Products like this are used to strip sludge and deposits out and clean your engine, particularly if it is an older, abused one. If you use a quality Tier One gasoline and change your oil frequently (preferably use full synthetic), your engine will stay clean without the need for any additional additives. As a general rule of thumb, these products had their place and were moderately useful on older automobile and motorcycle engines of the 50s and 60s, but are not needed on the more efficient engine designs of the past two decades. It's not snake oil, simply a waste of money.
Having formulated engine oils at Chevron for 18 years and been aware of the related fuel additives technology development work as well, I fully support the use of Top Tier gasoline to ensure that you are keeping intake deposits off the valves and injectors. Many of the best fuel additives also remove combustion chamber deposits as well. This is important to prevent knock in older engines. Deposits on the valves rob HP by reducing airflow. Deposits in the combustion chamber lead to knock which the engine computer responds to by cutting timing back. This also reduces HP and fuel economy If you change you engine oil frequently enough, every 3-5,000 miles, there will be no deposits in the engine crankcase to worry about, so aftermarket treatments and flushes are not needed and may harm seals in some cases. I put 220,000 on a Jeep GC with 3,000 mile oil changes and it never burnt more than 0.1 quart of oil between changes (dipstick down from full only about 10% from allowed range).
Off shoot question. I see you have become more active here recently. What made you decide to come back to CF? So glad you did but just curious.
Partially I am more active as I was retired from a company that had me working in Columbus, OH and then Houston, TX while I lived in Colorado. That was 2 years of traveling and heavy work load. Now I consult and have some more time to participate in group discussions. I have much experience in fuels and lubricants having formulated for Chevron and then worked in the alternative fuels area. I produce synthetic jet and diesel fuel and still consult in these areas. I produced the first synthetic fuel to be used in military (B-52) and civilian (United Airbus A-319) aircraft and got that fuel through ASTM/FAA/OEM testing and certification programs. Lots of fun!
