Topic

Does anyone have experience of using fuel additives on a K series? I'm not talking about the "regular" type, but the "every 20000 mile" type that is supposed to clean the engine of all deposits. Just wondering if it would be worthwhile on a 105000 mile MGF prior to the next service. I figured it may be worthwhile to give it a go in a full tank of fuel, then once that tank has been used give it a good service - oil and plugs.

Thoughts anyone?

I would be wary of using too much proprietary cleaner in an old engine. there is a danger that some deposits are aiding sealing of various worn areas within the engine.

I would be tempted to use a cheap thinner oil as a flush before an oil change, and maybe a shot of redex or injector cleaner every once in a while.

Put a full tank of the expensive stuff in, it has cleaning agents in it, I think I vaguely remember Clive telling me that on .borg

if your wallet can take it fill up with shell v max it will clean the fuel system up nicely and you will find the car runs a little better

every so often i fill with v max as i normaly use ASDA fuel and thats not so good

MGF MARK wrote: wrote:

if your wallet can take it fill up with shell v max it will clean the fuel system up nicely and you will find the car runs a little better

every so often i fill with v max as i normaly use ASDA fuel and thats not so good

I was advised to use Shell V Max fuel in my wifes VW POLO by the VW technician and to give it a good 25 mile blast from time to time, because the short journeys and standard unleaded were causing the Lamda to carbon up and give false readings to the ECU. apparently the Shell petrol is better than the other Superduper fuels.

The trouble with the Supermarket fuels is that they are not of consistent quality, you remember what happened a couple of years ago with Silicone in the Tesco fuel coating the Lambda's and causing a lot of cars to go into "limp home mode" some needed new Lambda's which Tesco paid for.

It will be interesting to see what their new "QUANTUM" fuel is like (they are sponsoring the MG racing team)

MGF MARK wrote: wrote:

if your wallet can take it fill up with shell v max it will clean the fuel system up nicely and you will find the car runs a little better

every so often i fill with v max as i normaly use ASDA fuel and thats not so good

I "asda" agree with what Mark says - although I don't use supermarket petrol but local 95 ron *** whatever (it used to be *** **** *****)
I occasionally fill any of the cars with the "best stuff" and they "seem" to go better. But, hey, I'm an antique so what do I know

Mr Forgetful wrote: wrote:

MGF MARK wrote: wrote:

if your wallet can take it fill up with shell v max it will clean the fuel system up nicely and you will find the car runs a little better

every so often i fill with v max as i normaly use ASDA fuel and thats not so good

I "asda" agree with what Mark says - although I don't use supermarket petrol but local 95 ron *** whatever (it used to be *** **** *****)
I occasionally fill any of the cars with the "best stuff" and they "seem" to go better. But, hey, I'm an antique so what do I know

You know a helluva lot from many years of experience and being able to open a thousand tabs at the same time, just to get the wrong answer i think that 95 Ron is about the same as the old 3 star, Super is around the 4 Star and the mega expensive BP ultimate Super Supreme is above the old 5 Star (about 102 RON)

The ignition on pre-ECU engines had to be retarded a few degrees to run on 95 when it was introduced to stop "pinking"

MGF MARK wrote: wrote:

if your wallet can take it fill up with shell v max it will clean the fuel system up nicely and you will find the car runs a little better

every so often i fill with v max as i normaly use ASDA fuel and thats not so good

Where is our nearest Shell garage

Shell have launched an Android/iPhone app to help you find your nearest Shell forecourt or just look on ther website.

Some of the fuel additives are metals that will create a lot more ash deposits that will collect in the piston ring area increasing wear and contamination of the oil as well as potentially causing issues in the cat, so I would second the above and suggest using Shell Vpower 99 periodically.

The Tesco sponsorship coordinator told me at the BTCC press day in January that their reason for sponsoring the Triple 8 team was to try and promote their Momentum brand as a quality fuel. However, I am a bit wary of the higher bioethanol content especially on my classic MGs.

Tsleight wrote: wrote:

Does anyone have experience of using fuel additives on a K series? I'm not talking about the "regular" type, but the "every 20000 mile" type that is supposed to clean the engine of all deposits. Just wondering if it would be worthwhile on a 105000 mile MGF prior to the next service. I figured it may be worthwhile to give it a go in a full tank of fuel, then once that tank has been used give it a good service - oil and plugs.

Thoughts anyone?

I would not use cleaners or flushing oils on an engine that has over 100k on the clock, you would be far better treating it to a tank of Super duper Shell fuel , then change the oil and filter replacing with Castrol Magnatec, Castrol Edge or Mobil 1

If you look at the Wynns flushing oil treatment it clearly states that it should not be used on engines in excess of 75k miles.

All semi-synthetic and fully synthetic oils have sufficent cleaners in them to keep the engine clean inside.

I have just been looking into this, changed the plugs at the weekend and they were a bit nasty, have used the FORTE range of products and they have a great reputation and have added the fuel additive to the MG and filled up with V MAX before RE-MOT next week to try and bring the emissions fail down, will be interesting to see if it has made any difference to the emissions readings, also changed the plugs and cleaned the air filter.
The car definaltley feels brighter and "on its toes" the forte range has a very good rep, not the usual snake oil i think.

What an interesting thread and whilst I filled up with "normal" unleaded last night, I will give a tank of Tesco super 4 star equivalent (oh how we looked down on 4 star in the olden days of yore) a go.

Personally I'm planning to add a spoonful of castor oil to the tank, just for la parfum de Castrol R.