IMO, Hot Shots Diesel Extreme WORKS on a dirty system

Joined
Mar 23, 2013
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464
Location
Tacoma, WA, USA
In my 85 Ford E350 6.9L diesel with ATS 085 turbo, C6, 4.10 Dana 70, about a 27-30ft Class C motorhome, it has dual tanks. I thought the rear was larger, due to new aftermarket tanks being 22 gallon, but it didn't turn out to be. It might be 1 gallon larger at best vs the front tank. My tank selector valve leaks badly when set to the rear tank, so I bypassed the valve when I replaced the leaky, rotten old fuel hoses. It's plumbed directly to the rear tank right now, not using the tank tank at all. It had been been on the front tank only for I don't know how many years. I ran it that way for a good 9 months at least too, until I decided to use the rear, since I thought it was larger. My reasoning was to have a larger tank for that many more miles before refueling, a good way to save money on fuel by getting to the cheapest stations possible.

It had about 1/4 of a tank of highly questionable old fuel in it but I filled it up and ran it anyway. I figured the fresh fuel would dilute it enough. Thing is, I also replaced my fan clutch at the same time as I did the fuel line replacement. Immediately, my MPG was down a lot, which I thought might have been the fan clitch putting a heavier load. My coolant temp dropped by 10-15 degrees with the new fan clutch (and thermostat). I suspect the dirty old fuel in the tank, despite being mixed with 75% fresh fuel, still managed to clog the injectors. I was also running Howe's diesel cleaner (I forget the exact name) but it didn't seem to make an impact. Only 1oz per 10 gallons is what it calls for, but I often doubled it up to 4oz per tank for an an 18-19 gallon tank.

After a couple months of getting far worse MPG than I did earlier this year, I decided to buy a bottle of Hot Shots Diesel Extreme at Napa on sale. Reviews online praise it highly. There is only one old thread on here from 2017 and nothing much is even said about it, oddly enough. The ~$16 32oz bottle is 4 doses for my ~18 gallon tank. They say to dose it once every 6 months, so it's not too expensive. So I gave it a measured 8oz dose. Needless to say, my MPG has been restored to what it was. I was getting about 8 highway at best after switching to the rear tank, when I was getting 8.8-9.2 hwy this past summer on the front tank. I did notice my front tires were both 5PSI low so I topped them off a tank before I got the Hot Shot treatment, so I don't think it was exclusively that.

After the treatment, my mpg is way back up, 9.15mpg (90% highway). Not even joking.

It's not a miracle product if your fuel system is already as clean as it's going to get, but I'm sold on it working on a system that got highly questionable fuel run through it and had an immediate, noticeable drop. I know, one tank seems too soon to celebrate, but my fuel gauge is pretty darn accurate and it was right around the point it should be to accept ~12 gallons, and that's what it took on the fill-up.

Even if I account for a small margin of error and say it was actually 8.8mpg instead of 9.15, that's still in the ballpark of what I was getting before.
 
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IDK, I tried their FR3 product in three vehicles and no improvement was observed. Glad a HSS product worked for you, though!
 
Originally Posted by dogememe
IDK, I tried their FR3 product in three vehicles and no improvement was observed. Glad a HSS product worked for you, though!


I'm highly suspect of any oil additives except thickeners for really old engines that are heavy oil burners. In other words, beaters or nearly so. Their oil stuff has about the consistency of water. I'd hate to dilute the oil with something that's thinner than the 15w40 oil.

Were you running it in newer vehicles, as in: made in the last 20 years? Maybe that's why, with all the computerization, it just voids it by adjusting fuel or air to make up for it. Who knows? In my opinion oil additives won't help a vehicle that's already getting the best MPG and power it can, unless it's something that thickens oil to help with blow by, restoring compression from stuck or worn rings.

Fuel additives are different, they are run through with the fuel like liquid floss and get burned off. They don't lubricate bearings. Although in fact, diesel additives do add more lubricity to ULSD which has less than LSD had, and is the whole reason I have to use it. My 34 year old engine needs the extra lubrication, especially the injectors since they are popped by fuel, not oil like on newer diesel engines. The injection pump also needs the added lubrication. Some people put 2 cycle oil in their tanks to help with it.
 
Originally Posted by Cubey
Originally Posted by dogememe
IDK, I tried their FR3 product in three vehicles and no improvement was observed. Glad a HSS product worked for you, though!


I'm highly suspect of any oil additives except thickeners for really old engines that are heavy oil burners. In other words, beaters or nearly so. Their oil stuff has about the consistency of water. I'd hate to dilute the oil with something that's thinner than the 15w40 oil.

Were you running it in newer vehicles, as in: made in the last 20 years? Maybe that's why, with all the computerization, it just voids it by adjusting fuel or air to make up for it. Who knows? In my opinion oil additives won't help a vehicle that's already getting the best MPG and power it can, unless it's something that thickens oil to help with blow by, restoring compression from stuck or worn rings.

Fuel additives are different, they are run through with the fuel like liquid floss and get burned off. They don't lubricate bearings. Although in fact, diesel additives do add more lubricity to ULSD which has less than LSD had, and is the whole reason I have to use it. My 34 year old engine needs the extra lubrication, especially the injectors since they are popped by fuel, not oil like on newer diesel engines. The injection pump also needs the added lubrication. Some people put 2 cycle oil in their tanks to help with it.


We tried it in my 2010 Ford Escape and 2001 Chevy Suburban, as well as my coworker's 1993 Plymouth Voyager. No 15W-40 in any of those haha.
 
Originally Posted by dogememe
We tried it in my 2010 Ford Escape and 2001 Chevy Suburban, as well as my coworker's 1993 Plymouth Voyager. No 15W-40 in any of those haha.


Well again, anything that dilutes oil is probably a bad idea, no matter the claims. Marvel Mysery Oil in the crankcase is a bad idea IMO, unless you pour some in and ONLY idle it a short time immediately before doing an oil change, like how some people use Seafoam added to oil to clean up sludge. I will only ever use MMO or Seaform in fuel though, never oil.

There is a ton of hate for Lucas oil stabilizer, for reasons I understand in terms of what it is you are putting into your crankcase, but it noticeably quieted my old oil burning F250 IDI when I used it once a couple years ago. I don't know that it reduced oil consumption though. I didn't use it long enough to really see. My RV has the same engine but burns much less oil due to much lower mileage so it only gets pure oil. From what people say, IDIs burned oil straight off the lot, it's just what they do. There is even a spec to what's normal for oil consumption, before it becomes abormal and the engine is "due" for a rebuild. My F250 isn't there just yet.
 
They say you should change your oil after using that product. It is strong stuff. I don't think you would notice any results unless your injectors were really gummed up.
 
Originally Posted by loneryder
They say you should change your oil after using that product. It is strong stuff. I don't think you would notice any results unless your injectors were really gummed up.



You seem to be talking about 2 different things? My injectors are popped by fuel, not oil. It's an old International IDI they used in Fords for about a decade, until the Powerstroke came out to replace it.

I never read the instructions for their oil additives since I have no interest in using them. Makes sense that it would be a "fill, run a short time, then drain" due to how thin it is.
 
Originally Posted by Cubey
Originally Posted by loneryder
They say you should change your oil after using that product. It is strong stuff. I don't think you would notice any results unless your injectors were really gummed up.



You seem to be talking about 2 different things? My injectors are popped by fuel, not oil. It's an old International IDI they used in Fords for about a decade, until the Powerstroke came out to replace it.

I never read the instructions for their oil additives since I have no interest in using them. Makes sense that it would be a "fill, run a short time, then drain" due to how thin it is.



Lots of folks don't understand fuel injectors that run off oil pressure in general, especially on here.

I use HSS Diesel Extreme in my truck and other diesels and the main thing is to not overuse it. I actually like that the recommend using it only twice a year. It's very concentrated and while monitoring my DPF % on my computer, nothing gets that cleaner than when the treatments of Diesel Extreme are in it.
 
I have used 16oz every 3 months w/Full Tank since the first tank - mainly to hopefully keep regens to a minimum & also keep the entire fuel system clean.
With Amazon Prime - 32oz is really not that expensive.

Schaeffers SoyShield added every fill up to add a bit of extra lubrication if need be.
 
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I can see a measurable increase on my TDI's MPG's when I dose a tank. I only use it every six months but it is a solid 3-4mpg improvement and the regens seem to be spaced farther apart for a month or so after using it. My cars will usually regen every 300 miles or so and it looks like the initial regen after using diesel extreme is at 300 miles but the next 3 or so are 400-450 miles and then the degrade back. So it is obviously doing something.
 
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