Berryman's B-12 Chemtool any good?

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Mar 17, 2008
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I went to Walmart to get some Gumout Tune Up and couldn't find any so I bought Berryman's for the first time to try it.

What are your thoughts on it?

The same, better or worse than something like Regane or Techron?
 
B12 is the only thing that ever made a noticeable difference in everything I have used. Within a half of tank, if the engine isn't running any different, there is no gunk to clean up. My IS250 will alter shift points, sticking to lower RPM at lower temps, and higher grades after about 100 miles of treatment.
 
Chemtool is excellent and one of two products I use, the other is a high PEA cleaner like Redline SI-1, Techron, Gumout AIO.
There are two types of fuel system and injector contaminates that can be helped with these products and some that nothing will help. The ones you cannot do anything with are sand or similar that got into the system (more common on small marine stuff) and incinerated nylon fuel filters in the injectors (DI injectors).

The two you can do something about are varnish and hard carbon deposits, varnish is common in all engines including carbs and especially small engine OPE, this is where Chemtool really shines,it will remove varnish deposits almost on contact. Using a splash of Chemtool in OPE tanks a few times a year and before storage will prevent carb issues almost indefinitely.
My Lawnmower and snowblower are both 14 years old and still have the original carbs and have never been cleaned or adjusted, both start first pull and run perfectly. The Chemtool really works well but it does not do as well on hard carbon heat formed deposits commonly seen on the business end of the injectors. For this type of deposit PEA based cleaners do the best job.

The PEA cleaners are not great on varnish, their effectiveness is minimal compared to Chemtool, from my experience the most effective to maintain the whole system cleanliness is to use both types of cleaner alternating them for a few tanks. OPE and other engines with carbs are not subjected to the kind of high temp deposits found in injected engines so Chemtool is all that is required.
 
Originally Posted by Dyusik
B12 is the only thing that ever made a noticeable difference in everything I have used.


Same here.
 
I like to use it around every oil change added to the fuel. My new to me 2008 Corolla (95K) was averaging about 420 miles out of a tank of fuel (Roughly 11.6 gallons to fill) . On my last fill up I added a can of B12 and i'm on track to get about 450 out of this tank. Not sure if the B12 was responsible for this or what but either way it cant hurt to keep things clean. I almost always buy it at WM and it's one of the cheaper fuel system additives.
 
Redline si1 is proven to clean. I'm convinced that b12 makes a noticeable difference because the solvents are high octane so less timing is pulled. For this reason, buying btx compounds in bulk and dosing your fuel can work out cheaper than buying super unleaded.
Anecdotally, oil in your fuel improves ring seal and has a knock on effect on mpg despite lower octane and potential pulled timing.
Occasionally, when the mood takes me I'll fill a 5 gallon Jerry can can with equal parts SI1, acetone, toluene, tcw3 and leaded race fuel, adding maybe 200-300ml per full tank of fuel. It might just be placebo but it feels good knowing (assuming) I'm improving commercially available petrol.
Without this alchemy, cars still run perfectly well for many hundreds of thousands of miles so in the end it probably doesn't make any difference.
 
Chemtool is excellent and one of two products I use, the other is a high PEA cleaner like Redline SI-1, Techron, Gumout AIO.
There are two types of fuel system and injector contaminates that can be helped with these products and some that nothing will help. The ones you cannot do anything with are sand or similar that got into the system (more common on small marine stuff) and incinerated nylon fuel filters in the injectors (DI injectors).

The two you can do something about are varnish and hard carbon deposits, varnish is common in all engines including carbs and especially small engine OPE, this is where Chemtool really shines,it will remove varnish deposits almost on contact. Using a splash of Chemtool in OPE tanks a few times a year and before storage will prevent carb issues almost indefinitely.
My Lawnmower and snowblower are both 14 years old and still have the original carbs and have never been cleaned or adjusted, both start first pull and run perfectly. The Chemtool really works well but it does not do as well on hard carbon heat formed deposits commonly seen on the business end of the injectors. For this type of deposit PEA based cleaners do the best job.

The PEA cleaners are not great on varnish, their effectiveness is minimal compared to Chemtool, from my experience the most effective to maintain the whole system cleanliness is to use both types of cleaner alternating them for a few tanks. OPE and other engines with carbs are not subjected to the kind of high temp deposits found in injected engines so Chemtool is all that is required.

Trav,

Apologies if this has been discussed before. Which B-12 Chemtool product that you recommend? Is it the 2616? Thanks in advance!
 
B 12 is amazing stuff. I bought a 66 Corvair Monza from an AMCO transmission shop. Owner would not come back and pay for the estimate. It only had 2nd gear. It even had Factory AC. Anyhow, being a believer in the sludge busting power of B 12, I put a can in the tranny. In less than a mile, it was fixed. I believe the governor was stuck. Took it home and changed the fluid and put new pushrod tube seals in it. Was really good car after that. Take your dirty old oil drain pan and splash some B 12 in it and watch what happens. Poooof.
 
i did the sea foam thing (ran it down a vacuum hose) with b12 today. no smoke but it missed for about 10 mins afterward. runs about the same, butnit wasnt running bad to begin with
 
That is not really the best delivery method for Chemtool. If you want to do carbon cleaning using that method I would use GM top engine cleaner, Subaru, Toyota, Chrysler, etc all have one.
Let it flow slowly through the hose and almost stall it at the end shut it off then leave it overnight. run it a few miles and dump the oil and filter.
This was the method used by GM on the N* engines that were prone to carbon knocking.

Chemtool is great product but is not the best for a piston soak in cylinders, it tend to evaporate quickly and leave dry cylinder walls, if you do use it for this job make sure and squirt some oil down the cylinders before cranking the engine.
Inline engines are the easiest to do, V engines tend to pool on the side of the piston so it is best to use the top engine cleaner through a line on these.
 
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