The WTF Reports with Dave vonKleist, July 25, 2024

Hello Dave, love your show, but I must warn you about fuel “pills”. They have been around for a long time, and are always a scam. So in the interest of your listeners and your credibility, be careful hawking mpg increasing pills – which invariably hit the market when fuel prices spike.

The reason is modern engines are already operating at peak efficiency. First, most mfg are having trouble keeping up with increasing fuel economy standards, so they have in their vested interest to build engines that use as much of the heat value of the fuel, with the least pollution, to operate engines with peak thermal efficiency.

This is confirmed by measuring the combusted exhaust molecules. Today’s engines have virtually no unburned fuel coming out the tailpipe, even a slight amount would make the catalytic converter glow red hot.

Since the advent of computer controlled fuel injection, the burning of fuel in an engine is done with near perfect efficiency. I highly recommend a OBD2 plug in device you can mount on your dash which will tell you everything going on with your engine, like Scan Gauge 3.

If you want good fuel economy the way to get it is with a modern hybrid, or if a straight ICE engine using hypermiling techniques.

The best way to improve mpg is by running the tires as max psi, to cut rolling resistance.

The next best thing is to drive slower to cut air drag.

Next, fuel injection cleaner once a year. Nothing in a fuel pill can possibly increase the tank’s fuel thermal potential, and in fact some fuel pills have harmful components like salt or rust.

If you want the best possible fuel economy buy a light weight car with a small engine, and manual transmission. I’ve owned 9 Geo Metros, routinely got over 50 mpg, two of them I got 63 mpg. Geo’s are now to old to own, and the only car that approxiamates it’s performance for light weight, small engine, and high mpg is the new Mitsubishi Mirage. Unfortunalely a Mitsubishi does not have the quality like a Honda Civic, which now weighs 800 lbs or more than the ones made back in the 1980s.

Cheers