Cars In General

[fattony]

I have a Vauxhall Astra 1.8 16V SRI 2001, its done just over 80k miles and I've been tempted to put in some Redex, just to give the engine a bit of a clean etc.

However before I waste my hard earned cash does the stuff actually work are there any reccomendations?

There's nothing actually wrong with the car, its service every 12k miles I just like to help keep the engine running well

 

[Belle427]

cant hurt to put a shot in now and again although there are far better injector cleaners than redex about

 

[dan the man]

optimax

oops i mean V power

 

[fattony]

can you suggest a better injector cleaner better then redex then mate? V power is just posh petrol isn't it? never really believed all th hype with it, maybe Im wrong.

 

[dan the man]

can you suggest a better injector cleaner better then redex then mate? V power is just posh petrol isn't it? never really believed all th hype with it, maybe Im wrong.

EVO magazine ran a test a few years back with optimax. 3 cars for 1000 miles.

BMW m coupe. 3.2 6 CYL NA engine

JAG XJ8 V8 NA engine

and without digging the issue out it was a TURBO CAR BUT CANT remember which one. either scoob or a leon etc.

Basically they covered diff petrol models to give an across the board.

They put cameras down the spark plug holes at the start to show the valves which mostly were all covered in carbon. (bmw was mint which shows good for its engine building prcedures)

After 1k miles they put the cameras in again and all were spanking clean. Which optimax claims to do, clean your valves and injectors.

They also compared in gear times and everyone was better for different gears and speeds. ( 0- 60 not good as too many dereitives like good set off vs bad etc)

all pics were shown and was a really good article.

 

[yes2mud]

Fattony,If you want to clean your injectors use something like STP,tip a bottle in with a tank of fuel,this will remove deposits quickly.Regular use of redex will help to stop the formation of deposits anyway,but it isn't so effective as a clean up agent.I believe Redex make a specific injector cleaner too,but I am talking about "old fashioned" Redex ucl(upper cylinder lube).
Regarding the V-power fuel,you can believe most of the hype,it is a very good fuel.If you have a high power car,it will up the performance and clean the valves up.Additive packages for fuel are very expensive,so some fuels are treated with the minimum they can get away with.Most large retail giants sell it cheaper,so their fuel is like this.Fuel from the oil companies,Shell,Esso etc is usually at a much higher treatment level so usually costs a bit more depending on the competition in the area.I work in a engine test lab where we help to develop these additive packs.An engine is fitted with new (weighed to a milligramme)valves,then run on a known dirty fuel for usually 60 hrs.The valves are then weighed to see how much cack has deposited itself to them.Then a test is run on "clean" fuel and comparisons made,or the dirty valves can be put back in and cleaned up with the good fuel.Personally,I run on Shell 95 mostly and treat the car to v-power maybe once a month.

 

[dan the man]

nice post yes to mud.

just a Q u might know. how long does fuel take to drop its RON rating when stored.

Just always wonder if fuel drops slightly and can make the car feel different. i have an import so always use super anyway.

 

[yes2mud]

Well Dan,it depends a lot on the air space in the fuel container.For instance,if you had a gallon(5 litre)can,full to the brim,it would probably not deteriorate much in a year.In the case of a parked up overwinter motorbike,mower,strimmer and the like,the fuel can lose it's "light ends"as they are known in around 4 months.These "light ends" are what initiates the fuel to burn,and once gone starting becomes difficult.Some folks are lucky enough to have summer use only cars,and the same applies of course.There are cans of octane booster which are very good,but you need to either flush the carbs out to let it get there,or run the engine out of fuel before storage.
You need not worry about fuel in a service station situation,unless their throughput is very small.Most have deliveries weekly or more.In a lab situation,it is common to store large amounts of fuel under a nitrogen blanket to reduce degredation to a minimum.The tanks have to be vented during filling, then closed up after the air space has been purged with nitrogen.Hope this helps.

 

[dan the man]

shell garage always busy anyroad so the fuel i use will be fresh.

many thanks