Amsoil PI has been reformulated and improved

[Gary Allan]

PI is now available in a new and improved formulation. It's designed as a total fuel system cleaner with advanced additive technology. The product is a joint effort between Amsoil and Lubrizol. According to Lubrizol, this is the most potent product on the market. It's actually cheaper than Techron Concentrate (around $10-$11) and retails for $8.70. It has a treat rate of 20 gallons per bottle and the recommended interval is 4000 miles. It reduces/removes all the usual suspects on the all the usual surfaces. Totally sensor and catalyst safe, as you would expect.

This is supposed to be miles ahead of the old PI formula.

http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/api.aspx

I have not used this product yet, so I can't give any first hand impressions. I'll be ordering some this week for use in one of the fleet to see how it performs. A few of my engines respond well to additives when used. Naturally, if I can notice a difference, I've obviously not used them often enough. It's a shame that our fuels are getting more and more "unclean" ..but at least we have cost effective remedies to cope with the problems that they cause.

 

[TimVipond]

I've used it in my motorhome and minivan and get a little better than the 2-5% mpg increase they have shown in testing. Not bad for $8.70 every 4,000 miles. My son just now put some in his Honda Civic Si and I will likely tomorrow in my K1200LT.

 

[Gary Allan]

I can't wait to try it on my daughter's Taurus. It always needs some type of tweaking to get it to pass the enhanced emissions test. I'll probably use it on my 2.5 jeep after I pull the next UOA for Terry to dissect.

 

[TimVipond]

Do you get test values reported or just pass/fail? That would be interesting if you do. In Texas I used to get copies for my 1983 Chevy van. It always passed at about 1/10th of the maximum values. And that beast would always smoke pretty bad on a cold start!

 

[ConfederateTyrant]

I plan to give this a try one day, right now I'm waiting to hear what others have to say.

 

[buster]

I'll probably order some of this. I normally use the RL SI-1 stuff which is sold at PepBoys.

 

[Steve S]

I have used the oil formulation and it works well .The new formulation will be interesting to see how it works.

 

[Gary Allan]

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Do you get test values reported or just pass/fail? That would be interesting if you do. In Texas I used to get copies for my 1983 Chevy van. It always passed at about 1/10th of the maximum values. And that beast would always smoke pretty bad on a cold start!

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One OBDII you get PASS/FAIL since there is no sniffer involved. If it's OBDI or older, you have a dyno sniffer test that is based on the VIN/engine displacement. These are not set standards ..as in fixed from year to year. They're based on the emissions produced via last years testing (and calculated from OBDII vehicles) and adjusted accordingly for the total tonnage that all that adds up to. Before the OBDII plugin test, my OBDII cars passed the sniffer with loads of room ...but that may not be the case in a few years even if they don't degrade at all ...if too many new registrations come into the enhanced emissions zone. Too many clean cars still can mean too much pollution. Those that are well within limits this year ..may be marginal next year and fail the year after that

 

[buster]

Amsoil fellas, do any of you see an issue with increased Pb in a UOA sample after using Amsoil PI? I believe Techron or RL has a tendency to show a spike sometimes.

 

[TimVipond]

I don't see any mention of lead in the MSDS, and I don't see any purpose of putting lead in it as this is a fuel cleaner, not a fuel lubricant. It is only added once every 4,000 miles and is probably gone by the 3rd tankfull. So I would run a few tanks of gasoline thru after treatment and then run UOA.

 

[gizzsdad]

I have a question that's been buggin me for quite awhile. NOT wanting to start a flame-fest, just sincerely want to know people's real world experiences.

I drive an 05 Maxima. My last several owner's manuals have specifically stated that additives are never needed nor recommended. In addition, my service manager, whom I have a lot of respect for, told me he just never sees the build-up crud like they used to see, and went so far as to indicate that some products would likely cause more harm than good.

So I have a couple of 5-6 year old bottles of Techron that I've been scared to use, and wondered if I really needed to. I put about 85K miles on my last one and never noticed any drop off in performance, though I realize the degradation could be incremental.

So what say y'all?

 

[TimVipond]

I think fuel additives are occassionally beneficial, especially if you use non Tier-1 gasolines and notice lack of performance or drop in mpg. Techron is one of the better ones. Call Chevron and see what they say about the 5-6 year old additives. The phone number might be on the back of the Techron bottle. I would think they would be OK.

 

[Gary Allan]

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I drive an 05 Maxima. My last several owner's manuals have specifically stated that additives are never needed nor recommended. In addition, my service manager, whom I have a lot of respect for, told me he just never sees the build-up crud like they used to see, and went so far as to indicate that some products would likely cause more harm than good.

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I used to subscribe to this school of thought too. In my case, I'd never really seen anything to indicate any problems. The fuel management compensators make most degradation transparent and so incremental that you never know that a condition is present. I've never "felt" anything with Techron ...but I sure did with Regane. That is, until the fuel management system realigned the open loop injector pulsewidth. In my wife's case, the only symptom was a little more knocking at shifting transitions in warmer weather. A can of Seafoam would cure it.

I too thought that it was just a waste of money. I'm not too into perpetual maintenance routines. Way too many fueling events in this house. I'm also really averse to "every 3000 miles" anything. Way too many miles and $$ added there. So, it's probably a 6 month routine for me in remedial/restoration type action with a stronger agent.

 

[cmhj]

Hi gary,

While I've been a so so believer in fuel additives as a maintenance issue only, Chevron Techron has shown me excellent results. However, with this new formulation I'll probably give Amsoil's PI a try the next time I order filters.

Thanks for your seemingly ubiased opinions here and with many subjects.

 

[cmhj]

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ubiased opinions here and with many subjects.

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UNbiased, shesh

 

[cmhj]

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Amsoil fellas, do any of you see an issue with increased Pb in a UOA sample after using Amsoil PI? I believe Techron or RL has a tendency to show a spike sometimes.

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I've not witnessed this but do know of some that claim this to be a fact & it makes sense.

For several years I've timed my addition of fuel additives, whenever possible, to an expected use of 2-3 tanks of fuel before an OCI.

 

[Mamala Bay]

Drove 250 miles with the Amsoil PI and notice a smoother running engine. Also there's less gas pedal on those short trips.

 

[wileyE]

do you guys follow up with a new fuel filter? I mean if it can clean the downstream injectors think how much ez stuff it could knock loose from the fill neck and tank walls which have about a 1000 times more surface area and are exposed to the cleaner for a longer period of time.

 

[Mamala Bay]

I change my fuel filter every 30K miles. Should have a new fuel filter in about 4 months. I'll do another retreat with the Amsoil PI and change filter out. Will see how the Amsoil PI works out.

 

[TimVipond]

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do you guys follow up with a new fuel filter? I mean if it can clean the downstream injectors think how much ez stuff it could knock loose from the fill neck and tank walls which have about a 1000 times more surface area and are exposed to the cleaner for a longer period of time.

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Good question. I used it in my 1997 103,000 mile Chevy Venture a few thousand miles ago. Hasn't caused a problem yet. I replaced my fuel filter once before the addition at 100,000 total miles. I also tried it in my 1993 motorhome with 53,000 miles several tanks ago. No fuel filter problems yet there either. I would think if it was gonna happen, it would have by now, since you only add it every 4,000 miles.