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Leaving a note about Techron.

2K views 13 replies 8 participants last post by  gman 
#1 ·
Not sure if this is the right place, but after putting Techron through my tank, I noticed a pretty big improvement on my idle, and also noticed and improvement on the problem that I was talking about. It wasn't big, but it was noticeable and makes me think that all I need to do now is clean off some of the air/throttle components and I would be good to go.

Not shilling for Techron at all, but I did notice that a lot of posts on the forum were debating between Seafoam and Techron, with Techron being the safer alternative to try before you think about Seafoaming, so I thought i'd leave this here for people to find.
 
#3 ·
Techron is still a very good product. My opinion, BG-44K is the best, just hard to find. it is mostly used by higher quality repair shops, and is expensive. Always use either per the instructions, proper amount per proper amount of fuel. These are 2 compounds that,if you mix them "stronger" as in not enough fuel in tank, it can do more harm than good. You couldn't give me seafoam, I would never put it in anything I own.
 
#4 ·
BG44K is indeed very hard to find.
I called around and asked everywhere but nobody had it, and I couldn't even find it online on any mainstream marketplace.
Is it gentle like Techron is, or harsh like Seafoam? Something in between maybe?
 
#7 ·
I'm down to 1/3 tank of whatever fuel sat in it for a year on the car lot.

How about I start using the local Chevron, 10% ethanol...will i get enough Techron to do the job?

Or... i tank up ethanol-free down the road, and add my own treatment.

I think plan B but other opinions and experience matter.
 
#11 ·
augidog said:
I'm down to 1/3 tank of whatever fuel sat in it for a year on the car lot.

How about I start using the local Chevron, 10% ethanol...will i get enough Techron to do the job?

Or... i tank up ethanol-free down the road, and add my own treatment.

I think plan B but other opinions and experience matter.
I'm no expert, but I know that ethanol is mostly used for it's extreme stability and low burn rate (no detonation).
But I have heard that race gas or any kind of alchohol has the potential to damage the rubber stuff in your vehicle, which would break some seals and whatnot.
But that's just hearsay, and I would probably wait for a more experienced opinion on the matter.
 
#13 ·
gman said:
I'm no expert, but I know that ethanol is mostly used for it's extreme stability and low burn rate (no detonation).
I think it's mainly used because it's subsidized by our government which makes it super cheap. My guess is there was some bribing lobbing going on when the regulations were put into place ;) But yes it allows the use of crappier gas as well.

With petroleum you get better performance(1/3 less energy in ethanol) that doesn't absorb as much water, doesn't degrade or evaporate as quickly and doesn't damage seals and such.

I admit that sometimes when I see the price of e85 I get a little jealous, but then I think about how much extra fuel I would have to use to travel the same distance. Then I put my calculator away and smile after figuring that it wouldn't save me any money even if my vehicle could run it.
 
#14 ·
I'd like to add that I still haven't gone through the whole tank, and after driving 20 or so more miles, my P0240 is gone and not coming back (yet), and my idle is ridiculously extremely smooth now. My exhaust is also not as noxious.
So perfect in fact, that I really think that I'm going to keep this van over the 05 even though I feel like I can get the 05 in the same shape as this van (power train wise) with some sleuthing and a little more time and maybe at most $300 more.

Seems like the PCM was just reading an incorrect air/fuel mixture and cleaning off some of the components internally did he trick.

I'm going to clean off egr, throttle body, and out some dialectric grease on the sensors which are prone to overheating.
 
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