This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias #CBias #engineluv but all pictures and opinions are my own.
Today’s guest is someone who is very near and dear to my heart…my husband, Brian! This is his very first blog post and my “unbiased” opinion is that he did an outstanding job! In the picture above, I was engaged to Brian and we were about to head outside (wearing some stylin, borrowed snowmobile suits) so Brian could show me how to change the oil in my car…per my request. So, you see…us ladies can do some vehicle maintenance and Brian is going to show us how easy it is to add a motor treatment product to a vehicle to get better gas mileage!
Hi…I’m Brian, husband of the beautiful and talented Tonia of TheGunnySack.com. I recently performed some maintenance on my 2004 Saturn ION. My car was due for an oil change and I had been wanting to find a product to clean my fuel injectors and related engine components. As it happened, an opportunity came along to try out a product called STP Multipurpose Motor Treatment. Since I had to perform an oil change anyway… I thought it would be a great time to treat my fuel system as well.
I gathered the supplies I needed for the job at hand and placed them on a rolling cart for easy access. You can check out my shopping trip for supplies here.
- STP Multipurpose Motor Treatment
- Funnel
- Wrench for Oil Plug
- Oil
- Oil Filter
- Gloves
- 8 fl oz. water bottle
The first step to using any product like this is to read the instructions. I know, I know… Who reads instructions right? What kind of MAN reads instructions? Just take the bottle and dump it in the gas tank right? What could be more simple than that? Well, you may be able to get away with that without consequence, However, I like to proceed with a little more caution when it comes to something as expensive and complicated as an engine! Call me crazy!
Since I am looking to clean my fuel system and hopefully, improve my fuel economy… I read the information for adding the product to my fuel tank. The most critical item listed is the “Treat rate”. Here the treat rate is listed as 3/4 OZ. per gallon of fuel. My car has a 13.2 gallon fuel tank. I multiplied 13.2 by .75 to find the correct number of fluid ounces I needed to add to my fuel tank. In this case I needed 9.9 ounces of the STP Multipurpose Motor Treatment to treat my fuel system.
The bottle of STP MultiPurpose Motor Treatment holds 16 fluid ounces of product. I only wanted to add roughly 10 of those ounces to my tank! I didn’t have a clear container with fluid ounces marked on it for measuring out 10oz. of product… So, I improvised using an 8oz. plastic water bottle. First I filled the bottle completely and added 8oz. of product to my tank.
Next, I measured the bottle and placed a mark at a one-quarter of its capacity. I filled the bottle to my mark and added the balance of the product to my fuel tank.
After I added the STP Multipurpose Motor Treatment to my tank, I got on with that oil change I needed to do.
All in all, it took me about an hour to do this work to my vehicle. The STP Multipurpose Motor Treatment was easy to use, however, buyers of the product would benefit from a bottle that had the fluid ounces marked out on it. This would speed up (considerably) the process of adding the correct amount of product to your tank. I am glad I tried the product out. After a couple of days of driving, the car does seem to be a bit more responsive and is running great! It will take a couple of tanks of gas to see if my fuel economy improves at all… for now, I will remain optimistic that it will!
April Decheine says
Great post, totally informative!!
Anne @ Domesblissity says
Hi Brian! Nice to meet you. Great post. You two sound so perfect together. You’re both so organised. I love the photo of you two together. I’ll be passing this info onto my husband.Anne xx