TEST RESULTS: Fuel Catalyst Products

[adznight]

Yeah I'd be interested to see a dyno sheet after 3000-5000 km's.

[SS8_Gohan]

what's that meshmesh? you want to drive to Cairns and back?

[lwells]

meshmesh: that's for taking the time to test these items.

Can anyone say "energy polariser"

LW.

[Bass Junky]

Meshmesh:

Big round of applause for your time and effort for doing this.

Sydneykid, any comment on the AFR's being adjusted??

[browny]

It looks like it worked pretty much how I was expecting.

Even if the results were positive I would still not be convinced that these products work.

The most noise is made about improved fuel efficiency, however for a passenger car it is almost impossible to accurately determine whether there is any real improvement. There are just too many variables that cloud the results.

[Zagan]

From their website I'd say these would be great for leaded cars, where you need to convert the fuel anyway.

Depending on the car that uses, norm unleaded fuel, say R32's and some early R33's, no R34's, you might see some ok results, but nothing super great.

The reason why is that some unleaded engines work slightly better with leaded fuels rather than unleaded as the can combust a bit better inside the engine.

Today's permium fuels would be much better than your lead fuels, so all along your've probbaly just being pumping leaded fuel through your car that's not always a great thing.

Also with these things being in-line you'd have a slowed fuel flow as well.

[tastyratz]

these things are things that interest me. I was doing a little bit of reading on them but i was still somewhat sceptical. Im in the usa so our gas isnt so great in comparison and i can only get 93 octane (ron/mon method) at the pumps here at best. you were saying though however that the knock level went down with the pfc... could you look into that a little bit more? if it can make the car have less knock (which essentially is a large percentage of what its supposed to do) then its a worthwhile thing to have in the states. there are also less expensive alternatives for only a couple hundred dollars US. Running a higher octane fuel doesnt really do anything for a car unless you change the tune. maybe thats the road you should go down for your testing and see what you can get out of the same fuel with and without the units...

[browny]

The Broquet website says nothing different to any other fuel catalyst.

I call shennanigans

[Zagan]

Running a higher octane fuel doesnt really do anything for a car unless you change the tune. maybe thats the road you should go down for your testing and see what you can get out of the same fuel with and without the units...

Higher octane fuels have a much better combustion rate than lower octane fuels, in japan their cheap ass fuel is 98% octane (they have 110% octane fuel as preium fuel), so they have better fuel again, the best fuel here is 98% octane so it's still not great for some jap cars here but much better than a few years ago.

The knocking is your car trying to get a good combustion with the air/fuel you have, you shouldn't really run low grade fuel in top notch cars as too much kocking can stuff the cars engine.

Unleaded cars can run leaded fuel in them without any major problems, but you wouldn't want to do it all the time, as the leaded fuel won't effect the valve seals like unleaded fuel in a leaded/super engined car.

The lead in leaded/super fuel acts like a lube for the valves and stuff, unleaded cars don't need this but can still run and sometimes work better on leaded/super fuel as it'll lube the valves but if your running low octane fuel you won't have the right custion happening and you'll still get the knocking which isn't good.

WRX's will only run properly on preium unleaded fuels 98%+ fuels, otherwise the knocking will be very bad and can/will destory the engine in a short period of time.

If you look up the write backs on one of the websites you'll see that it's mostly small and family cars that are runing on nomr unleaded fuel and getting "good" results.

You won't see a WRX or Skyline or Supra etc but they require high grade octane fuel to run properly.

[Emre]

Higher octane fuels are more resistant to combustion, for this reason alone using it without a tune to suit, can result in a loss of power rather than a gain.

AFAIK, Jap cars are tuned to run on 98 RON fuels. Higher octane fuels are available from the pump, that's why you see a lot of cars with chipped ecu's. Even Power FC default maps have a very agressive ignition map, but some claim to run it without a tune.

Leaded fuel will destroy your catalytic converter and oxygen sensors.

[BigDatto]

Reduced detonation is a direct result from cleaner combustion chambers. Tin oxide has been used as a fuel additive for years. GI's were issued with powdered tin oxide during WWII so that suspect/contaminated fuel or whatever could be found in the field could be used to power vehicles and equipment. I would be very suspect of any such product that fits in-tank, as any filters or fine mesh will prevent delivery to the combustion chambers. Tin Oxide catalysts must be fitted after all fuel filters, & the fine mesh screens on side-feed injectors must be removed.

The biggest benefits in a tuned turbocharged engine ?

1. More ignition advance can be mapped, due to better combustion

2. Emmissions are greatly reduced - to the point where a catalytic converter is not required to meet emission laws under the Kyoto protocol.

Take some time to think about the above 2 points. I have used Fuelstar brand catalysts on 3 different vehicles and swear by them. I have no idea about other brands. As for info, the Fuelstar website has a bunch of info including test results from controlled environment testing.

To my way of thinking, it makes more sense to treat the cause (fuel) rather than cure the effect (exhaust gases).

BTW I am in no way associated with any manufacturer of tin cats or tuning shops etc.

Just expressing my experiences to add to the discussion.

Attached is an interesting piece from a respected Sydney tuner.

[browny]

Did you and the above mentioned tuner test the Fuelstar products using the stringent test procedure outlined by Fuelstar?

Why doesn't every OEM install a Fuelstar/Broquet from the factory?