I've had the worst possible thing happen to me computer-wise. A complete meltdown of my hard drive effectively losing every photo I've ever taken and collected. Almost 1Tb worth of photos. And that's not including my
porn you dirty sods, those are kept in a
safer location.
Anyway, as a result of my catastrophic hard disc crash, I have to rely on photos that were taken during a product demo which I personally witnessed, so no hanky panky in the results. The products in question? Bluechems' 'Powermaxxx' range of products. Specifically the 'fuel system cleaner', I wasn't really interested in the other products mainly because it didn't really apply to me in most cases, ie-Diesel cleaners, additives, etc.
This is quite an interesting product. I know for a fact that our fuel systems aren't perfect and are prone to contamination. Biological contaminants and moisture mostly (ie-water) with a side of nasty sulfuric acid. Debris too can be found in petrol tanks, not necessarily your fuel tanks but the petrol station storage tanks - but this
usually isn't a problem since stations are required to replace their tanks every 10 years. "Required" meaning it's a company policy, not a government policy so this sometimes is subjective as well to company enforcement. It's not a cheap thing to replace so I wouldn't be surprised to see 15 year old tanks still in use.
Anyway, where'd the water come from you ask?
Humidity mostly. There is chances of water being introduced into the petrol during the refining stages but I would say that it's more likely humidity than the refining process.
And with water, biological contaminants such as algae will never be far behind. Sulphur is also part of the petrol formula and although the amounts is extremely low in modern fuel blends, the fact that it's there means there is a chance it will vaporize especially in the presence of water resulting in Sulphuric acid being formed. Most of this nasty stuff is burnt off due to the extreme levels of heat from combustion but it still might get re-introduced to the fuel system through the fuel lines and that pretty much shortens the lifespan of seals, metal and rubber components.
In this test demo, 2 tubes of petrol were mixed with water. As you can see in the pictures, the two don't mix with the water sinking to the bottom.
Pour in a corresponding mixture of the fuel cleaner into the water-petrol mixture. Btw, the bottle recommends one bottle per 50L of petrol (approximately) so since I usually pump in about 30L of petrol per fill, it's ok to empty the whole bottle into your fuel tank regardless. Better 'emulsification of the mixture' apparently, so I was told.
A little swirling and hey presto! The whole mixture turned into
rose bandung. Great! But what does this translate to when burnt in your combustion chamber? There wasn't a photo but this mixture still does burn when lit. On real life tests though, it translated into bad fuel consumption.
Very bad consumption! In my case the result was consistent on both my stock standard Myvi and my own personal test bed Wira - bad fuel consumption. But FC went
back to normal after that particular mixed tank was emptied and refilled with just pure petrol. It's worth mentioning that I didn't lose any power during the bad fuel consumption results. Acceleration and response was pretty much the same, just the FC went from 13~15km/L to 8~10km/L.
The mixture stayed emulsified even after leaving it alone for a while, meaning the water and petrol and all were mixed up and will be burnt together. Good thing!
Next up, the 2nd tube of petrol was mixed with sulphuric acid. Might be worth noticing it looked kinda contaminated, can anyone help confirm that sulphuric acid is supposed to look like that out from the bottle?
Again, the petrol and the sulphuric acid doesn't mix. Swirl is gently a bit and you get this ghastly black mixture which leaves a trail of gunk. Not sure what the right chemical term is for this gunk but it was pretty thick and nasty!
Even after dumping the mixture the gunk stuck to the test tube! Is this varnish? The sticky golden coloured stuff you find coated all over your engine internals? Perhaps. Not sure though.
You know how adverts claim their petrols are able to clean your engine and all? This was what the test tube looked like even after
vigorous shaking. Clean my a$$.
For the record, I was told that this test was done with several different fuels except Vpower racing. No idea why not, but I suspect it has something to do with the extremely expensive additives that are pretty damn good at cleaning your engine internals. But considering how expensive Vpower Racing is, you'd be tempted if I told you this cleaner was cheaper overall yes?
As you can see the 'varnish' slides right off upon applying the fuel cleaner. Almost no residue was seen after a few swirls of the test tube.
Pretty impressive cleaner. At this point I asked about what it would do to the fuel system and I was assured it's completely harmless to seals and metal parts. Also, most (if not all) Bluechem products are TUV certified. Amongst all the certifications you can get, the German obsession with perfection means TUV is pretty stringent and to pass you have to send your product to TUV Germany for testing on
their grounds with
their machines and on
their terms. If you pass their testing, it's pretty safe to say the product won't explode in your face or cause your car to burst into flames, or something extravagantly nasty.
Just to prove a point, the earlier
syrup bandung water-petrol mix was poured into a freshly 'stained' test petrol-sulphuric acid tube mixture. A couple of swirls later the whole test tube cleaned itself out and the mixture emulsified into a darker recipe of
syrup bandung.
Pretty impressive!
What does this mean in the long run? Lesser maintenance for the fuel system and a cleaner fuel tank. That basically means cost savings in terms of the fuel system maintenance and the reassurance of knowing your car is not going to burn to a crisp because of a leaking fuel line (
a certain Lamborghini comes to mind) helps too.
Who do you call? Not me! I'm not a sales rep of any sort so contact John the sales rep directly at
017-8465666 if you're interested to know more.
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Product testing : Blue Chem fuel system clean 
phantomile
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