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Back last year I began hearing a lot of noise from my injectors in my Powerstroke (they're slightly noisy anyhow) and after doing some research learned that a lot of people were running diesel fuel additives to add lubricity to the fuel and lubricate the injectors. After digging around, I decided to give it a try.
After a few tanks I noticed a significantly quieter engine and have continued to run it in my Cummins now. I'm running Power Services Diesel Kleen and have also tried Stanadyne. In my F250 that was already tuned, I noticed my mpg went from 18mpg mixed to about 19.5 mpg mixed. In the stock Cummins I've noticed a 6/10 mpg increase on the summer formula.
Anyone else use this, and if so what were your results?
I used an additive once, when I had summer fuel in the tank when the weather got very cold.
Other than that, I have never used any additives.
My old 1994 Cummins had 276K on the clock when it went away. No fuel system problems.
I recently got another Cummins, a '99 3/4 ton. I don't use additives in it, either. It has over 160K miles.
I have a Cummins 6BT (12V) and I run additives in every tank. To the average person hopping in and driving you can't tell the difference but to me there is a marked difference in smoothness and noise level with the additives. Combine the additives with routine valve lash checks/adjustments and 6BTs purrrr. I use a custom cocktail of Power Service and marine 2 cycle.
am a user of Lucas, Lubro-Moly, Power Services diesel fuel additives.
I think that there's a wide variation in the quality of diesel fuel sold in the USA. Some folk don't have any issues and for them, additives don't seem to make a difference.
But for some of us, trying to run our diesels without the additives is not feasible.
Cases in point:
1) my 1995 F-250 Powestroke with 250,000 miles on it. I've had numerous trips with it around the Rocky Mountain Region where buying major branded fuel at a busy station still resulted in much "nailing" noises and a very lumpy idle and poor tip-in throttle response. The power was noticeably down hauling my 26' stock trailer and fuel economy down to 13.5-14 mpg at my cruise speed of 62-65 mph. Adding one of my preferred fuel additives resulted in noticeably decreasing "nailing", smoother running, better "tip-in" of the throttle response, and fuel mileage slowly returning in the same route & load back to 15-ish mpg. Unloaded, the truck turns in 20.5 mpg at 65 mph. If Mrs Sun drives it on some of her routes at 55-58 mph, she typically gets just under 22 mpg with it ... if it's running smoothly after adding the additive and getting some mileage on the tank.
2) we had a trip to Ohio a couple years ago. Same F-250, running beautifully. Fueled up in the Lincoln NE area, and noticed within a few minutes that the engine sounded "noisy". Throttle response was markedly poor and idle was no longer smooth. Drove 300 miles East and the engine got worse as we traveled. Knowing that the problems were directly related to the last fuel stop, I refueled at a branded station and added the Lucas FI cleaner. Over the next 250 miles, the truck progressively got smoother, quieter, and with much better throttle response. Not trusting the fuel along our route, I added the Lucas to every tank thereafter for the duration of the trip. Upon our return home, I believed that the local fuel was OK, so I didn't add the Lucas additive. With the first tankful of fuel here, the poor running symptoms returned. I then added Power Service additive and the engine running cleared up over the next 100 miles. The bottom line is that I rarely fuel this truck without using some additive dose.
3) Had a neighbor buy a new 2015 Dodge turbodiesel and set out for a British Columbia fishing vacation. They bought fuel in MT their first night out and parked the truck soon after. The next morning, the truck would not start. Towed to the Dodge dealer, the diagnosis was a fuel pump failure. They had to wait two days for the replacement pump to arrive. New pump installed, the truck still wouldn't start. Dodge techs baffled, neighbor called me for my input. I suggested that the problem was coincidental with getting that last load of fuel. Neighbor insisted to dealer that they drain the fuel and refill with known good fuel. Reluctantly, the dealer techs did so. To their surprise, the truck then started and the folk drove it around town for another day on errands and sightseeing trips, not wanting to head out again unless they'd verified that the truck was running properly. They didn't save fuel samples so we don't know what the problem was with the fuel, but the truck has never given another hiccup for starting since that fuel was drained out. This neighbor has been using the truck for oil field "hot shot" work and the twin to it as a field service welding rig. Both now into six figure odometer readings, he uses Lucas every fueling. Both trucks sound smooth, have good throttle response and achieve expected fuel economy given that they rarely are driven without a load.
4) In prior years, I was running MB diesels ... mostly 300Dt's after decades of driving a 220D, then 240D's. Again, on our regional fuel the difference in fuel economy, smooth running, throttle response ... was noticeable without running fuel additives. My Peugeot diesels (504's and 505's) were noticeably affected by using the additive. My best fuel economy there was 50 mpg in several 505's turbo'ed ... if we didn't run the additives, best fuel economy dropped to 42-45 mpg. IMO, the Peugeot diesel engines were far better performers and runners than the MB's, but the rest of the car was problematic compared to the 'benz. Comfort, handling, fuel economy, cold weather starting ... all far superior in the Peugeot's. Durability ... no question, the 'benz was the far superior vehicle ... both with Bosch fuel systems, they both did far better with diesel fuel additives.
5) Mrs Sun did a trip to Kerrville TX with the F-250. Fueled in a major brand truck stop coming North from there on her return trip from buying goats (at a Fred Speck auction), the truck started running very poorly shortly after the fuel stop. On a Saturday afternoon at another town down the road, the local Ford dealer was kind enough to open his shop to check out the alarmingly poor running/surging of the Powerstroke. Unable to find a causation for the running problems, they added a dose of Lucas FI additive. Mrs Sun did some local errands, stopped for the evening meal. The truck was running noticeably better in less than 40 miles and she had enough confidence to head out again (this was a major deal with a truckload of expensive Angora goats onboard). Otherwise, I'd have been heading down to TX with our Dodge '96 12v Cummins to swap trucks with her. By 200 miles after having left the town where the Ford dealer was at, the F250 appeared to be running OK again. Mrs Sun drove the rest of the way home without incident and the F250 was running beautifully upon her return. Noticeable was the performance on "cruise control" ... with the bad fuel, the truck surged 1-3 mph at 65 mph, almost enough to make you seasick. With the fuel additive and a couple hundred miles of driving, the cruise returned to a minimal "hunt" of barely a tenth of a mile per hour which was significantly less annoying (the cruise has always been smoother when towing our trailers).
So the bottom line for the OP is that "it depends". If the fuel you're getting isn't causing you any distress, then it's likely that you will not see fuel system issues resolved by the use of a fuel additive. OTOH, if you are seeing fuel related problems such as I see in my region, the use of the additives is not optional.
Interesting to note that when I'm fueling at the two local truckstops near home, when I see pro RV delivery drivers refueling there ... they're always adding a fuel additive. Maybe they see enough fuel system problems in their travels to justify the expense as a preventative measure?
I typically use Diesel Kleen in every other (or third) fill-up strictly for the lubrication. Apparently my version of Jetta has injector pump failures that can be mitigated with the additives where normal service life is 80~100k and I did mine at ~260k (not sure if it was Strictly needed, I couldn't smell leaking fuel but I'd seen a consistent drop in fuel economy over about 10 tanks/7,000 miles). If I skip for several fill-ups I don't really see any difference and I started going every-other/third because I *really* didn't see any difference with continuous use.
When I was living in the Rockies, I used the anti-gelling Diesel Kleen every fill-up. Probably not strictly needed, but I'd rather spend a little money and never have an issue than skimp and have an issue.
Contrary to popular belief, and I'm sure others will say differently, you do not need a product to lube the injectors on a diesel. If a pump or injector(s) wore out from "Low Sulfur" diesel, it was already on its way out!
Having said that, I used 2cycle in my Powerstroke, just to help quiet the racket down. Another thing I did was to use B20 every 5th tank to keep things clean.
Contrary to popular belief, and I'm sure others will say differently, you do not need a product to lube the injectors on a diesel. If a pump or injector(s) wore out from "Low Sulfur" diesel, it was already on its way out!
Having said that, I used 2cycle in my Powerstroke, just to help quiet the racket down. Another thing I did was to use B20 every 5th tank to keep things clean.
My understanding from past experience in a diesel shop and a lot of research is that ULSD does not contain enough lubricants to lubricate the injectors, which rely heavily on the fuel lubricity to keep them functioning smoothly. The process of removing sulfur also removes many of the compounds that provide that lubricity. This creates more wear on the injector pumps and the injectors themselves.
When I worked for an International diesel shop, we ran through hundreds of injectors about two years after ULSD was made the standard in the US. Injectors were dropping out at less than 100k miles.
For almost a year we couldn't figure out why it was happening. One of the old mechanics working there started having injector issues with his personal F250 and said he had noticed the engine had become extremely noisy. He started doing research on ULSD overseas and noticed they were using lubricity additives to take care of the issue so he started using the additive Ford was providing. Not long after we started carrying Stanadyne on our shelves and putting it in the trucks during a warrantied injector replacement. That seemed to tackle the issue for the most part. I thought it was just an issue with the larger diesels and never really gave much consideration to it having the same effect on the smaller diesel engines.
I've noticed a significant reduction in noise in my 24 valve 2012 Cummins with the additive. I didn't run it the first two weeks that I owned it (53k miles when bought) and it had a little issue with some engine surge when on cruise (similar to the poster above) so figured it couldn't hurt. It seems to idle much better as well and given me a little bit of a noticeable gain in mpg. I wasn't sure if others saw the same thing.
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