Bill109

Hello,
Does anyone here ever run liquid additives, by this i mean those mechanic in a bottle type ones. For example, valve-kleen. In theory this helps clean the motor be breaking down/ freeing sludge, freeing lifters, etc. I have also see a fuel additive that says it specifically designed for cleaning the injectors.
seems unnecessary if you keep your engine oil clean but after buying a used car and not knowing its previous life, i wonder if any of that sort of product is any good or a problem in a bottle.
thoughts on this, maybe it could be helpful if used in extreme moderation?

Gangplank

I put in a bottle if techron every now & then.

Bill109

could you expand a little on the product, cant say ive heard of it. ive never really paid any attention to the additives until recently.

Gangplank

Chevron Techron additive. You can get it in a bottle at Wallymart

tonyb635

Just a fuel injection cleaner every so often. Nothing consistent though. I actually haven't had a reason to use it nor felt any difference afterwards. It's just a thing I do sometimes.

KyleB

Techron or BG44K. It's not a bad idea to change your oil after you use up the tank of fuel that you put additive in.

tonyb635

BeeGee BeeGee ...

BimmerFan52

+1
As previous posters have said, a bottle of injector cleaner added to a tank of gas occasionally is beneficial.

RE Oil additives: Nooooooooo.
Never add anything to your oil. Oil labs spend years perfecting the balance of base stock to additives as most of the additives in oil are sacrificial and must be balanced to each other to achieve desired engine protection. How can an off the shelf oil additive know what to add to hundreds of different oils, each one chemically different? Stay away - any claims are just snake oil sales.

Synthetic oil actually does a pretty good job of helping clean up dirty engines. Just accelerate your drain intervals for three to four oil changes and you can clear out some of the cobwebs. For a really disrespected engine with heavy sludge or varnish deposits you'll probably want to stay on short drain intervals as some of the additives in oil sacrifice themselves counteracting foreign substances, and coatings of sludge and wear metals will result in an immediate and often precipitous drop in the TBN of the newly added oil, shortening the new oil's life. Keeping the TBN up ensures the oil is doing its job protecting the moving parts of the engine.