Best Fuel Additives for Gasoline and Diesel Vehicles

Fuel additives for gasoline and diesel vehicles are some of the top products you can use to improve your vehicle’s performance. They provide multiple advantages to an engine, cleaning contaminants and safeguarding the car or truck from future threats. Maximizing your fuel additives requires knowing how often to use them and being aware of why they’re so effective.

Learn more about what fuel additives do and the benefits of using them to help you better protect your investment. You might also be interested in finding out more about the main types of fuel additives and when you should use them.

Top Fuel Additives for Gasoline and Diesel Vehicles

At Hot Shot’s Secret, we carry several fuel additives designed to serve varying purposes. To help you get an idea about what fuel additives are, check out some of the best real-world examples of fuel additives on the market today.

• – Diesel Extreme: When you need a fully formulated cleaner designed to remove harmful internal and external diesel injector deposits, like polymeric and waxy deposits, Diesel Extreme is an excellent choice. This top-tier diesel fuel additive combines a cetane booster, fuel stabilizer and a water demulsifier additive to ensure your fuel system is totally clean and operates at maximum performance.
• – Everyday Diesel Treatment: The Everyday Diesel Treatment is a fuel additive drivers can use at every fill-up to upgrade their maintenance and fuel economy. It contains a cetane improver designed to improve your engine’s performance and power. Additionally, this product boosts your fuel’s lubricity and keeps your engine running clean.
• – Diesel Winter Anti-Gel: Winter puts more stress on your engine’s fuel, and Diesel Winter Anti-Gel ensures your engine weathers the cold well. People can use this product at every fill-up, helping improve cold starts, prevent icing and gelling and reduce fuel line freeze. 
• – Diesel Winter Rescue: Another top-tier winter fuel additive is Diesel Winter Rescue. You can use this fuel de-icer additive in an emergency to de-ice fuel filters and re-liquefy gelled fuel. By using this product, you can restore your engine’s power and flow. 
• – LX4 Lubricity Extreme: The LX4 Lubricity Extreme is a premium ultra-low sulfur diesel and gas fuel lubricity additive. We crafted this fuel additive to improve your fuel’s lubricity, helping prevent scarring and wear on your fuel system’s essential components. Even when your fuel is extremely low quality, this product can restore the fuel to meet, and even exceed, OEM requirements.
• – Gasoline Extreme: Our Gasoline Extreme is a powerful injector cleaner compatible with gasoline engines. You can use this product to remove deposits in your intake valve and combustion chamber. It also lubricates a fuel system’s crucial components, improving an engine’s performance, power and economy. 

What Are Fuel Additives? 

Now that you know about some of the top fuel additives on the market today, you might want to understand more about what these products are. The first thing to learn is that the primary types of fuel additives fall into two main categories: fuel stabilizers and fuel performance enhancers. 

Manufacturers design fuel stabilizers to maintain a vehicle’s fuel condition during long-term storage when someone doesn’t plan to drive it. The more common types of fuel additives are fuel performance enhancers. Companies design these to improve your engine’s capabilities while it’s running.

What Are the Benefits of Using Fuel Additives?

Many vehicle owners rely on fuel additives for several advantages. Since fuel additives are simple to use, almost anyone can add them on their own and reap the benefits. Some of the primary advantages include improving fuel efficiency, increasing an engine’s cleanliness and raising a vehicle’s performance.

Below are some of the top potential benefits of using fuel additives.

• – Better fuel efficiency: One primary advantage of using fuel additives is their ability to improve your engine and fuel efficiency. Fuel additives can help your engine use every drop of gas or diesel. When the fuel goes through the combustion process, fuel additives help the vehicle burn the fuel more completely and add extra power to the engine. As a result, some fuel additives can even help you increase your vehicle’s miles-per-gallon rating.
• – Cleaner engines: High-quality fuel additives can help your engine run much more cleanly. Manufacturers design these additives to prevent trace and gunk deposits in your engine, helping stop them from building up and negatively impacting your engine’s performance. Alongside eliminating harmful deposits, fuel additives can get rid of any buildup that existed before using the additive.
• – Fewer costs: Fuel additives can help you lower the overall costs of vehicle ownership. By using fuel additives, you won’t waste fuel due to partial combustion or see performance issues related to contaminants collecting in the engine. When you use more of your fuel and prevent buildup, you get more money out of your gas or diesel and reduce the chances of expensive repair costs. Fuel additives are also very affordable, making them well worth the initial expense.
• – Faster acceleration: When engines run without any fuel additives, carbon deposits and dirty plugs can lead to poor performance on the road, particularly during acceleration. The best fuel additives clean contaminants out and ensure complete combustion. These improvements help you accelerate faster and get the most out of your vehicle.
• – Smoother engine starts: Another great reason to use fuel additives is their ability to combat carbon buildups that affect how your engine starts. Fuel system cleaners can remove carbon from valves, rings and cylinders. By removing and preventing carbon buildup, your cylinder head compression will increase, leading to an engine that turns over faster when you start it up.
• – Lower emissions: When your tailpipe is pumping out more clouds than usual, your engine’s combustion chambers likely have emissions-increasing deposits in them. Fuel additives clear out carbon buildup and can help you reduce the emissions your vehicle puts out. 

Primary Types of Fuel Performance Enhancers

When you look for a fuel performance enhancer for your vehicle, you’ll encounter a few different options. Fuel system cleaners and fuel injection cleaners are the two primary types you’ll find on the market. As you decide which one is right for your vehicle, you probably want to know the differences between them before you make a purchase.

As you shop for fuel performance enhancers, take a moment to review the primary categories below.

Fuel System Cleaners

Fuel system cleaners are among the most popular additives. Companies design these cleaners for scrubbing buildup, primarily carbon, from your fuel system to improve a vehicle’s performance. Alongside removing buildup, fuel system cleaners also prevent deposits from forming. If you have a fuel-injected engine or your engine runs on ethanol, fuel system cleaners are especially effective. Since ethanol-containing gas can cause buildup in the engine’s combustion chambers, fuel injectors and intake valves, it’s crucial to clean them out. 

Fuel Injection Cleaners

Fuel injection cleaners are fuel system cleaners specifically made to remove built-up carbon on the engine’s fuel injectors. When you don’t use these cleaners, the carbon can harm your fuel economy significantly, leading to less fuel mileage. Drivers with high-performance engines featuring overhead cam setups can see considerable carbon accumulation. Additionally, cars that go on shorter trips, where the engine can’t warm up enough to clean itself, can have more buildup in them. These vehicles can benefit significantly from fuel injection cleaners.

Do Fuel Additives Work?

Some drivers are skeptical of fuel additives to the history associated with the products. In the early days, some disreputable companies and individuals sold fuel additives that were little more than snake oil. However, these days, buyers can find many reliable, trustworthy manufacturers that offer excellent fuel additives. As technology, market testing and scientific research advanced, manufacturers harnessed them to produce high-quality fuel additives well worth the money.

Besides these historical concerns, some fuel additive skeptics criticize fuel additives without giving them time to do their job. Many of these critics expect fuel additives to work immediately, providing all their benefits to their engines as soon as they use the product. The problem with this sort of thinking is that fuel additives need time to provide more noticeable advantages. 

When you first put fuel additives in your vehicle, don’t expect to notice an immediate difference. Most vehicles need to cycle through multiple tanks of treated fuel before the additives start to show significant performance improvements. The bottom line is that fuel additives work, but you need to have a little bit of patience.

How to Pick the Right Fuel Additive

As you look for a high-quality fuel additive for your engine, you’ll want to start by finding a brand you can trust. Any experienced mechanic or fuel additive expert knows that buying from a reputable brand is crucial. Like most industries, some companies put out substandard products, while others release high-quality offerings. As you seek the best brand, search for those with customer testimonials, extensive data and scientific testing.

When shopping for fuel additives, your fuel type matters. If you have a diesel engine, buy a diesel fuel additive. For a gas engine, use a gas additive. You may also want to consider the environment you’re operating in. For example, since winter is hard on engines, a diesel fuel additive designed for the winter can be one of the best choices if you drive a lot in cold weather.

You can also look for fuel additives that feature several top qualities. For example, many buyers love fuel additives that boost cetane, stabilize fuel blends, remove buildup and disperse moisture. Finding fuel additives with proof of these results can help you pick an excellent product for your needs.

When Should You Use Fuel Additives and Fuel Injector Cleaners?

Fuel additives are appropriate for all vehicles, whether they run on diesel or gas. If you’ve never used them, it’s time to start, as they can provide significant advantages to your engine. To get the most value out of your fuel additives, you need to use them at the appropriate intervals.

To help you determine how often you’ll need to use fuel additives, take stock of how often you tend to drive your car. If you usually drive short distances and infrequently run the engine, you’ll likely want to use your additives more regularly. Since brief, infrequent drives cause more deposits to build up and don’t fully warm up your engine, it’s generally wise to use your fuel additives every 3,000 miles.

The same fuel additive interval applies if you operate your vehicle in lots of stop-and-go traffic or if you drive in cold weather. When you commute in these conditions, they can cause deposits to gather on your valves and fuel injectors. If left unchecked, these deposits can make your vehicle create more pollution and lose its fuel economy and power. While 3,000 miles isn’t always necessary, using fuel additives at this interval can serve as a kind of insurance for your engine’s performance.

Drivers who tend to drive on the highway more, going for long drives and using their car more frequently, can usually go longer between fuel additive intervals. Even in these conditions, deposits can still form in your engine, and you must take steps to prevent them. Generally, using fuel additives every 5,000 miles is appropriate for more frequently used vehicles and those regularly driven on the highway.

Your fuel additive needs often change based on the brand you select. Always check the manufacturer’s recommendations for use to ensure you get the best performance out of your fuel additives. You can also find some fuel additives that you can use every time you fill up your diesel engine, such as Everyday Diesel Treatment, to improve power, performance and fuel economy. 

Why Choose Hot Shot’s Secret Fuel Additives?

Fuel additives from Hot Shot’s Secret are the gold standard in the additive industry. Part of our success comes from our expert engineering and the rigorous testing we put all our products through before offering them to the public. We also provide exceptional customer service, a money-back guarantee, and a wide selection of fuel additive options.

Check out some of the following advantages of using our fuel additives.

• – Expertly engineered: We designed our fuel additives to solve issues. When you choose our products, you can expect them to improve your vehicle’s efficiency and make your engine last longer. Our expert engineers have created a range of fuel additives to not only protect but gain maximum performance from your vehicle.
• – Various fuel additive options: We know our customers have different needs, so we offer several fuel additive products. For example, you can use our Gasoline Extreme option for standard gas engines, and you can select our Diesel Extreme product for diesel engines. We even offer products designed to improve your engine’s performance in cold temperatures, such as our Diesel Winter Anti-Gel and our Diesel Winter Rescue. With all these options, you can easily find a product for your vehicle’s needs.
• – Rigorously tested products: The secret to our products’ success is the triple-threat testing we put them through. We start by experimenting in our world-class research and development lab. Once the product meets our standard of excellence, it goes through independently run dynamometer testing to verify the quality. After a third-party inspector confirms the product’s ability, we send it to real-world testing. All these steps help us ensure our customers receive a product that outperforms other fuel additives on the market.
• – Money-back guarantee: With our rigorous testing, we’re confident in our products’ quality. That’s why we offer all our customers a money-back guarantee. If you feel like our additives don’t live up to the performance you expect or fail to solve a specific problem, we’ll give you your money back — no questions asked.
• – Customer service over profit: When you turn to us for products, you can expect to receive excellent customer service. We pride ourselves on providing services that don’t generate revenue for our company. For example, we offer features like Diagnose Your Diesel as a public service, not a profit-making device. While we’d love to sell you our fuel additives, we’re more focused on helping you diagnose engine issues and find a solution that solves your problem.

Try the Hot Shot’s Secret Family of Fuel Additives

With all the benefits of the Hot Shot’s Secret family of fuel additives, you might be interested in investing in them. Customers use our products for various applications, such as diesel and gas vehicles, marine crafts, RVs, semis, agricultural machinery and construction equipment. Since we serve so many customers, you can feel confident coming to us with any questions or needs you might have. When you’re ready to better protect your engine and improve its performance, turn to our fuel additives.

Browse our selection of fuel additives, and if you have any questions about our products, please feel free to contact us.