Fuel cleaners / Injector cleaners_Pros and Cons

Bumblebee

Bumblebee

Member
Has anyone tried a pukka expensive injector / fuel cleaner additive..........?

I know there is Grandad's favourite 'Redex', which is basically kerosene, but some of the more extreme ones contain good amounts of PEA like BG44K or Liquid-Moly......... Have been told the 'BG44K' is brilliant stuff.

Also does it clean the inlet valves and ports, combustion chamber etc like they claim??

TIA
 
Used liqui Molly to great affect on the tdi engine. Made a big difference to quietness and smoothness
Paul


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depronman said:
Used liqui Molly to great affect on the tdi engine. Made a big difference to quietness and smoothness
Paul


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Thanks Paul. That's good to know...... I have no idea how sooty with carbon a Tdi gets, but I am guessing they do :)
 
They certainly run much sweeter once it’s add a litre of diesel purge through it. I run the car on it neat for about ¾ of a litre then bang the rest in the tank ideally with very little diesel in the tank. Then Run it for 20 to 30 miles change the diesel filter and brim the tank. Your good to go. When running on near purge ensure you run the engine at different revs

Paul


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depronman said:
They certainly run much sweeter once it’s add a litre of diesel purge through it. I run the car on it neat for about ¾ of a litre then bang the rest in the tank ideally with very little diesel in the tank. Then Run it for 20 to 30 miles change the diesel filter and brim the tank. Your good to go. When running on near purge ensure you run the engine at different revs

Paul


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Good to now....... Mines a 1.6 FSI Petrol :p?
 
In our family we run high mileage-ish cars of 100,000 miles when I get them. I use Powerenhancer. Diesels around town = carboned up internals esp the turbo.

I can tell thatthis stuff works because when I floor the Galaxywhen going uphill a plume of soot came out. Now nothing. It’s on 140k Miles.
I just top up with standard BP or Shell. No need for premium fuel as my ‘premium’ solution is better and cheaper.

I have no affiliation to Power Enhancer! Royal Purple additive also does a similarly good job. Or Forte.

Redex is not so high rated by garages I know.
 
Bumblebee said:
Good to now....... Mines a 1.6 FSI Petrol :p?
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Just run it on good quality 98/99 octane, I use Shell V Power Super Unleaded. It already has wizzy detergent additives, designed to do exactly what the miracle in a bottle claims to do, plus it's doing all the time. Just my opinion, obviously.
FSIs are not designed to run lon 95 octane, so called "Premium" They are discerning consumers.
Mac.
 
I have had good results with both cataclean and clean drive in petrols and diesels, just follow the instructions to the letter for best results.
 
PlasticMac said:
Just run it on good quality 98/99 octane, I use Shell V Power Super Unleaded. It already has wizzy detergent additives, designed to do exactly what the miracle in a bottle claims to do, plus it's doing all the time. Just my opinion, obviously.
FSIs are not designed to run lon 95 octane, so called "Premium" They are discerning consumers.
Mac.
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First thing I did was fill it up with 98 ????
Curious as I've changed plugs and moved coil packs around and still getting misfire on cyl 2 but notice it's not running as roughly or asthmatic as when she was collected but tends to get EML flashing after start up enrichment cuts out and after hitting about 2500-3000 revs.... Previous owners mechanic diagnosed an injector, so wondering about doing a kinda de-coke as a bit of healthcare as it were????
 
Oh - another thing - I rate Millers Oils' products. You may wish to run your FSI on super unleaded fuel and / or run a dose of this through it each time: Millers Oils website link

As has been pointed out before, the safe / tried & tested methodology is just to use super unleaded by itself, the big names tend to use a good additive pack.

As an aside I intend to run my TDi Merlin on their diesel additive regularly as my understanding is it will allow me to use supermarket fuels without worrying about soot / carbon build-up on the turbo, as it gives the cheaper diesel a boost of the additives found in high quality fuel that enable better combustion, but at a lot lower cost over the life of the bottle (10 tanks).
 
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dj_efk said:
Oh - another thing - I rate Millers Oils' products. You may wish to run your FSI on super unleaded fuel and / or run a dose of this through it each time: Millers Oils website link

As has been pointed out before, the safe / tried & tested methodology is just to use super unleaded by itself, the big names tend to use a good additive pack.

As an aside I intend to run my TDi Merlin on their diesel additive regularly as my understanding is it will allow me to use supermarket fuels without worrying about soot / carbon build-up on the turbo, as it gives the cheaper diesel a boost of the additives found in high quality fuel that enable better combustion, but at a lot lower cost over the life of the bottle (10 tanks).
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Thank you for that link. I will have a look....... The car was very low on fuel when it was collected and ran rough, so I filled it up with Super unleaded and through some redex in as a first healthcare measure to look at conditioning the fuel system and better / proper octane fuel. It has improved it running and engine note, as before it was really lumpy ☹

All of course after joining this group and learning about the FSI engine and burn process etc.

A auto electrician-mechanic diagnosed to the PO that he thought it was an injector and not the coil pack, although from the wedge of receipts and paperwork with its service history its had a few coilpacks since 2003. When I removed the 4no plugs to change they were all sooty, no doubts as a result of years of cheaper fuel???

I am sure that the super unleaded and redex will help clean things up a little, but was investigating something more potent with high PEA to help clean the insides out :) ..........

Recommendations from fellow members are always a great place to start so thank you for your assistance.

The Power Ecomax look impressive and I rate Millers Oils too. used their products in my Motocross days...... I wonder what it does being added to Super unleaded and does 100 octane do harm, or really clean things out???
 
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Higher octane fuel burns better, and later in the compression stroke, so the result will be a cleaner burn (and more energy).
Having said that, I am sure that most of the crud build up in the manifold comes from the EGR and PCV systems. The quality and state of the engine oil is a major (IMO) factor in how much crud is passed to the manifold via the PCV, High quality engine oil, changed regularly is the way to minimise this. Being honest, I'm not sure how much cleaning effect any fuel detergent additive (in the fuel or in a bottle) has on manifold crud, as it's only air+EGR+PCV gases, not fuel, that flows through it. Anything that is cleaned off by detergents ends up either being burnt or being washed into the engine oil. Some of this must end up being recirculated via EGR and PCV. High quality oil contains detergents too (like the fuel) and contaminants must build up in it.
All that can be done is to use the best fluids (and filters) we can, both oil and petrol (probably goes for diesel too), and change the oil annually..
If the manifold is already cruddy, TerraClean may be the way to go, but I don't know enough about it to have an opinion.
Mac.
 
PlasticMac said:
Higher octane fuel burns better, and later in the compression stroke, so the result will be a cleaner burn (and more energy).
Having said that, I am sure that most of the crud build up in the manifold comes from the EGR and PCV systems. The quality and state of the engine oil is a major (IMO) factor in how much crud is passed to the manifold via the PCV, High quality engine oil, changed regularly is the way to minimise this. Being honest, I'm not sure how much cleaning effect any fuel detergent additive (in the fuel or in a bottle) has on manifold crud, as it's only air+EGR+PCV gases, not fuel, that flows through it. Anything that is cleaned off by detergents ends up either being burnt or being washed into the engine oil. Some of this must end up being recirculated via EGR and PCV. High quality oil contains detergents too (like the fuel) and contaminants must build up in it.
All that can be done is to use the best fluids (and filters) we can, both oil and petrol (probably goes for diesel too), and change the oil annually..
If the manifold is already cruddy, TerraClean may be the way to go, but I don't know enough about it to have an opinion.
Mac.
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Thanks Mac
Appreciate the response and makes a lot of sense to be honest.
I guess thats why premium sports cars only use high grade synthetic oils etc...........
As the old saying goes, you get what you pay for ;)
Cheers
 
I just had a browse through the Terraclean "how does it work" section, on their website, and they say:

"... TerraClean is the only service that has two stages of cleaning, the first stage cleans the injection system and inlet valves (manifold injection only) which restores functionality to injectors and fuel pressure regulator..."

The FSI, like many modern engines, uses direct injection, injecting fuel directly into the combustion chamber. So, it looks like Terraclean may well clean the injectors, but not the valves, nor, the manifold.
So if your manifold is cruddy, a strip and clean seems to be the only fix.
Terraclean seems to be a process where a special fuel, rich in additives and detergents, is used, for a short period, under controlled conditions, in a workshop.
Bit like Shell V Power then ... without the workshop.

I have no affiliation with Shell, but do have their shares in my pension pot. Full disclosure and all that.
Mac
 
I've been using the Miller Oils Petrol Power Eco Max with good results... My FSI is running much cleaner and better, even though I get an intermittent flashing emu light under hard acceleration and a P302 fault code, the car is far less lumpy and flat.... I've not been able to do monster mileage due to 2020 restrictions and circumstances, but she's definitely responding to a good fuel system flush and high octane fuel ???
Even the old LTMk1 likes it ?
 
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