78k Mile Dodge 392 Intake Valves and Piston Head with Shell VPower

[VIG]

Don’t know if anyone else gets random ADD moments, but decided to bust out my borescope and pull a spark plug on cylinder 4 and the 1-3-5-7 injector rail and take a look at the top of piston 4 and the backs of the 1, 3, 5, 7 intake valves.

Car is a 2018 Charger Scat Pack (6.4 liter) with 78,xxx miles. Almost exclusively used Shell VPower (has had ~4 tanks of Valero when I couldn’t find a Shell). Mobil1 0w40. Also have a catch can.

Figured I’d share in case anyone else was curious like me.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

Looks pretty good! Thanks for the pics!

 

[MalibuRam65]

Looks good I guess SheLL V-Power is worth the extra price

 

[dogememe]

Looks good I guess SheLL V-Power is worth the extra price

I agree this engine looks quite clean. But without having an identical car, driven in an identical manner, simply fueled up with whatever random cheap gas, this isn't enough data to say that Shell V-Power is worth the price premium.

We had a thread here the other day about a guy who put Lucas in his Corvette and the UOA came back decent. The debate there was whether the decent UOA proves that Lucas is worth it. No, it doesn't, as a single UOA is not enough data to come to a conclusion about an oil additive. Just like these pictures can't prove that Shell V-Power is worth spending money on vs whatever gas is cheapest that day.

I'm not bashing OP for using Shell. I'm sure it's good gas and probably is better in some ways than generic/cheaper stuff. But I take issue with anyone claiming that one clean piston proves everyone should go out and spend extra on that brand of fuel.

 

[SubieRubyRoo]

I don’t think OP was implying Shell was the reason why.. just giving us data. I’m not spending the extra on Shell 93 over any other Top Tier gasoline, but the greatest benefit of capitalism is the power of the consumer’s choice!

I agree with your data point statement for the most part, but looking at valves and piston tops at 78k is quite different than a single UOA that covered “x” k miles. A UOA is a test on a closed loop system; in this case the fuel is burned then gone forever. This requires a completely different test setup for validation.

But yes, one example of all Shell gas without a separate test on another fuel doesn’t tell us anything if Shell is better or worse than the competitors, but it does tell you that it did keep OP’s engine clean over this interval.

 

[VIG]

I agree this engine looks quite clean. But without having an identical car, driven in an identical manner, simply fueled up with whatever random cheap gas, this isn't enough data to say that Shell V-Power is worth the price premium.

We had a thread here the other day about a guy who put Lucas in his Corvette and the UOA came back decent. The debate there was whether the decent UOA proves that Lucas is worth it. No, it doesn't, as a single UOA is not enough data to come to a conclusion about an oil additive. Just like these pictures can't prove that Shell V-Power is worth spending money on vs whatever gas is cheapest that day.

I'm not bashing OP for using Shell. I'm sure it's good gas and probably is better in some ways than generic/cheaper stuff. But I take issue with anyone claiming that one clean piston proves everyone should go out and spend extra on that brand of fuel.

Yeah, definitely not a scientific test by any means and didn’t mean for it to be taken that way. Just posted to let others see what I’ve gotten from my experience with certain products.

I will say, in my personal experience, this is one of the cleaner examples I’ve seen on engines of similar miles. Again, of course it’s not scientific by any means and shouldn’t be taken as such.

Would definitely be interested in seeing similar examples, but I don’t know how many more 392 owners have a borescope and as severe ADD as I do.

 

[dnewton3]

Regardless of the origin of the success, the result is desirable. Was this due to ONLY using the Shell? We obviously cannot accurately make that determination without a control sample as well. But, we can say that the OP should rest well in that the engine seems to be in very good shape in terms of cleanliness. Nothing I can see would illicit concern.

 

[demarpaint]

It looks good.

 

[KCJeep]

Looks great to me keep with the Shell. V Power is one of my personal favorites unfortunately the Shell stations around here are not common and mostly trashy.

 

[Tom NJ]

Wow, those four fill-ups with Valero sure cleaned up Shell's mess!

 

[addyguy]

I’m really surprised Shell does sell their additive separately the same way Chevron does, could probably make decent extra $$ doing that.

 

[garyoNC]

I would say it's the whole package. Fuel, timely OCI, quality oil and filter, & a catch can. Someone who cares about their ride.

garyo