Educate me on diesel lubricity and additives

[Agnem]

Keep in mind when researching fuel additives, that Lubricity is just one of the components your looking for. Products such as Stanadyne Performance Formula (yes, I sell it, so naturally I'm going to plug it) also add value in terms of anti-gel, cetane, water dispersment, etc. I have several customers who swear that it pays for itself by increasing their fuel mileage. So when you compare the cost of things, lets say 2 stroke oil (which while it increases lubricity, does cause additional combustion by-products that increase soot) to something like Howes or Stanadyne, remember that the cost/benefit analysis is much more difficult to make than just thinking your saving money on a lubricity additive. 2 Stroke oil is not going to enhance your milage, so when you pour that money in your tank, know that it is gone, and may not give you much back other than a little longer pump life. You may end up fouling your injectors though with combustion byproducts that degrade your spray pattern and affect power and economy. Same with transmission fluid (which will also increase your EGT's). My point is, they make fuel additives for a reason, and you are better off buying one that works and works well.

 

[79jasper]

I've used several different things in my Powerstroke.
So far what made the biggest difference was hot shots secret.
I ran it pretty heavy for 3 tanks, then found out it's meant to be every six months. Lol (who reads labels these days lol)

 

[OLDBULL8]

Agnem said.

So when you compare the cost of things, lets say 2 stroke oil (which while it increases lubricity, does cause additional combustion by-products that increase soot) to something like Howes or Stanadyne,

So as Mel said about the 2-cycle oil, it's a waste of money. There are two 2-cycle grades of oil, a low soot and the regular, the low soot costs more. Either will help the upper end, but the soot going to the lower end (ie;your bearings) only an Oil Analysis will tell you, that would take three Analysis', without, with Low soot, and regular 2-cycle, all taken at 3000 miles to compare. Stanadyne for me.

 

[Can30Diesel]

It is really easy to fall into the additives trap, there is a lucrative market for additives for a reason. Like with most things if you ask enough people you will probably find that if you try to compare super duper additive A and super duper additive B there will be people who swear by A and have horror stories about B and vise-versa. But what you don't hear is the rest of the maintenance history on the engine and fuel system. People can be quick to blame the additive for good and for bad results while ignoring other contributing factors.

I think the intent of the OP is to get to a point where it is known why A is so super duper exactly, why is it better or worse than B. What exactly is in super duper A and how do those ingredients contribute to a better running, longer living engine? Many people will answer those questions based on general consensus experience with products. If Joe-Bob ask his neighbor about super duper A and his neighbor says his fuel mileage doubled and now he can pull mountains, Joe-Bob would be likely to give super duper A a try.

The danger with that product evaluation method is there are plenty of additives out there that are really a combination of inexpensive substances with a high priced brand on the bottle or even just nothing special at all with the same high price on the bottle. They promise the world but without a proper test environment to work with, you are without a real reference point and would probably find it hard to really gauge the value of the product. People will often take the brand, the price and the consensus feedback and turn that into a perceived benefit which they can't reliably confirm and as a result you could very well just be throwing your money away with no actual change to the situation.

So where would be the best place to look for a good additive? How about the company that makes the fuel system components? Talk to companies which rebuild or repair fuel system components. These folks are going to know more about what is needed and what does the job. They have probably seen every conceivable additive and what it does to the fuel system.

The Stanadyne product line is an obvious candidate of interest because they designed the pump. Assuming of course that Stanadyne developed the additive product line because they didn't see another product out there for them to rebrand which did the job for their pumps and not only because they wanted a piece of the additive market pie (though I am sure its a little of both), it would be interesting to see what they developed and why its of benefit to our older fuel system.

 

[chris142]

Any decient 2 stroke oil will have detergents to prevent excess carbon and soot from forming. This came around when 2 stroke bikes got power valves back in the 80' as those oils back then were making the power valves stick. Imo Its atf and used engine oil that's going to cause problems eventully as those don't burn clean. Especially atf.I feel that adding 2 stroke oil at a reasonable ratio will lube the pump better than todays fuel will and wont cause any excess soot or carbon. That's my story and I'm stickin to it.