If you've read any of my content over the years, you'll know that I am not a fan of the fuel additive industry in general. It frustrates me to see how many mainstream manufacturers, including household names, have flooded the market with low-value, solvent-only cleaners. Furthermore, the increase in products, positioned as premium, that are nothing more than rebranded private label products from the usual suppliers.
Chemical companies such as Innospec, BASF, Afton, Lubrizol, and Huntsman spend millions developing advanced fuel-cleaning chemistries for aftermarket additive manufacturers. Yet many retail products still rely on basic solvents such as naphtha, IPA, acetone, etc.
Very few use polyether-amine (PEA), which I highlighted back in 2008 as one of the most important discoveries for combustion chamber cleaning. Combining multiple technologies to create a more effective product is even rarer. I have spent years researching and formulating products, and this is a trend I have been trying to change since founding my own brands and developing more complete products.
I have reviewed hundreds of Safety Data Sheets (SDS) and examined multiple FTIR tests from major brands. What you are actually pouring into your fuel tank is, in reality, often little more than solvent.
When you buy a 250-500ml bottle of fuel cleaner, you are not always buying 250-500ml of active cleaning chemistry. It is mostly solvent. These solvents serve a legitimate purpose: they act as a carrier fluid to ensure the active detergents and other components mix properly with your fuel. But they do not actively clean the engine. A solvent may help a little in some areas, but it will do absolutely nothing to hard, baked-on carbon deposits in a 600℃ combustion chamber.
Some of the cheapest products on the market contain zero advanced detergents. They are 100% solvent. You are effectively paying a massive premium for kerosene or a similar base fluid, cleverly marketed as a "fuel system cleaner." Some of these 250ml bottles contain less than £0.40 worth of active ingredients.
If we look at the market, there are five main categories of fuel cleaner:
- Basic solvent only (high or low flash point solvents, naphtha, etc., of varying aromatic content)
- Basic but aggressive low-flash solvents (isopropyl alcohol, xylene, acetone, etc.)
- Single cleaning chemistry highly diluted in a carrier fluid (solvent, kerosene, or similar base)
- Single cleaning chemistry with added functions, highly diluted in a carrier fluid (e.g., with added lubricity improvers)
- Multi-cleaning chemistries with added functions, diluted in a carrier fluid
The Single-Function Racket
Another deception in this industry is the reliance on single-function chemistry.
Many companies take this a step further by selling you different solutions in multiple bottles. They'll offer a separate injector cleaner, DPF cleaner, turbo cleaner, catalytic converter cleaner, and so on. Each one targets a single zone of the engine with a single chemistry. You're expected to buy three or four products to do what one properly formulated multi-technology product can do on its own. This is marketing at its max. These chemistries can absolutely be combined into a single, concentrated formula. However, selling three or four separate bottles is more profitable than selling just one.
Many well-known products rely entirely on one type of detergent, usually Polyisobutylene-amine (PIBA). PIBA is cheap, widely available, and does an adequate job of cleaning port fuel injectors. But as I have pointed out many times, PIBA cannot survive the extreme heat of the combustion chamber. It burns off, leaving its own sticky residue behind.
Other premium products use PEA. As we know, PEA is the undisputed king of combustion chamber cleaning. But PEA has its limitations. It is not the most effective chemistry for GDI injector cleaning, which is why multiple detergents are required.
If you use a product that only contains PIBA, your combustion chamber stays dirty. If you use a product that only contains PEA, your injectors may stay dirty.
The Multi-Technology Solution
Modern engines, petrol or diesel, have distinct temperature zones. The intake valves, the injector tips, the combustion chamber, and the DPF/catalytic converter all operate at different temperatures and suffer from different types of carbon fouling. You cannot clean the whole system with a single-chemistry product. It is chemically impossible.
The only products worth your money are those that utilise a multi-technology formulation. This means a carefully engineered blend of:
- Dedicated Injector Detergents: To target the specific deposits found on injector tips.
- Advanced Amines (PEA): To survive combustion and clean the piston crowns and cylinder head.
- Fuel-Borne Catalysts (FBCs): Such as cerium or iron compounds, which survive combustion to actively burn off soot in the turbo, DPF/GPF and EGR (limited).
- Lubricity Improvers: To protect high-pressure fuel pumps from the dry nature of modern fuels.
- Combustion Improvers: To improve the combustion event itself and reduce soot formation at the source.
When I look at the market today, very few companies are doing this properly.
My Advice
Stop buying cheap, solvent-heavy bottles that rely on outdated single-function chemistry or multiple different products that clean different parts of the engine. Your engine needs a multi-technology approach to tackle modern carbon deposits, and you shouldn't be paying premium prices for bottles of solvent or kerosene.
Ask me anything – andy@additivegeek.com