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A stupid fuel question

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BLACK'98DSM

5+ Year Contributor
4,450
1,889
Feb 9, 2019
Alabama
This seems like a dumbass question, but I'm driven to ask it. Does fuel injector cleaner add horsepower when run rich?

So yesterday I was sleepy and decided to pour the whole bottle of injector cleaner in the tank BEFORE going to the gas station. Gas station is like 6 miles away. And my tank was on empty. So an you can imagine about half way there I was running a large amount of injector cleaner in my engine, it smelled funny. And I noticed when I stopped at a light that it was idling at 1200 or so. I also noticed the throttle seemed very touchy. Like an idiot I opened it up a bit, risking some damage or detonation, but it felt stronger for some reason. It almost seems like this cleaner woke my engine up? It did a noticeably better pull.

Of course I know that long term this will destroy an engine. I'm just curious why this "fuel injector cleaner" runs so smooth and strong?

I highly doubt this had anything to do with it cleaning the system, I'm willing to bet that now it's mixed with a ton of gas it won't pull like that anymore.
 
I'm no expert on this topic, but here's my guess. It could have cleaned up carbon deposit on your valves thus you increased your compression slightly with the added higher octane that you ran for the time being, not to mention cleaning the injectors. If it cleaned your injectors, the fuel will atomize better and cause cleaner burn in the combustion chamber. Running rich vs lean does not make more power. Pig rich and way lean is a different story.
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Most fuel injector cleaner is going to have a higher octane than gasoline, it either contains mineral spirits, or paint thinners such as acetone, toluene mek, etc, or a combination of these things, of course a car will run better on these things.
 
Nah, you were just sleepy and dreaming Solomon...........:p
 
Nah, you were just sleepy and dreaming Solomon...........:p

^ this. Even if the octane increased significantly from the injector cleaner. The car would need to be tuned to take advantage of the extra timing available. And this is assuming that the stock 420a is knock limited and not already at MBT
 
Even if the octane increased significantly from the injector cleaner. The car would need to be tuned to take advantage of the extra timing available. And this is assuming that the stock 420a is knock limited and not already at MBT
This is true. But what explains what was happening?
 
What gas do you run Solomon?
Ever try some high octane fuel? Might throw some "super" fuel in it as a test, some 100 octane stuff or so. Wait until she is low again and just try a gallon so you don't break the bank in the experiment.
 
What gas do you run Solomon?
Ever try some high octane fuel? Might throw some "super" fuel in it as a test, some 100 octane stuff or so. Wait until she is low again and just try a gallon so you don't break the bank in the experiment.
I run premium pump gas. (93 octane). When I first got the car I added octane booster on top of that, but I found it to be useless because like @silvreclips said, I don't have the kind of setup to support a million times more octane.

Next season when Barber opens back up I'll definitely have to tweak the engine a bit more, then try to run some race gas and see how that goes.
 
It'll let you add and use more timing just be careful.
 
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