the Repair Geek and the Motor Oil Geek collaborate and give us the skinny on additives for #2 diesel fuel.

they also tell us, that Valero has the "best #2" at the pump.

flame away if you wish, but they use Lab reports to back up their comments.

After I watched the video, I found they left us a subtle message in the Preview, look at the order from Left to Right.
from Least beneficial to Best Beneficial.

one more comment they make: " More is NOT better "

 

I remember watching some videos last year about this...I think i was looking into hotshots secret or similar. Supposedly there are good benefits as well as antigel protection in some.

Not everyone has Valero...so what are the guys with no Valero supposed to do? I have a valero down the st but they are overpriced. I've never noticed anything better from their fuel as far as performance or economy go...they don't have bad fuel for sure

 

Additives are beneficial. I still rock the old 4 stroke oil with no complaints.

 

no Valero anywhere near my home either.
So, I use my Phillips66 Discount program app on my phone,

as of today, it gives me 15c/gallon discount.

I have 3 of the products listed, that I bought early on, not knowing which is best?
I can't say that I have noticed any mpg improvement with any of them.

but, only one dose on a tank here and there, so how would I know?
and, road conditions were different, some towing, others empty.

I have a gallon of 2 stroke engine oil in the shop, forgot that I was supposed to be treating the #2 when I fill up.

 

I've not watched the vid yet, but I use optilube xl. Something has to make up for the loss of sulfur. And injectors aren't cheap.

 

Long before I owned a diesel vehicle - but while working for an arborist who had a multitude of diesel equipment - I was listening in to a convo between the shop owner where said equipment went for repairs and someone picking up their gear. The "customer" was steamed up about the repair bill. At some point the owner said (paraphrasing): "if it weren't for additives, I would be doing something else instead". Implying that the use of additives was a main reason for people bringing stuff in for him to repair.

Timeframe is important here as this was in the early '90s, so it is possible that what the repair shop was seeing was the impact of additives into diesel engines that didn't really need them? Either way, it has informed my approach to managing my "fleet" of 3 diesel engines: the '02, my '66 4020 Deere, and a 7500W generator from the '80s. I do not add anything to either the fuel or oil.

That being said, I do rely on the additives that Irving puts in the diesel, as they are pretty much the only supplier up here. Their anti-gelling recipe seems to be spot on as it is rare I hear of a problem with this (I am in northern Maine where -20F or lower is common). What I don't have a handle on is what, if anything, they may add to offset low sulfur.

 

Interesting that none of the tested products have any chemistry in common. I would have sworn they were all the same or similar stuff in different bottles.

 

I have no complaints about Hot Shot's winter treatment. I've been using it for about 8 years, I'd guess. Project Farm did his anti-gel comparison a few years ago, and it did well there, too.

 

@callforfire I see you are in MT. I assume there is winter blend fuel there? Do you find the need to augment the anti-gelling component?

 

Yes, I do. We just started a late winter, getting to -6 again tonight and I was just stressing this morning "Did I put enough in"?




My ocd just had to lay in the snow to check and it looks alright. I've had the "winter fuel" cloud up the racor by now.
I think they call it winter blend because, at least in the early weeks, the winter fuel is diluted with standard fuel that was still in the tanks.
You can also see the racor pre-filter doing its job and how dirty my local pumps are, a good indicator that there may be plenty of water entrained in the fuel too.

 

I wish I could "see" the fuel in my prefilter.

but it was already on the truck when I bought it, so I'm stuck with just changing it once in a while.

When I get the Fuel Pressure gauge hooked up, I will be able to monitor when it needs changed.

 

The idea behind the additives and the top tier fuel is to prevent wear not about fuel mileage, anti gel is a different story. I've used Power Service in my diesel tractor for many years. Power Service makes it easy, white bottle for winter and silver for summer. There's also diesel 911 for gelling problems. I like because it's sold literally everywhere.
Surprised they didn't test Howes as it's a big seller in truck stops.

 

I'm in the Power Service club too (offers secret handshake) for the same reasons.

 

I have a theory. I have three diesel powered vehicles that are 20+ years old and none of them were designed to run on ULSD. I get worried about the machined parts inside the mechanical injector pump and also the fuel injectors for all the vehicles getting prematurely worn out due to the loss of lubricity that the modern fuel now has. So I have been adding some 2 cycle oil at every fill up. Not much, I'll put 8oz in the tank before I fill up the cars with about 11 gallons of diesel. I'll get a gallon of that el cheapo stuff at Walmart and pour it into the 98 gallon auxiliary tank for the Ford whenever I fill that one up and let the transfer fuel pump just take it from there to refill the truck's main tank. What that does is it eliminates the knocking on #8 cylinder that always shows up if I don't use any. And on the TDIs, the throttle response seems to be a little more linear. Sometimes the car will jerk just rolling along the highway on cruise control and adding the 2 cycle oil seems to eliminate that. So I'm theorizing that the 2 cycle oil makes the fuel more slippery and the moving parts don't hang up like a dry machine would without any lubrication.
Again, I'm just theorizing here, and for the record, rebuilt TDI injector pumps are well north of $1,000.00 for a good one and I'm guessing if you want a factory rebuilt one from the dealer, then it's probably $1,500 by now. And where can you find new Alliants any more?

 

Good video, I've been using the Opti Lube for years after they came out on top in a test quite a few years back. I have 3 diesels, 2 with DPFs. I also use a maintenance dose of Biobor JF to prevent microbe growth, had that happen on an old Mercedes and wasn't fun.