Lucas, Seafoam etc.

I am currently delivering parts part-time for NAPA and before that I did same at Parts Plus. Usually try to put 300,000 miles on vehicles. I'm here to tell you both places use zero additives in the vehicles.

So?

So, Tex asks. It's pretty obvious they don't value the products

But very happy to sell you all you can carry.

If you put that many miles on you don't need additives! Seafoam is for fuel systems that sit and accumulate varnish.

No reason to run an additive designed to clean the fuel system, in a gasoline powered vehicle, all the time, so why waste the money.

On the other hand, if there is an additive that will actually increase fuel milage why not?

Personally I've tried additives in my gas powered vehicles with no appreciable gains. On the other hand I won't run my service truck (((Series 50 Detroit, 8.5 liter diesel, approximately 32,000 lb truck))) without additive as it typically gains me around 1-2 MPG. It might not sound like much, but when it's all added up at the end of the year, the increase in milage, more than pays for the cost of the additive.

Yea, but, but, but, but.....
Oil additives is like religion, politics, or your brand of pickup.
No matter what you say or how many facts you have, you won't change somebody's opinion on the subject.

Additives are not something that the consumer can make any sort of evaluation of. Nothing, no way. Checking fuel milage can give you a read-out, before and after but it is always going to be impacted by many different uncontrolled parameters. Yet look at how many testimonials we get here on YT of what a huge difference some make.

The exception to this may be antique automobiles. They sit for long periods of time the fuel stinks and the engines are old and sometimes tired. Sea Foam and MMO are my favorites for my old cars and tractors.

I have an old, family heirloom clock on the wall. Inside, it reads " WARRANTED IF WELL USED" thats how I feel about this topic. If something is well used, no additives are necessary. If rarely used, some help may be needed.

(quoted from post at 05:43:35 07/04/17) I have an old, family heirloom clock on the wall. Inside, it reads " WARRANTED IF WELL USED" thats how I feel about this topic. If something is well used, no additives are necessary. If rarely used, some help may be needed.

Click to expand...

And if nothing else it can give you a warm feeling that you are doing something for your heirloom.

Remember Slick 50 ?

I have to do fuel tax paperwork on my truck each quarter. I can see the difference in my mileage when I do a lot of interstate driving, and when I do my typical mix of city and interstate driving.

I have also seen the difference when I run additive, and when I don't. In fact when I first began running additive I actually gained nearly 3 MPG quarter after quarter.

I could also tell the difference when I could still get the low sulfer fuel, and when the changeover was complete and the only thing I could get was the ULSD fuel. When that happened my MPG went from an extra 2-3 (with 3 being the usual) I had been seeing, to what I stated before with the normal being 1-2 MPG (with 1 being the usual now).

That said, your right, the average person isn't going to notice the difference, but when your like me, and every gained MPG equals money in my pocket, I keep track and do whatever I need to do to increase my profit.

NC Wayne, Which additive do you use in your diesel and per instructions on label?

How does the additive add 20% more btu energy to the fuel ?

I am not so positive on various additives. Perhaps some lubricity improvers in fuels, but I cannot offer much on that. I will share some experiences I have had over the years on fuels themselves. I had one of those infamous 5.7 liter GM diesel engines in a full size sedan built in the early 1980's. To have a 4 door, full size, family sedan go down the road and achieve over 30 miles per gallon was quite a feat back in the late 1980's. To keep that engine running was also a amazing feat (LOL). I put on a lot of miles driving that car. I tried various diesel fuels back then, and found the premium grade diesel fuels produced less black smoke out the tailpipe and improve fuel economy by 2 to 3 miles per gallon. That sold me on premium grade diesel fuel back then and I do everything I can to ensure I am buying premium grade diesel fuel for my truck and my farm equipment. When I had the injection pump rebuilt in that car, the man who did that work became a good friend of mine a few years prior. He told me the pump on that car was the original pump and it was apparent it had pretty much nothing but premium diesel fuel used in it. That was the other experience that sold me on premium diesel fuel. In the 1990's, after that car finally crapped out with over 200k on the odometer, I has been driving a 1986 Lincoln Town Car with the 5.0 liter fuel injected V-8. My father had that engine in a 1990 pickup truck. These two engines were the "moodiest" engines when it came to gasoline. Both would ping with E-10 gasoline, even if that E-10 was premium. We had a fuel supplier in the nearby town that did offer 91 octane premium without ethanol. Both engines ran fine, without pinging, and delivered about a 10 to 15 percent improvement in fuel economy versus any other gasoline, even other premium grades of gasoline with or without ethanol. I know, I know.......................it all comes out of the same pipeline so there should be no difference. Well, I tried a lot of different retail station's and their gasoline products, as well as different grades of their gasoline and found this one, single station provided the best gasoline for that car and my dad's truck. We had two gasoline tanks at the farm, with one for road gasoline and the other for farm gas. A friend of ours used to help in the fall and he had a Chevrolet K1500 with the 5.3 liter V-8 engine. He found the best gasoline to use in that truck was what we pumped into his tank from that barrel, which came from a local fuel supplier. He was rather insistent the engine ran smoother and obtained its best fuel economy with that gasoline. I can neither agree or dispute his claim, but he lives in a largely metropolitan area and buys fuel from a number of stations. Anyway, after my dad and I both upgraded cars and trucks, we never had a "moody" engine afterwards, but I still will try a few different gas stations and their fuels to find if there is any difference, but have not found anything significantly different since.

such additives are not neccessary , in a new running vehicle , that is exactly rite , its the old boys thats been siting in the fence row for years and get resurrected that need the worx ,,. golly,,. why would you use sumthin if it dont need it ,,. sounds like to me you are try to defacate a good product that serves well in the time of need for those of us that know when it is neded and how ton use it effectively . ,,. if you have had such a mundane life that lacks you to understand and experience the need for such products, then you probably dont know the difference between sheepdip or shepshyt,,..

I was originally using the Stanadyne additive but shifted to the Powerservice brand in the silver bottle. Lately I've been using some from a commercial vendor(can't remember the name of the maker) after being given a nearly full 55 gallon drum of it by the folks my Dad was working for. They said they had to get rid of it because they couldn't get an MSDS sheet for it. It took me about two minutes to call the place listed on the drum and find out everything I needed to know about the stuff. In this case it was a somewhat proprietary mix they had made up for a bulk distributor.

So far I haven't noticed any real difference in any of the brands, and have been maintaining within about 1/2 MPG with all of them. With the stuff I'm using now, out of the drum, they make claims of a slightly higher percentage of gain than I am seeing, but there always seem to be better results gained under controlled conditions than typically seen in the field so it doesn't bother me a bit. Not to mention it's nearly $1000 worth of free additive so who am I to complain...LOL