stuff they are developing is mostly to help older engines cope with modern fuel. Of course, if they can convince you its good for a modern car, then they will spend millions trying, and in your case succeeding, to convince you of that. If you want to talk additives that cost millions to develop and actually do something useful, look at the stuff coming out of the petrol pump. If you think Wynns can afford to build a better mousetrap than BP or Shell....


Car companies don't always put stuff into cars just because it works, light weight wheels should be standard as they would save you fuel, how about they put a small/subtle yet effective roll cage into cars as standard? that would save a few lives I would think. Why not have a flat base under every car like the ones that the skyline GTR's have, it creates less drag which gives better fuel economy? Why don't they do this?
It's because they don't put things like that into cars as they make the car with the bare essentials needed 98% of the time.

Thats right, if it costs a bomb then they will try to avoid including it, unless it makes a major selling point, because it will cost a bunch more for you to buy a car from them, and you will choose to buy it from somewhere else that doesnt have the expensive and unwanted feature.

Alloy wheels have become cheaper to produce, and the market is happy to pay for them, so they are now pretty much standard on most cars.

A subtle roll cage would probably save less lives than the airbags and crumple zones they fit already, and you can bet they have tried them all out on crash barriers. A high safety rating is a major selling point, ergo a major investment has been made by virtually all manufacturers in this regard.

I've no doubt a significant amount of money has been invested in aerodynamics too, as this saves fuel and increases performance, more selling points. Other cars probably perform just as well as the GTR does in that regard, without the flat floor, I have no idea, but the benefit vs cost in changing current designs may not be an economic possibility in an averaged price car. Again, I am uninformed here.

If its a rotating set of blades in an air intake that can be retailed at $20 and gives a 20% power increase or improves economy, its in their own interest to include such a thing.

How many of you have opened up an engine to check the before and after condition of it after using additives in a controlled test with the said products? most likely no one which means that all the comments so far have been pure speculation!

Willing to bet a mechanic posts on here at some point soon to tell you what he thinks of additives and what he has seen happen to the guts of an engine due to their use. I just think people get too sucked in by marketing hype, and I am a confirmed skeptic when someone trys to tell me I can get extra horsepower and/or better economy for 10 or 20 bucks. That stuff aint cheap either, if you are adding a bottle every tank of fuel? Sorry no idea how much of it is used per tank.

I am not saying that every additive product works miracles and I am not saying that octane booster works on standard cars either.

But you did...

They all work mate, companies don't spend millions to development a product that doesn't work.
A lot of people say that octane booster doesn't work but it has to, the higher the octane rating the the more power can be made.

[VYMAD]

I use Nulon injector cleaner every couple thousand k's and always run Vortex 95.I use slightly less than Nulon reccomends. I have found that my power and fuel consumption is great. I believe injector cleaner is more of a preventative than a cure.

[ari666]

as I know that you need a tune to suit the higher octane rated fuel to make a real power difference.

i dunno bout holdens, but nissans i.e. GTR adjust fuel air according to o2/maf/cas. put shit fuel in, it adjusts, put good fuel in it realigns. it doesnt happen immediatly, but will adjust during the use of one full tank.

problem is that 100ron in japan is easily accessable. so they are tuned to suit, then they just richen up for shit fuel.

quite often we will get cars in that are not running 100% so a quick ecu reset and a tank of ultimate 98 will usually fix the bugs, due to it going back to its original mixtures/timing

[TI3VOM]

TI3VOM...
I am not saying that every additive product works miracles and I am not saying that octane booster works on standard cars either.

But you did...

They all work mate, companies don't spend millions to development a product that doesn't work.
A lot of people say that octane booster doesn't work but it has to, the higher the octane rating the the more power can be made.

Have a re-read of what I posted mate, I never said once that they work 100 million ####ing percent alright!! The gain from octane booster is very noticeable with a tune, also if you have put it into your car and not noticed a slight difference your car is not running 100%. Put it into your car and see if your car has a little bit more pull to it with the foot flat to the floor, also see if your engine is more smooth at higher revs due to the higher octane rating.

I will reply to your other answers to my questions when I can be bothered.

[TI3VOM]

i dunno bout holdens, but nissans i.e. GTR adjust fuel air according to o2/maf/cas. put shit fuel in, it adjusts, put good fuel in it realigns. it doesnt happen immediatly, but will adjust during the use of one full tank.

problem is that 100ron in japan is easily accessable. so they are tuned to suit, then they just richen up for shit fuel.

quite often we will get cars in that are not running 100% so a quick ecu reset and a tank of ultimate 98 will usually fix the bugs, due to it going back to its original mixtures/timing

The VT commodore had a computer unit in it that changed the air/fuel ratios accordingly.

[Brett_jjj]

Any commodore that has full engine management (VN and later),can adjust its own ignition timing to suit the octane rating of the fuel its using.The ECU does this via the knock sensors.When the knock sensors detect knock (or detonation or pinging etc),which is usually when the engine is under heavy acceleration or load,the ECU will retard the igniton timing until the detonation has stopped being detected.But,when running on a higher octane fuel,the engine wont suffer from detonation as easily under power or load,so the ECU will keep the ignition timing advanced further for longer under heavy acceleration or loads,and the more advanced the ignition timing is,
(to a point), the more efficiently the engine will run, which in turn,creates more power,and better economy.Any standard tune can make use of higher octane fuels,a tune just basically gives the ECU the choice of selecting a higher ignition advance setting on its ignition maps then what the factory originally set it at.In some cases on my VS V6 tune,Ive got 10 degrees or more advance set than what holden set it at.I only use 98 octane fuel,so I can afford to set the timing maps slightly higher than the usual tunes that you buy that are already done.A lot of the tunes I have looked at are fairly conservative as far as igniton timing goes on these engines.

[ari666]

so holdens only do timing? they dont adjust the injector duty cycles at all????

[Brett_jjj]

They adjust ignition timing and injector pulse width to suit the condition or load and ambient temperature.