From: John De Armond
Newsgroups: rec.outdoors.rv-travel
Subject: Re: Gasoline additives?
Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2000 22:34:52 -0500

Technobarbarian wrote:

>    So, my questions are: What's in this stuff, or more importantly is
> there a dimes worth of difference between "injector cleaner","octane
> booster", STP or whatever? What's the cheapest way to buy octane
> booster or its equivilent? Is there something I'm missing here or a
> better solution?

There have been a number of independent tests (including my own and
one by BMW) that I have confidence in that show that Chevron Techron
EFI cleaner works IF and only IF your engine has gummed injectors,
carboned intake valve stems or bowls.  The Techron in a bottle is a
more concentrated version of the detergent package included in their
gasoline.  Other cleaners MAY work but I've seen no test results.

Sometime around 1996 the EPA revised its minimum gas standard to
require sufficient additives to keep the emission system functioning
for 100k miles.  This means that unless there is a VERY unusual
condition, standard pump gas will keep your fuel system clean
regardless of brands.

Octane boosters do just what the name says - it (usually minimally)
boosts the octane of fuel it is added to.  They fall into several
different categories: organo-metallics (tetra-ethyl-lead, etc),
inherently high octane aromatics (toluene, xylene, etc), alcohols
(ethanol, etc) and other oxygenates (the infamous MTBE, etc) among
others.  Octane boosting has a very specific meaning in the context
of affecting the rate of pre-ignition combustion precursors.  It has
NOTHING to do with making additional power for an engine that does
not need it.  Adding an octane booster to a typical street engine
that runs just fine on regular gas does nothing but relieve the
pocketbook of a few bux.  IFF you have an engine that requires more
octane than pump gas delivers, one can slightly boost pump gas with
the addition of toluene much cheaper than buying a magic elixir in a
can.

The rest of the stuff out there is snake oil.

John