What fuel additive do you use

[21trucker]

Hey everyone. I just replaced my intake manifold. 2016 Laramie with 275,xxx kms. Wife drives 40 highway kms to work every day. What additives can i use to help prevent the carbon buildup again (besides a delete). Has anyone used Archoil off Amazon? I've also used Hotshots, and Power Service in the past. Suggestions are much appreciated. Thanks.

 

[1shadowsabre]

Hotshots appears to be very popular..

 

[...a child of God]

Received these items but have only used the Diesel Extreme Clean. No problems and also no noticable gains so far. But I wasnt expecting anything.

 

[John Jensen]

Hotshots and Archoil are two of the best additives. However, additives don't reduce carbon buildup. Risilone claims to have a DPF cleaning additive but I don't know of anyone using it nor have I seen any tests confirming its claims. The best solution is a tune that turns off the EGR. GDE is an outstanding tune that claims to reduce carbon buildup but it no longer turns off the EGR.

I'm surprised that your wife's trips caused a manifold problem. She is giving it the ideal driving miles and temps.

 

[BTdriver]

I use Power Service and Howe's and add to every tank. The way I've found to greatly reduce soot (shy of turning it off w/ a tune or deleting) is to put a restrictor in the EGR tube. The one I use is a 1" sink strainer (ACE Hardware p/n: 40291) with a large flat washer (ACE p/n: UCU) safety wired in. Either way, this allows a little exhaust by, but overall reduces soot production by first allowing more fresh air into the cylinder for better combustion, and secondly by allowing much less of what soot is produced, back into the intake. Another method that may be easier for you is to make gasket like restrictor out of sheet metal with a small hole in the center. Hole size something like 3/16 to 1/4 inch, maybe more, you may have to experiment. Totally blocking the EGR will result in codes being triggered by out-of-range sensor readings. around the EGR cooler.

 

[John Jensen]

I use Power Service and Howe's and add to every tank. The way I've found to greatly reduce soot (shy of turning it off w/ a tune or deleting) is to put a restrictor in the EGR tube. The one I use is a 1" sink strainer (ACE Hardware p/n: 40291) with a large flat washer (ACE p/n: UCU) safety wired in. Either way, this allows a little exhaust by, but overall reduces soot production by first allowing more fresh air into the cylinder for better combustion, and secondly by allowing much less of what soot is produced, back into the intake. Another method that may be easier for you is to make gasket like restrictor out of sheet metal with a small hole in the center. Hole size something like 3/16 to 1/4 inch, maybe more, you may have to experiment. Totally blocking the EGR will result in codes being triggered by out-of-range sensor readings.

Interesting! You may be on to something. How do you know or measure that your device is reducing soot? How do you know your device has no negative impact on the emissions system?

 

[1shadowsabre]

I use Power Service and Howe's and add to every tank. The way I've found to greatly reduce soot (shy of turning it off w/ a tune or deleting) is to put a restrictor in the EGR tube. The one I use is a 1" sink strainer (ACE Hardware p/n: 40291) with a large flat washer (ACE p/n: UCU) safety wired in. Either way, this allows a little exhaust by, but overall reduces soot production by first allowing more fresh air into the cylinder for better combustion, and secondly by allowing much less of what soot is produced, back into the intake. Another method that may be easier for you is to make gasket like restrictor out of sheet metal with a small hole in the center. Hole size something like 3/16 to 1/4 inch, maybe more, you may have to experiment. Totally blocking the EGR will result in codes being triggered by out-of-range sensor readings. around the EGR cooler.

This post deserves a picture!

 

[SeanPwnery]

I run Howes Meaner-Kleaner, 3 ounces per tank (they claim 1 ounce per 10 gallons). It was recommended to me by a friend who has about 700k on an old Dirtymax 3/4 ton. It's cheap enough to run every time I fill up about 8 gallons every weekend to top off. Also, the tune I run shuts off the EGR and in the 3 months I've run with it, I've had zero codes. I plan on replacing the intake with a new one then running the original, soot-caked one in an ultrasonic cleaner. This way I can see what a 0-mile intake looks like with this tune, and catch can on the PCV side to really gauge how effective all these little changes are.

 

[BTdriver]

Mr. Jensen:
I've been running my restrictor for a little over 30k mi and It hasn't popped any codes. I already had the SFT stage 1 installed. The only gauge I have is how much soot collects in the crossover tube - no real build up, just thin residue coat. My logic on it is this: Restricting the EGR flow lowers the amount of exhaust gasses (and soot) into the intake, which increases available oxygen in the cylinders for improved combustion, in turn lowering the amount of soot into the exaust/EGR. Please forgive the "mansplain". As for effect on EGR system, seems to me that less flow through it puts less heat in the cooler and coolant reducing heat stress. My EGR didn't truly fail, it simply started leaking coolant to the outside onto the ground (replaced under the recall). Please keep in mind that Colorado's emissions consists of opacity measurement and visual for emissions equipment being present and connected, no NOx testing.

1shadowsabre:
I previously tried to post pics, but were "too large", even after I got them down to 1mb. If you (or someone else) know a way that works, please share.

 

[John Jensen]

Mr. Jensen:
I've been running my restrictor for a little over 30k mi and It hasn't popped any codes. I already had the SFT stage 1 installed. The only gauge I have is how much soot collects in the crossover tube - no real build up, just thin residue coat. My logic on it is this: Restricting the EGR flow lowers the amount of exhaust gasses (and soot) into the intake, which increases available oxygen in the cylinders for improved combustion, in turn lowering the amount of soot into the exaust/EGR. Please forgive the "mansplain". As for effect on EGR system, seems to me that less flow through it puts less heat in the cooler and coolant reducing heat stress. My EGR didn't truly fail, it simply started leaking coolant to the outside onto the ground (replaced under the recall). Please keep in mind that Colorado's emissions consists of opacity measurement and visual for emissions equipment being present and connected, no NOx testing.

You make sense but you've confused me. You have SFT Stage 1. I assume your tune shuts off the EGR, stopping soot flow into the intake. Thus I don't see any value to your restrictive device. Or am I missing something?

 

[BTdriver]

I think originally it might have shut it off, but I have had to reinstall the tune a couple times after dealer flashes, so now the EGR is still on.

 

[1shadowsabre]

I think originally it might have shut it off, but I have had to reinstall the tune a couple times after dealer flashes, so now the EGR is still on.

If you were able to take your tune out before you took it to the dealer and then reinstall it after you got the truck back then your EGR is turned off. If the dealer flashed over your tune its is gone 4ever!

 

[John Jensen]

I think originally it might have shut it off, but I have had to reinstall the tune a couple times after dealer flashes, so now the EGR is still on.

That makes no sense. Reinstalling back and forth between stock and the tune cannot change the tune.

 

[SeanPwnery]

I think originally it might have shut it off, but I have had to reinstall the tune a couple times after dealer flashes, so now the EGR is still on.

If you took your truck in for service and they flashed over your tune, it has been reverted back - if you have your programmer from SFT, you'll want to re-flash your tune, it'll turn off the EGR again which should make the block-off unnecessary. That is of course, if the dealer hasn't found a way to lock the stock tune somehow, essentially bricking your ECU to aftermarket tunes. I doubt they'd do that, but after my, and many other's dealership incompetence stories - I wouldn't put anything past them these days.

 

[John Jensen]

If you took your truck in for service and they flashed over your tune, it has been reverted back - if you have your programmer from SFT, you'll want to re-flash your tune, it'll turn off the EGR again which should make the block-off unnecessary. That is of course, if the dealer hasn't found a way to lock the stock tune somehow, essentially bricking your ECU to aftermarket tunes. I doubt they'd do that, but after my, and many other's dealership incompetence stories - I wouldn't put anything past them these days.

If the dealer flashes over a tune it cannot be re-loaded or "re-flashed". The handheld programmer will be useless and bricked if one tries to re-load.

 

[biodiesel]

I'm surprised that your wife's trips caused a manifold problem. She is giving it the ideal driving miles and temps.

21trucker mentioned 275,000 kilometers, which comes out to 170,877 miles. Regardless of how much highway driving you do, that's a lot of miles. The EGR doesn't shutoff just because you're on the highway. That's what FCA got nailed for with their original tune.

 

[John Jensen]

. That's what FCA got nailed for with their original tune.

Yep, was a good tune.
The following Auxiliary Emissions Control Devices (Defeat Devices) were involved:
AECD 1 (Full EGR Shut-Off at Highway Speed)
AECD 2 (Reduced EGR with Increasing Vehicle Speed)
AECD 3 (EGR Shut-off for Exhaust Valve Cleaning)
AECD 4 (DEF Dosing Disablement during SCR Adaptation)
AECD 5 (EGR Reduction due to Modeled Engine Temperature)
AECD 6 (SCR Catalyst Warm-Up Disablement)
AECD 7 (Alternative SCR Dosing Modes)
AECD 8 (Use of Load Governor to Delay Ammonia Refill of SCR Catalyst)

 

[BTdriver]

With SFT, when the dealer reflashes my ECU, I can't reload my tune. I have to read the new program, send it to SFT, then they send me a tune that the programmer will load in the ECU.
The last time this happened, SFT sent me both stage 1 and stage 2 tunes. I've been hesitant to run the stage 2 because it's designed for full delete with muffler only exhaust. Don't know if it will damage something - turbo, scr, etc.

 

[BTdriver]

Update: Just loaded the stage 2 tune last night and drove to work on it today. DEF gage is off, manifold temps are cooler (like EGR is off), even sharper throttle response than stg 1, and EGTs are lower. I'll keep watching and give another update in a little while.

 

[BTdriver]

Additional info on SFT stg 2 trial: The truck still has factory exhaust with dual tips at bumper, and all emissions equipment is in place. Only mod is the banks steel intake tube instead of the intake silencer between airbox and turbo.