Trying to justify Fuel Power

[Russell]

I have done the shock treatment twice, several tanks at normal dosage. Car ran fine before and runs fine now. No change in performance, smoothness or gas mileage. Have always use preminum gas such as Chevron or V power 93 with ocassional fuel injector cleaner, The oil, filters and plugs changed on a regular basis.

Where is ther any advantage to using Fuel Power on this car?

It is a 95 BMW 525i with 106,000 miles. TIA

 

[Quest]

2 things here:

(1) You do not use FP in hopes of drastic performance improvements. YOu shall consider using FP as a form of preventative maintence.

(2)Most mid-90s and beyond high performance European cars (some luxury Japanese cars inclusive) have designed computerised compensation for fuel type and driving behaviour (to some extent) to some extent. Unless you are running extremely inferior grade of fuel (e.g. Octane rating 85 with loads of crap, common in some developing countries) which maybe out of computer compensation range (and these fuel may damage your car anyways), otherwise, you shall not experience dramatic changes to your engine if your engine is well-maintained and the fuel you use is of reasonable quality.

 

[MolaKule]

Keeping the fuel system clean and providing a slight measure of lubrication for the injectors is one advantage I see.

Some people see mpg improvements, others don't.

In my Nissan Frontier 2.4L, I see solid 0.5 to 1.5 mpg improvement with FP.

In my PathFinder 3.5 L V-6 I see none.

I am not here to argue with you or convince you otherwise, just relating my esperiences.

 

[MarkC]

I've seen an increase in mpg, though not a big one, and seat of the pants feeling says performance has improved, but that's nor easy to prove. I have noticed that my Jeep no longer has the ring of carbon soot around the exhaust pipe.

 

[John in the ATL]

quote:

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Originally posted by MolaKule:
In my Nissan Frontier 2.4L, I see solid 0.5 to 1.5 mpg improvement with FP.

In my PathFinder 3.5 L V-6 I see none.

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I will second your observation. The 94 altima sees the biggest improvement in fuel economy and throttle response.

The 2k Maxima is about the same with 89 octane and FP. Are you running 89, 91, or 93 octane in the Pathfinder?

 

[John in the ATL]

Russell,

It is not necessary to run the best brand of gasoline when using fuel power. I am not sure if the brand gasoline is what is advertised or what is available from the closest distributor.

I am not saying run RaceTrac, Costco, Sam's Club gas, but a second tier station would not hurt and might save some $$ in the process. The economics of FP blow away the OTC fuel injector cleaner.

 

[GT Mike]

I noticed the MPG drop the same with or without FP relative to what brand of fuel I ran in my car. The cheaper "brand X" stations like Kwik Trip, Marathon, Express, etc. almost always showed less MPG than Mobil, Shell, or BP did.

My conclusion was that FP was irrelevant in improving MPG in my particular car. Better quality gasoline did more to improve and keep MPG consistent over many tankfuls than adding FP to cheaper gasoline.

 

[JMG]

I saw .5 MPG more in my Accord after running it twice. I saw none with my CR-V.

I agree it depends on what kind of gasoline you burn. I get better mpg with Shell and BP. My milage dropped with Sunoco. On my last fill up I used Mobil, getting pretty good mpg with that.

 

[MolaKule]

quote:

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The 2k Maxima is about the same with 89 octane and FP. Are you running 89, 91, or 93 octane in the Pathfinder?

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I run 87 octane about 95% of the time and occasionally 89 octane ethanol blend.

 

[iceberg]

Along with an msd 6al ignition box it helps my 99 dodge ram 5.9 with the notorious pinging problem (carboned pistons) these engines have. Like posted above there is no black ring around the tail pipe after I have used this product for a while. The dodge trucks have a problem with the plenum gasket and when it fails oil gets sucked into the intake charge and carbons up the valves/pistons. I had a cylinder head replaced (bad exhaust valve guide) at 60,000 miles and seen the tops of the pistons when they had the head off they were pretty bad. I am going to use fuel power to clean them up I think it works.

 

[Russell]

Believe I am being convienced to keep using it. Guess I will order a gallon and try it for a while.

BTW, I understand FP does not affect oil analysis like Techron does. I think Techron affects lead levels in some way??

 

[kreigle]

Personally, I think on a high mileage car it will take quite a while to see any benefits.

Before I started using FP, the porcelain around the center electrodes was always covered in black soot and my injectors always leaked down when the car sat for more than 12 hours.

After 5 - 7 treated tankfuls of gas (several of them at 2-3oz/5gal, a couple untreated,the rest at the normal 1oz/5 gal) the plugs now have gray porcelains and the car fires right up even after sitting all weekend (no injector leakdown).

I hadn't yet seen any fuel mileage change before cold weather showed up, since I started using FP in July and only fill up twice/month. However, my winter gas mileage is up from last year, 22-23mpg last winter vs. 24mpg this year. Maybe because of warmer weather? I don't know, but I don't get the 2-3 mpg variation from tank-to-tank like I used to. Maybe this is mostly from the cleaner injectors?

Next time I pull the plugs I will have to have another look at the piston crowns; I used to be able to see carbon buildup on them through the plug holes... would be interesting to see if they have cleaned up any.


My wife's 2001 Civic didn't show any improvement with FP, don't know yet about the new Accord she replaced it with. we are only on it's second tank of gas, the first to be treated with FP. Last tank was 23mpg (<500 mi on engine at fillup).

 

[Dr. T]

quote:

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Originally posted by MolaKule:
Keeping the fuel system clean and providing a slight measure of lubrication for the injectors is one advantage I see.

Some people see mpg improvements, others don't.

In my Nissan Frontier 2.4L, I see solid 0.5 to 1.5 mpg improvement with FP.

In my PathFinder 3.5 L V-6 I see none.

I am not here to argue with you or convince you otherwise, just relating my esperiences.

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I'm cool with this, it's just that why not have a "every 5k mi" dose rather than every fill-up...gets a little tedious when going thru a tank or two every week. How much cleaning can actually require use with each fill-up??