Originally Posted By: Lyondellic
I used Lucas UCL for the first year after I purchased my new Civic LX in May 2007. I drove it off of the lot with 6 miles on the odometer. From my experience most four cylinder engines tend to idle a little rough, and my Civic's engine was no exception, but there was a marked improvement, however, when I added Lucas UCL to each tank of gasoline. The engine idled smoother and seemed to reach speed with less effort.
I then did a lot of reading about fuel additives. One thing is clear, Techron is well respected and its primary ingredient is Polyether Amine (PEA). Red Line SI-1 contains 30% to 50% PEA by volume as per its MSDS. SI-1 also contains a synthetic UCL, which quieted down my engine even more than the Lucas UCL did. Contrary to what others have posted, SI-1 is suited for continuous use and I do not believe that it contains any solvents. Some will argue that PEA is a solvent, others claim that it is a surfactant, but I am not a chemist. I use SI-1 at the recommended continuous treat rate of 1/3 ounce per gallon of gasoline, which works out to ~3.5 ounces per tank in my case.
I wish that a few of the mainstream fuel additive vendors, such as Lucas, Red Line, Amsoil, Gumout, MMO, FP Plus, RLI and Schaeffers would post before and after pictures of combustion chambers and valves from engines using fuel that had been treated with their respective additive product.
Other than marketing statements, I have had a difficult time locating real-world evidence, particularly photographic evidence, that one cleaner is better than another. This is strange when one considers how easy it is to locate pictures of components from disassembled engines that used Brand "X" engine oil.
It seems to me that fuel additive vendors would want to take the same approach and use high resolution color photographs to demonstrate the effectiveness of their additive products. Instead, I typically find low resolution black & white pictures that are grainy, small and lack detail. Take this thread for example, can one honestly say that pictures of glass tubes containing various amounts of carbon are an accurate gauge of how well Lucas UCL will perform in real world use?
Just my .02 cents...
We have used Lucas UCL in the last 4 vehicles we have owned with good results @ between 2.5 - 3 oz per 10 gallons of fuel. We carry the small bottle in the car refilled about 1 2/ full from a larger bottle to save money and when down 10 - 12 gallons, stop @ for fuel and add the Lucas before pumping so it gets mixed up good.
