Fuel Boosters; Fact or Myth- A Test. Part 1

From drugs that cure HIV and malaria with just a single dosage to miracle procedures that can either elongate, reduce or even increase certain human body proportions, the history of mankind have been dotted with different offers and counter-offers by people willing to sell to other people willing to buy.

Due to a thread that was opened recently on a car forum in Nigeria as regards a particular fuel treatment product that was introduced, we have decided to conduct an independent test on the efficacy of the said product.

TEST VEHICLE

We have decided to use our Volkswagen Beetle for the test. The beetle is the best to use for the test based on the following:

• the beetle does not have a knock sensor to retard anything due to a lower octane level (assumed) of the control.


• the beetle has only one fuel line going to the carburetor. There is no return line. This implies that fuel input into the vehicle is simpler and can be monitored accurately.

CLAIM SUMMARY
The product under review claims to do 5 things:

Improve Performance and Horsepower. It claims to do this by burning more of the available BTU in the fuel. This claim cannot be tested by us.

Increase Fuel Mileage. It claims to reduce fuel consumption and increase MPG by at least 10%.
This implies that by using this product, you can extend the duration of fuel burn with the same fuel quantity. This is the claim we would be testing.

Reduce harmful emissions and pollutants. It claims to reduce carbon residue by 59% to 90%.
This is a huge claim and unfortunately cannot be tested by our team. We would have loved to be able to test this claim and we can still do that in future with available equipment.

Prolongs engine life and reduces wear. The product claims to lubricate the engine and thereby reduces wear.
This claim is huge. Except the product lubricates only the fuel system components, it cannot lubricate the whole engine. We cannot test this too at the moment.

Prolongs the life of stored fuel. It claims to allow the storage of fuel perpetually. This implies that it prevents fuel from going bad ( yes, petrol goes bad after long storage).
We could test this claim by storing a bottle mixed with this product for one year, however, it still remains a huge claim that needs to be investigated.

OUR TEST
We intend to test the claim that the product increases MPG by 10%.

MPG stands for 'Miles Per Gallon' and is a universal way of determining how much fuel your car burns over a certain distance. For example, a 20 MPG means that your car consumes one gallon of fuel to cover a distance of 20 miles. A car with 21 MPG is better at fuel management than a car with 20 MPG.

There are many variables that affect MPG.

Driving style, traffic, weather, engine condition, road structure etc.

In order to get a result as fair as possible, we would be eliminating a whole lot of the variables to get a constant condition-set for the test.

The rest would not involve any driving.

We would idle the warmed up vehicle using a fixed quantity of fuel.

There would be two tests.

Test 1 would involve idling the car by using a fixed quantity of standard fuel. The duration it takes to idle would be measured and recorded.

Test 2 would involve idling the same car by using a mixture of fuel and the treatment. The duration it takes to idle would also be measured and recorded.

The results of both tests would be compared.

We shall modify the fuel input system to run from a bottle instead of from the tank. This would enable us get as accurate a result as possible.

Safety factors would also be taken into cognizance.

The test is going to be as independent as possible with no bias for or against the product.

Grab your pop corn and watch this blog for more details

To head straight to the results, Click Here