So as I have tried to do in recent years is to be more open minded about things we use in these trucks. Motor oil, fuel additives, oil additives, etc etc etc...whatever.
Why?? Cause we as owners tend to get in a rut with a "closed mind" about what works, what doesn't work. Sure NO ONE wants to change something for the bad....but what happens when we miss changing things for the good?? I would believe we all have used some products that "changed" only to experience a loss of quality, or "performance" in the end. Sometimes those changes ACTUALLY make significant differences helping us!

With all that expressed I was roaming thru the ol' internet visiting the typical fuel additive companies. I had to visit my current favorite Howe's to see if their product line had any changes. Now people may ask "Why Howes?". If you know anything about fuel additives you know any that use alcohol for their diesel formulas need to be avoided like the plague. Well Howe's doesn't use alcohol in their products, it's fairly cheap, found easily, and ....for me....works pretty damn good.

I noticed they have a product under the name Diesel Defender: Diesel Fuel lubricator & Injector Cleaner. They tout a few different things as all fuel additives do. What was interesting is they claim an increase of 2.5x more lubricity as well as a 5% increase in fuel economy. Hmmmmm.....okay. Let's see what happens. I search local stores that may carry this specific product. Well what do you know...a local Napa has it on the shelf.

Here's the fun part: I'm going on my third tank of fuel using this specific product. Well....I have to say....I need other people to give it a try. Why?? Cause I'm not crazy....but I need to be sure.
Before I generally see a town MPG average from 16+ to 17 (at best). I generally see just under 500 miles driven with 1/4 tank of fuel left.
I'm not seeing easily 17-17.5 MPG for town driving. I'm now getting easily to 500+miles driven with 1/4 tank of fuel left.

So before I give any honest REAL suggestion that this stuff is making HUGE changes I need someone else to give it a try. Please humor me....I'm not paid by Howe's nor do I get anything of value in any way. The value I gain is sharing experiences, and the knowledge shared by others.

Cause the more I drive using this additive, the more I see positive results, the harder it becomes to convince me otherwise. I'll be filling up today (maybe tomorrow) so I'll have those results. I'm going to go get another bottle to keep using it for the upcoming months. So maybe before the winter fuel blends hit I can see the results. Then if those results stay positive I'll run it thru the winter months on the fuel blends they push out.

Dammit, I literally just ordered my stock of opti-lube yesterday 😂. Will pick one up if I slither into Napa and try it out. Thanks for the info!

 

I had seen that product and wondered what the difference was between Defender and Diesel Treat. From the website it appears to be mainly the anti gelling properties. According to them, Defender also contains "highly concentrated lubricity package" and IDX4 detergent.
I'm willing to give it a whirl. Why not? It will have to be after towing season since I go from 12 mpg to 17 mpg depending on the week. My average since last OCI is around 14 mpg for the last 5k miles or so.

 

Good info. I too just ordered a new jug of Opti Lube. I'll give it a go if I run out of the current jug before this jug gets here!

-jokester

 

The better price other than NAPA ($10.26 for 32oz with the 20% code) is Amazon, where it's ~$18 for 64oz.

 

Thanks for the support! Might just be me so please try it for at least two tanks of fuel.

Today's fill up report:
Truck dash display: 30.6 fuel used with 530 miles driven.
Fuel to the cap: 28.846 gallons.
MPG: 18.37

Just to be clear. The Ford dash Fuel Used information has always been higher to what I need to fill up. This time 1.8 gallons difference is a bit "wider spread" than I'm used to seeing. 1 gallon is my more common "spread" that I have noted in the past. Not sure why it's so high so I'll double check my previous data.

 

That’s odd. My dash always reads lower. Dash may say 55 gallons used but it takes 61-62 gallons to top off. This is with a Titan 65 gallon but it did the same with my stock tank.

By the way… how much stock did you buy in this company before your wonderful sales pitch?!? 😂🤣😂

 

Just ordered some off Amazon to try.


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Interesting, I’ve been using hotshots everyday diesel and actually an uptick in fuel Econ. Shocked me to say the least i was just after some lubricity for these finicky K16 pumps. When this bottle runs out may try the above see how it compares.

 

Wow, didn’t realize how expensive the 6.4L pump is….

 

I've had my '15 F350 6.7 for a few months; with untreated fuel it averages ~18.3 mpg (unloaded, cruise control at 70). Accepting the counsel of the community, and recognising that Ford does recommend a fuel additive, I got a bottle of Hotshots Extreme and threw in half the recommended amount at my last fillup before making a 100 mile trip. It averaged 20.1, over the same road. I'm usually hesitant to come to a conclusion, but damn! Labor Day weekend we're hauling the camper up north, it'll give me a chance to compare it against the Montana trip we took in July.

A jug of Opti-Lube XPD just arrived, I'll switch to it when the Hotshots is gone and continue the experiment.

Does anyone here have any experience with the Innospec products? Ecoclean or Powerguard?

 

I haven't ever run an additive, however I do trust Heavy and the community, so I am willing to give this a go

 

>>B) I'm not a member of Congress.

That is probably what Martha Stewart was thinking during her vacation time. And since then.

 

I just got back into the 17s. I'll keep an eye out for it but there aren't any napas down here.

 

So before I give any honest REAL suggestion that this stuff is making HUGE changes I need someone else to give it a try.

So to pad your pockets a little, I stopped by Flying J and grabbed a 64oz bottle. I’ll let you know how it goes too. I’ve never ran any kind of lubricant or injector cleaner through my engine and it’s been going strong for 155,000 miles. If it happens to let go… I’m sending you the bill. 😂🤣😂

 

 

My cousin has a farm back in Iowa, and has a lot of diesel vehicles.
When I told him about my first diesel truck purchase he immediately told me to use Howes Anti-Gel & Fuel Conditioner.
Than I found out he purchased a 2020 F150 Ecoboost ...after all the stories and mods I did to mine[emoji6]

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@HeavyAssault - Headed to Jersey hauling 16k load next week. I will order 64oz and use this for the whole trip and will report back accordingly. I hand calculate each tank and track via Fuelly......so the tool will help to confirm or bust the theory of MPG. Stay tuned....

 

My daily driver is a '14 Chevy Cruze diesel. One of the instrument panel displays is average fuel economy over the last 10, 50 and 100 miles, as well as the all-time high value for each. The best 50-mile average I've ever gotten over level ground was 59.9 (tires at 50 psi; cruise control at 60; no wind; Findley, OH into SE MI), and the best all-time was 60.5 (westbound I-80 in Pennsylvania, west of the continental divide so losing elevation, cruise set to 70). Northbound I-75 coming back from Asheville, NC also consistently gets me a 50 mile average that breaks 60 mpg at some point.

The other night when I filled up I added Hotshot (5 oz in a 16 gallon tank) and drove 90 miles home from a friend's house; it's a flat drive with some rolling hills towards the end but the total elevation change is nil (southbound out of Saginaw, MI). Tires at 50, cruise at 60, no wind. I got a 60.6 mpg average over 50 miles, a new all-time record without the benefit of coming downhill out of the mountains.

That's only a 1% improvement over my previous flat-ground record (compared to the nearly 10% I saw on my F350), and I wouldn't bet the farm on it without a few back to back tests on the same day (which I'm not going to do any time soon). But even if it turns out that the Cruze sees no benefit at all, that doesn't mean that the F350 won't - the two engines could easily have different sensitivities to cetane number.

Just reporting the latest results.

 

Anyone use the Lucas Oil fuel additive?

 

Yes… but not in my engine. Beware, it leaves skin rashes.

 

I just wish the makers of fuel additive sold it in an easy measure bottle. I have a repurposed Stabil bottle I use but don’t like dealing with refilling it and it gets nasty over time and needs to be replaced.


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I buy small bottles in bulk and prefill them to treat half a tank.
I do it twice a year for summer and winter additives.

 

One per fill up. Less than $1. You could reuse, but I toss for convenience.

 

EDIT:
See new post below

 

Yesterday we hauled the camper about 250 miles to the NW corner of Michigan's Lower Penninsula. The route starts off flat but the last third or more is rolling hills that can get steep. Averaged 12.4 mpg, just shy of 10% better than what I'm used to with untreated fuel which is the same result I got unloaded.

It's getting easier for me to think that this isn't my imagination.

 

I have ran about 30 ounces through the tank over the past 1000 miles and I’ve not noticed a difference. I filled up yesterday and put 12 ounces in the tank and drove from SC to lower Alabama and I actually got worse mileage. I usually get about 19.5 mpg on the highway and I averaged 17.8 on the highway. I’ll annotate the mileage again when I head back on Monday and see if I get any better mileage traveling with the jet stream. 😂🤣😂

 

ON EDIT:
Getting back to the data reporting:
I'm going to fuel up today or tomorrow so I'll have fresh info to share. I'll continue to reach back here giving the latest fuel numbers I'm seeing while using this product. Not to mention if there's any other significant observations as I continue forward. I'll use the EDIT function to update this post.

Nothing has significantly changed in my driving style, local area weather conditions, traffic, etc etc etc. As usual any High Pressure weather system tends to making driving SO much fun.

#1
So here's my data from the fill up. I use the Fuelly App to track the data and make updates. I did use the AC a bit more than normal during this interval. Nothing out of the ordinary in the big scheme of things. I don't idle long unless it's traffic or whatever. No towing, no significant loads in the bed. Just my normal routine and driving.

Miles Driven: 537.90 // 553.55 by stand alone GPS
Fuel Used/Filled: 31.9 gallons by dash display // 30.370 gallons fueled to the cap
MPGs calculated: Fuelly 17.71 MPG // 537.90 miles / 30.370 gallons

So my dash display shows 16.8 MPG...537.9 miles / 31.9 gallons >> You could say 553.55 miles / 30.370 gallons for 18.22 MPG
The "spread" is quite a bit I know. Which is interesting to say the least but when you look at the hard data points...you see why I track all the info. I see where Ford calculates the MPG, I see where Fuelly calculates the data, then I use the GPS miles with the actual fuel added to get the other MPG number.

Notes: I use a small stand along GPS to double check speed (MPH), miles driven, along with a few other data points. Generally speaking I always fuel to the point I see fuel at the cap. This is the best way for me to be sure I fuel up the "same way" every time.
Gallons Used by the dash along with the Miles Driven to tend to always be off from my other data points. Why?? I suspect Ford's math tends to be a tad off based on the tire size that can vary by brand. My MPH displayed is always on point with the GPS within 1 MPH of those stupid flashing YOUR SPEED signs.
So my tire size choices aren't creating any significant difference to the data other than what's on the dash display. My GPS tends to always be spot on, so I just collect both data items to share along with the fuel used data. Why there's like a 3% difference in Miles Driven between the dash and GPS I really can't say other than Ford's algorithm is just to broad to help makeup for aftermarket tires.

 

Just got back from my trip to UCLA (ugly corner of lower Alabama). The trip total was 433 miles and the truck reported closer to what I’m used to seeing which is 19.2 mpg but after filling up and doing the math, I got an actual of 18.9. Not sure if I had a headwind heading to Alabama or what but I’ll be going back at the end of October… so that will be the tell tale.

19 mpg isn’t bad for a 9000 lb truck lifted on 35” tires. If only I could get 19 mpg while towing my 5er that would be GREAT.

 

Well, towing season is over for me so when I can find some ill join the experiment. Went to Advance Auto today (had $40 in Speed Perks) but they were out. They were also out of all but 3 grease types! WTF?!? Grease is in short supply?!?
Anyway. Will be on the lookout for some.