Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

A quick internet search reveals multiple articles that claim they don’t.

There must be a good reason so many people regard fuel additives with skepticism. While most customers expect to see the benefits promised by fuel additives immediately, it takes several tanks of treated fuel before most additives ( not all ) provide any noticeable performance improvement. And that is because most additives for fuel simply don’t contain a sufficient concentration of cleaning agents to provide immediate results. They have been heavily diluted so their cost price is fixed at an acceptable point that will not result in buyer apathy.

The Nigerian market prefers to purchase additives that cost between N1000 and N1500 but unfortunately the chances of purchasing an effective additive gets slimmer as we move closer to the N1000 price point. You really pay for what you get.

Any fuel additive that will produce results during the first application has to be exceptional and will be somewhat expensive to the general public. They exist but sparingly.

As they say if you pay peanuts you end up with monkeys. Apologies to monkeys.

The main purpose of the injector is to supply atomized fuel into the combustion chamber near the end of the combustion stroke where pressure and heat combusts all the fuel. Keeping a diesel engine operating correctly relies on the supply of air and fuel into the system working as intended by the manufacturer so keeping your fuel system (especially your injectors) working properly is a necessity to extend the life of your components and avoid premature failure.

There are two main reasons for injectors to fail:

Deposits

There are two types of injector deposits; injector nozzle deposits (coking) and internal diesel injector deposits (IDID). Deposits on your injectors affect the spray pattern by reducing the effective flow rate of the nozzles and the atomization of the fuel into the combustion chamber. Atomization of the fuel is incredibly important to the combustion process because it’s necessary for it to mix with the oxygen to achieve a complete and rapid combustion. Deposits on your injectors will reduce atomization, creating a weak or late combustion and then creating more deposits and unburnt fuel left within the exhaust instead of being converted into maximum power and torque. The injector spray pattern should look more like a mist than a stream, allowing each particle to combust on time. When the spray pattern looks more like a stream, the fuel takes longer to combust.

The image below shows the difference in spray pattern before and after the deposits are cleaned

Excessive Wear

The quality of diesel fuel also plays a big part in how your truck runs and the lifespan of your engine components. The diesel fuel system relies solely on fuel to lubricate the internal parts of injectors. The issue with lubricity of diesel at the pump is that the EPA regulates standards to a much lower level than that of the Engine Manufacturer’s Association.  This means the fuel you are getting at the pump is unlikely to meet the lubricity level your vehicle requires.

 Another issue faced by diesel owners – creating excessive wear in injectors – is from water contamination causing your fuel to lose even more lubricity. The best way to combat water contamination is to treat your fuel with an additive to disperse the water and protect the system by preventing corrosion, adding lubricity and maintaining your water separator filter.

Fantastic question.

And one that should be asked by every risk assessor.

Additives will damage your engines and void your warranty if they contain harmful chemicals. For that reason nearly every engine manufacturer will advise against the use of additives unless those additives are known and approved by them. Their own way of ensuring they don’t lose money supporting your machines during their warranty period.

The major car manufacturers already have fuel additives produced and bottled in their name by the registered additive manufacturers. 2 manufacturers easily come to mind. One from Germany and the other from South Korea. Both have their fuel additives manufactured and bottled by an American Additive manufacturer.. Same applies to several generator manufacturers who have endorsed additives made by registered additive manufacturers.

There exist additives that will damage engines. These might contain chemicals that have been outlawed eg ferrocene, MMT , etc

But as there are over 2000 additive manufacturers worldwide it is impossible that all additives produced will produce the same results in all engines. Not all are harmful. Certainly not those from the stable of the recognized additive manufacturers such as Chevron Oronite, Infineum, BASF, etc.

So the answer is yes. Some will damage your engines. And No. Not all will damage your engines. In order to protect yourself make sure you purchase an additivesthat is generally considered safe and has an insurance policy cover behind it in the unlikely event that there is damage.

This is very possible. But once again not all additives will damage all machines. Just not possible. 

The real question is why do people say or believe this especially as there is no evidence / data to support this claim ? None !!! This is exactly the same thing that was peddled years ago when mechanics who knew nothing about fuel injection peddled carbureted cars being better and those who were reluctant to learn about automatic gear peddled that manual gear engines were better.

We hear cases of a technician or mechanic suggesting this but none of them has so far been able to support this with any data. Not one. The real questions are How many have worked in organizations where they were directly involved with monitoring additive effects on a machine ? On how many machines ? For how long ? and with what additives ? A few ? or all the additives manufactured globally ? How many have they even come in contact with to start with ?

These are the questions we should ask every time an “ expert “ says all additives are harmful now or either in some time in the future.

Mechanics who for reasons best known to them can peddle what they want but should equally endeavor to be responsible and support with data otherwise they risk being seen as uninformed or resistant to change.

Friction is the enemy of engine performance and fuel economy.

Engine friction occurs on camshaft bearings, friction on piston liner interfaces, viscous oil drag in oil pump, especially during startup and crankshaft main bearing and connecting rod bearings friction. Collectively, these friction hotspots waste up to 10% of engine performance and increase fuel consumption. With the right additives added to a lubricant, these performance limitations are reduced significantly, thus improving fuel economy.

20w-50 and 15w-40 weight engine oils improved with x-tend additives will perform / behave exactly like advanced low viscosity synthetic oils that are formulated with extra strong additives that ensure the oils maintain an effective lubrication film even as the engine temperatures and pressures increase. These oils move quickly around the engine, minimizing engine friction.

With the extra strong, ultra-thin oils circulating very fast within the engine, the engine remains quite clean and performs efficiently, ensuring effective combustion of fuel-air mixture in the engine. In that way, cases of incomplete combustion, which leads to fuel loss are minimized and in the same way, reducing emissions to the environment.

Short answer is No. The same way you have fake / substandard / counterfeit drugs is the same way you have substandard chemicals being touted as additives. Some are harmful as a result of the ingredients used as raw materials in their production.

However all additives are not the same. Our additives contain absolutely no chemicals that will cause damage to seals, injectors, nozzles, pumps etc.  Bear in mind that several other manufacturers e.g BASF, Chevron, Infinuem are licensed to produce petroleum additives used in the blending of fuels in refineries and have been doing so for decades. None of their products have ever caused damage to any diesel using machine. It is the lack of additives in sufficient doses that is known to cause damage in engines. Lack of detergent and lubricity additives in sufficient doses is the reason why injector nozzles have to be serviced regularly and why fuel pumps fail prematurely.

Yes. 30 yr old generators and vehicles that have covered more than 600,000kms have recorded improvement in engine efficiency and fuel reduction from applying additives that contain the correct chemicals in the correct proportions.

No. Not all additives are snake oil.  Snake oil refers to any product making wild claims to fix problems in a machine but in actual fact is totally useless or creates more problems.

Everyone is aware that engine manufacturers spend a lot of money on R & D and as such should have identified the necessary fuel or oil formulations needed for their machines to perform optimally. The general belief by the public is that if any fuel or engine oil could have been improved upon that would already have happened at the point of production and so therefore anyone offering a product that claims to improve what is already considered perfect is most probably touting snake oil. Why then do these same engine manufacturers endorse selected oil and fuel additives if they are all ineffective ?

While we refuse to provide free advertisement we cannot ignore the existence of certain oil and fuel additives that are globally accepted to be effective. Even to the point of improving what is considered by many as the worlds most popular synthetic oil.  This oil improver is made in Germany by a company that also manufacturers fuel additives and its own engine oil ( very popular in Germany ). All its products are effective and none are considered snake oil or have ever been. 

Avoiding additives makes sense when you are unsure of the particular product in question but  ignoring all of them totally is unhelpful in areas where poor fuel or engine oil quality abound.

What do you do if your machine requires higher level of fuel quality or higher level of engine oil quality?  the possibility of a consumer desiring to raise the standard of fuel / engine oil to a better level for example raising standard fuel with octane rating 90 to premium fuel with octane rating 94 or conventional oil to the level of semi-synthetic or full synthetic that generally contains more anti wear or anti friction additives and lasts longer. Unless of course this is considered not possible which opens up another argument.

For several reasons ranging from lack of knowledge to skepticism to poor experience from using an inferior product. There also exists the possibility of people with vested interests benefitting from maintaining status quo. Generator mechanics (not all) and diesel suppliers (not all) readily comes to mind.

Whoever pays the maintenance or operating expenditure. Literally. This is not to be confused with who is responsible for maintenance or operations. The business owner / promoter  is the main beneficiary of reduced costs as it improves his / her profit margins.

Over the long run it is. Quantitative and qualitative benefits must be factored in.

Yes they are. Due to quite a number of factors. It has already been demonstrated in countries with standard fuel quality that an improvement in engine efficiency can result in a reduction in fuel consumption.  How much more a country where the fuel standards are less than average or generally accepted as poor.

One of the challenges generally faced when performance of equipment is not regularly recorded is that a drop in performance is not immediately noticed and acted upon.