Ajjra

Is it OK to use Techron in DFI engines?

Macster

Have you checked with your local dealer's service department, asked one of the techs who has been trained on the new DFI engines?

The techs I've talked about gasoline for these cars not one has given me any reason to avoid gasoline with Techron. And I have not read any reports of anyone encountering any problems with Techron treated gasoline.

Chevron gasoline comes with some Techron (as does I think 76 gasoline) and both are fine gasolines. IIRC it is Chevron that Porsche uses for its CARB (California Air Resources Board) emissions certification.

There are a couple of things to consider. One is in the owners manual there is a general caution -- related to ethanol treated gasoline -- that if the engine reacts unfavorably to such a gasoline to switch to a gasoline without ethanol.

The same caution applies to gasoline treated with Techron.

(Good luck with that in some areas of the country where ethanol treated gasoline is all that is available).

Now because Chevron (and other stations) are inconveniently located and have high prices I shop at a very convenient Shell station which has thankfully lower prices than other stations in the area.

I buy V-Power premium grade gasoline. It does not have Techron but has some nitrogen treatment in the gasoline. Whatever it has both my Boxster and Turbo engines do very well on the stuff and pass their CARB emissions tests with flying colors.

Modern gasoline is high detergent gasoline, at least the premium grades.

Premium grade gasoline goes stale rather quickly so buy from a busy station to get the freshest gasoline.

Avoid if possible letting the gasoline get old in the car's gas tank.

(My sister's new Infiniti EX35 had sat for several months without being refueled and when I drove it for her the engine felt flat. After the tank got low -- the warning light came on -- I filled the tank up with Shell V-Power premium and the change in the engine's personality was remarkable. The explanation was the gas in the tank had gone stale over the months the car had sat. Oh, she had been using a top tier gasoline too.)

Except under unusual circumstances -- short trips where the injectors get hot soaked a lot, among other things -- there's no real reason to use Techron as an additive, but check with your techs. These new DFI engines might benefit from a dose of Techron every so often, but if so you do not want to overdo this.

Let your trusted Porsche techs advise you.

Sincerely,

Macster.

San Rensho

Techron is used primarily to clean valves, since a DFI injects gas directly into the combustion chamber, the gas will never get to the valves, so there would be little point in using Techron as an additive.

Macster

Techron is not AFAIK primarily used to clean valves though it certainly does that.

Techron works at several levels or better yet at different regions of the engine like fuel, intake valves, combustion chamber, exhaust valves, O2 sensors and converters.

In the fuel system, it is a fuel system cleaner.

Thus it can remove varnish build up at say the fuel level float -- though this may no longer be a mechanical assembly but an electronic level detector like the oil level sensor -- and from anywhere in the fuel lines any varnish may have collected. This varnish build up comes from long periods of no use which may see some portions of the fuel system dry up as fuel drains away.

Additionally Techron can remove deposits that collect at the fuel injector nozzle. These have very tiny holes which generate a very very fine spray of fuel and direct it to a specific area in the combustion chamber. Any deposits can interfere with this and result in subpar combustion. The deposits generally accumulate from engines that see short trips. The heat soak causes fuel to dry and leave deposits on (or just inside) the injector nozzles. Short trips fail to provide sufficient time to remove this build up and the result is the build up increases.

Of course the intake valves, the back sides especially (the cool sides), can collect deposits that can interfere with the flow of air into the chamber.

But Techron can clean the valves of these deposits.

How?

By in vapor form being in the cloud of exhaust gas that a portion of which under some operating conditions flows backwards or into the intake port and past the intake valves.

IOWs, the same mechanism that results in the intake valves acquiring a build up of deposits is also the mechanism that carries Techron to these deposit areas where the Techron can help loosen/remove these deposits.

First and foremost though one wants to try to avoid operating the engine in such a way that deposits are likely to form.

Unfortunately this is not something all owners have at the forefront of their mind when driving one of these cars, and understandably so.

Sincerely,

Macster.

BevHillsPorsche

there's no problem with Techron whether it comes from the pump at a Chevron station or in the little bottle from your auto parts store.

I don't think you're going to get anything out of using it unless it helps you sleep better at night.