Just spitballing here...considering the quality (or not) of the current fuel formulations...any opinions or experience (experimental or notational) with throwing in a bottle of Techron occasionally to keep the injectors clean?

Just wondering, as I said. I've had good luck in the past using it on a quarterly basis in past motors, but thinking that, with 90K on the clock (and about 40K on the spark plugs according to service records), I'd obviously like to keep those items, if not clean, then not requiring heavy service for a while (I just got the cat out of the shop with the front standpipe, rear cross-over, rad hoses, alternator, battery, one MAF, and their matching seals/gaskets, and 2 new key fobs programmed...started out as an oil change...funny how that happens, right?)

Flames to /dev/null, ok?

 

I've always use Wynns additives, beening a vehicle not used every day and as fuel allegedly deteriorates, it's a good idea i reckon 😉

 

Way back as a poor high school student, my father got sick of coming to rescue me every time my old 66 Rustang broke down and let me spend some of the college fund he'd been saving for me on a low-mileage, late model fox body. I had to buy my own gas tho so went wherever it was cheapest and continued to have car problems.. I kept having to rebuild the carburetor every two or three months and even replaced it at one point with a factory reman'd unit thinking maybe I was doing it wrong. No improvement. Eventually I saw a glass bowl sediment filter on the shelf at Western Auto and thought maybe I just needed better than the cheap little in-line filters that I'd been using. I mounted it on the firewall and began to monitor what it collected. I was shocked at all the brown goo I was cleaning out of it every two weeks. By this time, I was in college and started getting credit card applications in the mail. I decided to fill out one for Exxon because there were stations along my route. It was more expensive, but I thought I was somebody with a credit card in my name and so I started buying gas at Exxon (signing for my gas and getting those thin paper imprints - remember those?).

What I was not expecting was that I never had to dump any crud out of that sediment bowl filter again and I never had to touch the carburetor ever again. I drove that car all through college and then three more years, finally selling it at a 102K miles. Some years later I learned why the switch to Exxon made such a difference. I bought a used boat that had been sitting for three years and took it to a marina to be recommissioned. The mechanic cleaned the fuel tank, replaced hoses and rebuilt the carbs. When I picked it up, he advised me: 1) A full 16 gallon tank would last me all season so only put 10 gallons in it and replace what I used a couple gallons at a time on each trip to the lake to keep the fuel fresh. and 2) Not to buy gas at the marina, but to stop only at Top Tier fuel stations like Exxon or Chevron. The detergent additives extend the shelf life of the fuel by many months. He seemed to believe that Techron was as effective as adding Stabil. He explained there was more to it than just the detergent additives, tho. For one thing, some fuel brands like Texaco were mainly just credit card systems, but let the convenience store owner buy gas from any supplier they pleased. You had to look for a little sticker on the pump to know if you were actually getting the Top Tier gas or not. For another thing, and probably the biggest, most of the crud gets into the tanks at the station itself. The gas is usually fine when its delivered to the station, but the underground tanks and systems at some of these places are old and poorly maintained. A heavy rain will come and then water and other crud will get into the underground storage tanks. He said that the Top Tier brands had stringent maintenance requirements for their station operators too or they'd lose their franchise. I'd never paid much attention, but after he said that, it struck me that the Exxon station near my parents home had dug up their tanks and replaced them a whole bunch of times over the 30 years I'd been buying there, probably every three to five years. I don't see tanks being dug up there in a long time now, but maybe they've just improved the design so it isn't needed as often anymore.

I've never had any problem with the outboard motor and have been following that same advise with my cars as well, buying only Top Tier fuels and not letting it get very old (on my classic cars, I don't fill the tanks all the way but do the same as with the boat to keep it fresh). Modern,fuel-injected cars aren't as finicky as older carburetted cars, but still, I haven't had any dirty fuel related problems since getting an Exxon card back in the 80s. Adding detergent once in a while is good, but I think with just buying the Top Tier fuel with the detergents already included seems to have more benefit than just bottled additives.

The premium price for Top Tier over no-name brand doesn't so much bother me. What bothers me is how the three octane choices used to be only 10 or 15 cents more for each step grade, but now the 93 is a $1 more a gallon than 87. Just about everything I own specifies 91+ and my choices locally are 87, 89 and 93. I'm not even aware of a car that specifies 89+. Don't know why its even offered. They're going to bleed us dry one way or another, but I figure the little extra is worth it to avoid DI and HPFP repairs.