A chemists view on gasoline additives

[Trav]

I run Shell all the time and rarely use anything else, in Germany i use it exclusively.
I ran a brand new engine on shell V Power for 12 yrs and 240K and had no significant deposits in the combustion chambers or on the valves.

Of course if i am on the road and need gas i use whatever i can find but its rare.
I don't see it making any difference switching between this one and that one in real world use.
Years ago Sunoco was using some additive that caused the plugs to look like they had rust on the them, switching brands removed the color. Turns out it was just harmless discoloration and not deposits.

I don't believe it applies to oil unless you have one that is leaving deposits with normal OCI, i tend to use the same oils and fuels long term.
Engines with 100+ K on them are clean and in good condition.

Guys like Tig1 have been running the same brand of oil since he first used it on his horse drawn buggy axles and has no issues with deposits.
IMHO keeping the oil changed at a reasonable interval, using the correct viscosity that meets the manufacturers spec is more important than the brand.

 

[y_p_w]

Originally Posted By: Trav
I run Shell all the time and rarely use anything else, in Germany i use it exclusively.
I ran a brand new engine on shell V Power for 12 yrs and 240K and had no significant deposits in the combustion chambers or on the valves.

I think the most advanced fuel additives packages are probably balanced such that if one component might cause the valves to gunk up, another one is added to prevent that. However, the big deal about PEA was that it was something that didn't specifically create valve deposits and even cleaned them up.