Gumout question and answers.
Find below a comprehensive Q & A about all things Gumout
The high mileage version of Regane has a friction modifier added. This helps protect against wear in the upper cylinder which is a common issue with older vehicles. If the cylinder wall is compromised over time, it can allow oil from the crankcase to enter into the combustion chamber causing excess exhaust smoke. This can cause a vehicle to fail state emissions testing. It also reduces heat allowing a more productive combustion process which equates to restored power and fuel economy.
As you move up the value chain, you will find that each product has incremental claims and benefits and along with this the retail price increases accordingly. We did this to ensure that there was a product to fit every need and price point. While the high mileage products offer benefits that are targeted at older engines, they will also work just as well on newer vehicles especially when used early on as part of your regular maintenance program. It’s better to stop the issues that cause problems early on than to deal with them later.
If you are referring to Regane Complete Fuel System Cleaner, it doesn’t have any friction modifier in the formulation. The level of friction modifier in the High Mileage version is lower than what is found in our All in One Complete Fuel System Cleaner + Ethanol treatment, but typically Regane High Mileage is also lower priced.
We worked with O’Reilly on the larger sized products because they felt their customer base preferred the larger size. At this point, these larger sized Gumout products will only be at O’Reilly
The treat rate is slightly lower (19 vs 21) based on recent OE trends that show the average size of fuel tank is roughly 16 gallons which O’Reilly is also aware of.
The PEA potency is still the same just treating 2 fewer gallons than the old bottles.
We often work closely with our retail partners such as AutoZone to understand what they feel their consumers are looking for. That feedback resulted in the Expert Series line of products, specifically made for Auto Zone. The treat rates are the same as the 6 oz bottles, and the All in One which is in a 10 oz bottle at most retailers also has the same treat rate. The product efficacy is the same. Each retailer has different philosophies and strategies for providing products to their customers. We try to accommodate them whenever possible, but if your purchasing preference doesn’t align with theirs, you will be able to find quality Gumout products at other retailers that better suit your needs.
There are many factors that influence the build-up and removal of deposits. These include temperature, humidity, driving habits, engine design and even the particular location within an engine. Short trips with many stop and start cycles create many opportunities for deposits to build. Each time the engine is shut off, any fuel remaining on injectors and valves will cook forming gum, varnish and carbon deposits. It is true that treated fuel will then have increased contact time with previous deposits, but this may be offset by the tendency of deposits to build under stop-start conditions. Some of the test programs behind Gumout treat recommendations are based on running conditions that cycle between steady speed to heat the engine to operating temperature and hot soak to allow deposits to build, with clean-up evaluated under the same conditions. However, we do not have data to make a direct comparison to say whether a steady run is better than short trips for clean-up. Our advice is to treat a tank of fuel and drive normally as needed.
Since the injectors in DI engines are located in the combustion chamber instead of the port, they are now in an extremely volatile environment with temperatures reaching 600 degrees and the explosions from combustion essentially pressure cooking carbon deposits onto the tips of the injector. A standard fuel injector cleaner normally uses a detergent called PIBA. In high enough doses, these do a good job of cleaning port injectors (but not the combustion chamber); however, in DI engines, a more potent detergent such as PEA is needed to clean those deposits along with the rest of the combustion chamber. Regarding valve clean up in DI engines, that is a tougher issue to manage; however, they can still be cleaned but will require either a mechanical breakdown of the engine to manually clean them or a more efficient option is to use a product that can clean the valves by being introduced through the air intake or through a vacuum line. Gumout has a Direct Injection Valve cleaner aerosol that can be sprayed through the air intake/throttle body to clean valves and ports. For those that are more mechanically inclined, our Multi-System Tune-Up can be drip fed into the appropriate vacuum line and achieve the same effect, but there are risks of vapor/hydro lock which will severely damage an engine, so we recommend this method to only those that are very experienced in this type of procedure.
I realize there are fewer and fewer of these on the road but do they assist in keeping jets clean or is a manual cleaning still the best practice? This comes down to a preference of how you want to clean the carb. Products with PEA at high dose rates can poured into the gas tank and do a great job of cleaning jets and other parts of the carb; however, often times areas not reached by the spray of fuel become dirty and therefore a spray carb cleaner would be the better option plus many spray cleaners have a straw that can be attached to the nozzle allowing for pin point cleaning.
Many of our mid and upper tier products state to use the product every 3000 miles because they remove carbon deposits from fuel system parts and help keep deposits from reforming up to this mileage number. Keep in mind, most fuel additives that state to use them every fill up means that they don’t have a potent cleaning agent or don’t have a high enough dose of a that quality cleaning agent. And, typically using a product every fill up is a more costly option, however, if you have a very dirty system or if you haven’t used a fuel additive as part of your regular maintenance schedule when you drove it off the new car lot, using one of our fuel additives at every fill up will offer additional cleaning than when used every 3000 miles. The products in our portfolio that have a friction modifier (Regane High Mileage, All in One and Multi-System Tune up) offer wear protection and would definitely offer more protection when used at every fill up. So if you feel you want that extra level of cleaning, feel confident that you will achieve that by using it every fill up, but once the fuel system is relatively clean and regular use of a quality additive that states to use it every 3000 miles is used after that, any additional application for cleaning purposes is probably overkill and massive overtreatment could possibly affect oil viscosity due to fuel passing past the piston and into the crankcase. Regarding treat rates, they vary by product, but on the back of each label, you can find how to ration the product to fit your vehicle’s tank size.
Gumout Regane, Regane High Mileage or All-in-One complete fuel system cleaners offer strong clean-up performance wherever deposits may be in the engine even on small 4 stroke/OPE engines. Gumout Multi-System Tune-up is another great choice when several small engines are to be treated. Use about 1-2 ounces of Regane or All-in-One per 3 gallons of gasoline. If using 2-cycle fuel also add the recommended amount of oil. Use about 1-2 ounces of Multi-System Tune-Up per gallon of gasoline or diesel fuel. If fuel stability is an issue use the Multi-System Tune-Up for both gasoline and diesel.
Additives used in SAE research papers may or may not be the same as commercial products. Not every formula under development works well enough to become a viable product. We know that some additives used on a dirty engine can remove carbon deposits from intake valves and redeposit the same carbon onto combustion chamber surfaces including the head and piston tops. That is why Gumout formulations use a high quality PEA balanced with other synthetic additives to remove deposits from the entire fuel system. When treating a dirty engine, deposits are removed from all these areas to restore performance. Use Gumout for the initial clean-up and then use it regularly to maintain peak efficiency, removing deposits before they can build to reduce power and performance.
Kudos to you for nailing the fuel system/car care maintenance process. The only other question I would have for you would be if you store your vehicle for extended periods of time. If your Civic is not driven regularly, a fuel and oil stabilizer can offer protection from varnishes and gums that can negatively affect performance when you go to fire up your car again. Our multi-system tune-up product can help you stabilize your fuel and oil and ensure you fire up the next time you start your Honda. Other than that, your regular maintenance schedule is spot-on.
Yes, Gumout products clean at low temperatures too. But the real challenge for fuel additives is in high temperature environments where lower quality cleaning agents burn up before they can do what they are supposed to do. Mid to high doses of PEA can withstand the heat from combustion and clean cylinder heads, piston tops and combustion chamber (and GDI injectors). This is what differentiates a gas treatment or fuel injector cleaner from a complete fuel system cleaner. CFSCs clean these parts as well as intake valves, intake ports and port/indirect injectors. All of our complete fuel system cleaners and our Multi-System Tune-Up product have PEA, so they will work at all temps.
Overall we recommend using the complete treatment once every 3,000 miles. This is a convenient way to maintain vehicle performance at a high level. There is also strong test data to support this approach. However, a small dose at every fill-up is still an option if that is your preferred method of application. We do not have data to support a specific dose, but we would use about 2-3 ounces of All-in-One or 4-6 ounces of Multi-System Tune-Up to a tank of fuel.
Thanks for the insight, I will take this into consideration for our next label update.