[Topaz]

What type of Techron do you use and how often?

I got into Techron page and saw there are three types of Techron, and their recommendation is like this:

Complete System Cleaner: Treat a whole tank at a rate of1oz per gallon every 3000 miles.

Injectors Cleaner: Treat a whole tank at a rate of 1oz per gallon every 1000 miles.
I understand this as doing two treatments of Injectors Cleaners between each System Cleaner.

Powersports Small Engines
And then there is also a Techron for Powersports Small Engines either carbureted or fuel injected, for which the recommendation is 1oz per 4 gallons of gas and treat every single tank. This option would increase the cost of a gallon of gas in 25c. for the bike.


One thing that is not clear to me is that the recommendation tells you to treat a whole tank, but it doesn't say how many oz of cleaner would do a proper clean.
So let's say I have two vehicles, one has a 20 gallons tank (big SUV) and the other has a 10 gallons tank (compact car), but both has a four-cylinder engine, and both consume about 25MPG in average. According to the recommendation, I should pour 20oz in one vehicle and 10oz in the other. It looks to me that I'm either neglecting or overdoing one of them.

What do you guys do?
@jvk you must have an opinion on this.

 

[jkv45]

I've been using Techron Compete Fuel System Cleaner, every season after winter, in all my vehicles for about 10 years now.

1oz per gal.

A friend who works in the auto emissions industry recommended it. He was impressed at how well it removed extreme carbon build-up on intake valves in just one tank.

He's not easily impressed.

 

[IronWarrior]

One thing that is not clear to me is that the recommendation tells you to treat a whole tank, but it doesn't say how many oz of cleaner would do a proper clean.
So let's say I have two vehicles, one has a 20 gallons tank (big SUV) and the other has a 10 gallons tank (compact car), but both has a four-cylinder engine, and both consume about 25MPG in average. According to the recommendation, I should pour 20oz in one vehicle and 10oz in the other. It looks to me that I'm either neglecting or overdoing one of them.

This makes sense to me for the following reasons:
You need the right concentration of cleaner, which is why it's expressed in oz/gal. You don't care about how much cleaner TOTAL goes through the engine, you care more about how much of what goes through your engine at a given time is cleaner.
You need a known quantity of fuel in order to dose it properly. In general, the best known quantity is "full." It's hard to know if 1/2 on the gauge is actually 1/2 volume. For example, when I fill my car, the gauge doesn't move off "F" until about 70km of driving. "1/2" on the gauge is closer to 2/5 of a tank. (See NOTE 1)
They are providing instructions to make sure the product is easily used properly, as in "the average motorist can understand the instructions." Also, the instructions need to cover most (if not all) engines, so it's likely that they err on the conservative side (slightly overdosing "most" engines rather than underdosing more engines).

I would imagine that in your example, you could PROBABLY get away with taking the SUV and putting in a half tank of appropriately dosed gas, it's just that measuring that amount is more challenging than adding to a full tank. Remember the manufacturer has an interest in making their product both effective and easy to use (plus you using more than you "need" doesn't hurt them either...)

NOTE 1: For work, part of my duties involve weighing airplanes and computing the C of G for pre-flight Weight and Balance calculations. We are able to weigh the plane in 2 fuel states:
1) Fuel tanks "dripped" to a known quantity of fuel. To achieve this, the airplane is set up at a specific attitude (1.8 degrees nose down for this particular aircraft) and the tank drains opened until fuel stops dripping out. This leaves a reasonably exact weight of fuel in the tanks (236 lbs for this aircraft and the most common variety of jet fuel).
2) Fuel tanks completely full (known volume). As the density of the fuel varies with temperature, it is then measured to compute the weight of fuel in the tanks.
We cannot weigh with partial tanks because it is near impossible (at the very least, extremely extremely difficult) to measure the exact volume of fuel in the tanks in any other state.
We are also permitted to weigh with the fuel system completely dry, but that involves draining every singe fuel line, filter, etc. which is not feasible for an aircraft just to weigh it.

 

[Topaz]

I emailed Techron asking about this but got no answer.

I also put the same question in a car forum (Honda CR-V), and the few answers I got were 'Don't use that! It's useless' LOL
No one really knew how much cleaner has to go through the system, but everybody relies on the recipe one bottle per tank, no matter what size of bottle or tank or engine.

My doubt arose because I went online to get a couple of bottles, one for the car and one for the bikes and I saw that the 20oz bottle was on sale cheaper than the 12oz bottle, so I wondered if could use only one 20oz bottle and split it between the car and the bikes.
Then I went into the product website and saw that there is a product specific for small powersports engines, which I think it's worth trying. My carbureted DR-Z400 is hesitating in high revs. Hopefully this product will help on that, and I will avoid pulling out the carb and maybe doing more damage than good. (I don't like carbs)

I ended up getting two bottles of 20oz and I will treat 12gallons per cleaning on the cars.

 

[Ghostt]

I've tried it on my bikes, but I prefer Seafoam.

It what Lord Vader uses, and that's good enough for me.