Your Engine May Be Paying the Price for the Cheap Gas You’ve Been Binging

Gas has been expensive of late. Have you been tempted to stray away from Top Tier fuels in favor of a warehouse brand’s pricing at dimes- or quarters-per-gallon cheaper? Maybe with supplies normalizing and prices falling, it’s time to reconsider splurging on the good stuff. Chevron/Texaco has sweetened both the detergent chemistry and the deal during this America 250 summer, in hopes of luring you back.

Techron Reformulation

Chevron may not have started the whole deposits-cleaning schtick, but it was certainly among the first to commercialize it for fuel injection systems with its bottled fuel additive in 1981. It then incorporated a version of its Techron additive package into its mainstream fuels in 1995. Since then, Chevron claims to have continually refined the chemistry to keep pace with evolving engines and fuels.

This summer it rolled out its first major publicly promoted reformulation in years, meant to address the unique challenges of cleaning gasoline direct-injection nozzles. (Port injectors might be open for milliseconds at a time bathing the valves, but GDI injector tips see fuel only during extremely brief injection events, making a detergent’s job far more challenging.)

Although no fuel supplier ever spills the beans about what exactly it has changed, MotorTrend managed to get Chevron Ph.D. “optimization manager” David Vuilleumier to say its chemists had managed to engineer new, smaller detergent molecules that are better equipped to interact with deposits forming on direct-injection nozzles during the split millisecond they’re being injected under vastly higher pressure (even small deposits here can disrupt the intricate spray pattern). The new package is also said to be optimized for cleaning both high-temperature direct-injection zones and lower-temperature port fuel injection areas like intake valves.

Efficiency/Performance Benefit

Vuilleumier’s testing team says it’s able to see real-time changes in the long-term fuel trim and spark-timing optimization in an engine as deposits disappear. No, you won’t measure seconds shaved off your car’s zero-to-60 dash, nor will you suddenly earn several more miles per gallon, but it might start up more quickly. Chevron claims “No other gasoline gets better mileage than Chevron with Techron or Texaco with Techron. It’s proven.” (Note there’s no implied guarantee there.) Bonus: The new additive goes in every grade of Chevron/Texaco fuel, not just the priciest stuff.

Sweet America-250 Deal

Chevron is incentivizing you to clean up the gunk that’s built up over a spring spent filling up on the cheap stuff: Now through July 5, existing Chevron Rewards members can earn 2,500 points towards rewards on fuel when they fill up with at least 8 gallons of Chevron with Techron. Limit of one 2,500-point bonus per member. And those who sign up between now and September 30 can save $1 off per gallon for up to five fill-ups (20-gallon max—no running the whole family fleet through before clicking off the pump). Five full tanks should expunge the grunge from any engine that’s been slumming it for months (or years).

No Chevron/Texaco Nearby?

You can still buy the bottled additive, though Chevron hasn't announced any comparable reformulation. We still recommend filling any car you care about and plan to own past the warranty expiration with Top Tier fuels only. It’s exceedingly unlikely that the detergent difference between Chevron with Techron, Shell Nitrogen Enriched, Exxon/Mobil Synergy, and BP/Amoco Invigorate will ever be quantified definitively by an authoritative third party, but it’s entirely likely that AAA’s 2016 finding holds true today: Fuels that do NOT comply with Top Tier standards produced 19 times more intake-valve and injector deposits after 4,000 miles of standardized engine testing. Ew. Clean that up!