Questions and Answers

Additives: Good or Bad?

Q. Hello I have and 1989 Ford Tempo. I would like to get the most out of the car before I have to make any major repairs (transmission, engine rebuild) I saw a commercial about Z max and I would like to know what you suggest, about using fuel additive. Short and long term effects.

Alexander

A. Oh boy, asking about additives of any kind is opening a can of worms! After 30 years in the business I have seen people who are as fanatical about gas and oil additives as they are about their religion.

I'm not a great believer in additives of any type. The only one I personally use is a diesel fuel anti-gel. And I only use it in the winter. Diesel fuel has a large percentage of paraffin that tends to solidify at low temperatures. The anti-gel is supposed to prevent this. I do use a high grade diesel fuel (Amoco) that does switch to a winter formula, but for what it's worth, I also add the anti-gel.

A good quality fuel does have detergents and other additives already blended in so I don't see a need to add any others. Most additives have the same ingredients, just more of them or in different combinations. Independent laboratory research has shown that not only do most additives do nothing for engine performance and wear, they actually damage the engines they were tested in.

I must digress here a little bit, but my favorite motor oil additive commercial is the one where they take all the oil and coolant out of the engine and take the oil pan off. They then run the engine while spraying water from a hose into the engine. This is supposed to make us believe that their product is so great. Well, the water is a lubricant and it does a very nice job off cooling things off. So they could do that all day to any engine and it will run fine. Read the article written by Fred Rau entitled Snake Oil! for a detailed look at oil additives.

My opinion is if you use a good grade of gas and a good grade of motor oil with regular oil and filter changes, you don't need any additives at all.