Does Gumout with PEA Improve your Truck's Miles Per Gallon with DE Nichols

I've tried a lot of fuel additives to improve my miles per gallon. They usually don't do much, and the one time a fuel system cleaner made a huge difference for me in 1998, the results were kind of terrifying. Maybe that's why they're subtle and gentle? They're avoiding lawsuits?

Scotty Kilmer did a big push on Gumout with PEA years ago and as soon as the ad campaign started I couldn't find one Gumout product that was on the shelf which was available with PEA. Either he sold it out, or Gumout made an advertisement push, then dropped the only chemical proven by scientific journals to actually clean up engines. At least according to Engineering Explained, PEA or polyetheramine is the only chemical which has peer reviewed journals proving that PEA can do for an engine. I think most of us know and can agree that Engineering Explained is a reliable part of this community and a solid source of information.

Well, Gumout in the last few years has had PEA back and when an AutoZoner pointed out what was on sale, I figured why not. I'll make a YouTube video and it's good to run a cleaner as a part of maintenance every once and a while.

And thus this video was born. I really didn't get a MPG boost during the test but you could say that since TCW3 gives me approximately 2 more miles per gallon, not losing 2 miles per gallon by skipping it may have meant that Gumout's Regane actually worked.

My truck's miles per gallon is steadier than you can expect. It's amazingly consistent. My larger tires cost me a couple MPG's, but really, with every turn I'm going farther so my engine is just going less miles per the actual distance. I truly suspect that my gas mileage has remained unchanged. When I first got the truck I did a few modifications, which helped it's gas mileage and it's been the same ever since. I'm happy to say that this winter didn't knock my miles per gallon down 2 points like it normally does so I do suppose I do have some deviation.

Note: Scotty Kilmer did his test on the Gumout Complete Fuel System Cleaner. It must have been a product that Gumout immediately ran out of or changed their labeling to stay fresh on the shelf. I've noticed they switch up what they lookout and their products contents sometimes twice in 6 months. The Regane has been more consistent so this review may have a bit more longevity against what's currently available on the shelf.


Safety message:
Due to factors beyond the control of DE Nichols/AutoBravado, no information contained in this video shall create any express or implied warranty or guarantee of any particular result. Any injury, damage or loss that may result from improper use of these tools, equipment, or the information contained in this video is the sole responsibility of the user and not DE Nichols/AutoBravado.

Gumout Works? It didn't seem to work before.

My last video about Gumout Regane with PEA made it look like it had no effect, but there are a lot of variables which weren't considered. Still, if you want to know the history behind this article better watch this:

I think Gumout's Regane Complete Fuel System Cleaner did restore gas mileage which I used to enjoy years ago. Disagree? Be sure to let me know in the comments below. I love to here your comments. A lot of what I was thinking about shooting but I apparently hadn't for the last video came out of you guys as well. Seems like we've got a lot of similar thinking, which suggests to me that we're all wrong about the results or we're all right about understanding the results together.

I wouldn't use Gumout Regane with PEA or polyetheramine on a brand new car. While peer reviewed journals have proven that PEA does clean engines, also evident in those engine tear downs and measuring of where carbon was that PEA DIRTIES perfectly clean engines. It'll help maintain and clean an engine with a little bit of gunk in it, but if the engine is perfectly clean it'll dirty it a little to start! I know it sounds bizarre, but it's true.

So this is part 2 of "Does Gumout Regane with PEA improve MPG's". Part 1's link is above. I think that it did help with the gas mileage. The miles per gallon was maintained despite letting go of the use of TCW-3. If I run nothing, my Nissan Frontier automatically goes down to 14 miles per gallon, but I've maintained 16 miles per gallon with first Lucas Upper Cylinder Lubricant for a couple years. This was back before I ran the TCW-3 for the last 2 years to maintain the 16 miles per gallon.

I know in the last couple of tanks of gas, I "contaminated" the results a bit with lining up my front left tire a little, but it wasn't until then that my gas mileage starting going more above 17 miles per gallon.

Again, with just normal low octane gas, I get 14 miles per gallon. I had thought that I had not gained any gas mileage with the Regane, but I maintained 2 more miles per gallon with the Regane, so therefore it can maintain an improvement. In addition to that, the truck's miles per gallon did go up after the first tank.

See the associated video with this article:


Safety message:
Due to factors beyond the control of DE Nichols/AutoBravado, no information contained in this video shall create any express or implied warranty or guarantee of any particular result. Any injury, damage or loss that may result from improper use of these tools, equipment, or the information contained in this video is the sole responsibility of the user and not DE Nichols/AutoBravado.

What are the Long Term Effects of Gumout on your Miles Per Gallon?

Long term Gumout ongoing effects

What does Gumout do after the initial tank of gas?

My last video about Gumout Regane with PEA made it look like it had no effect, but there are a lot of variables which weren't considered. Still, if you want to know the history behind this article better watch this:



I think Gumout's Regane Complete Fuel System Cleaner did restore gas mileage which I used to enjoy years ago. Disagree? Be sure to let me know in the comments below. I love to here you guys's comments (and gals). A lot of what I was thinking about shooting but I apparently hadn't for the last video came out of you guys as well. Seems like we've got a lot of similar thinking, which suggests to me that we're all wrong about the results or we're all right about understanding the results together.

I wouldn't use Gumout Regane with PEA or polyetharmine on a brand new car. While peer reviewed journals have proven that PEA does clean engines, also evident in those engine teardowns and measuring of where was that PEA DIRTIES perfectly clean engines. It'll help maintain and clean an engine with a little bit of gunk in it, but if the engine is perfectly clean it'll dirty it a little to start! I know it sounds bizarre, but it's true.

So this is part 2 of "Does Gumout Regane with PEA improve MPG's". Part 1's link is above. I think that it did help with the gas mileage. The miles per gallon were maintained despite letting go of the use of TCW-3. If I run nothing, I automatically go down to 14 miles per gallon, but I've maintained 16 miles per gallon with first Lucas Upper Cylinder Lubricant for a couple years. This was back before I ran the TCW-3 for the last 2 years to maintain the 16 miles per gallon.

I know in the last couple of tanks of gas, I "contaminated" the results a bit with lining up my front left tire a litte, but it wasn't until then that my gas mileage starting going more above 17 miles per gallon.

Again, with just normal low octane gas, I get 14 miles per gallon. I had thought that I had not gained any gas mileage with the Regane, but I maintained 2 more miles per gallon with the Regane, so therefore it can maintain an improvement. In addition to that, the mpg's did go up after the first tank.

New fuel pump and a fuel sending unit, The Lean or Tip Truck Bed Method

It is KILLING me that a new fuel sending unit has improved my gas mileage so much. I haven't seen 19 MPG on the freeway all year. It was even windy. before when it was windy, I only got 14-15 MPG unless I drove like 55 MPH to get up to 16 to 17 miles per gallon (always good for gas mileage on at least my 2004 Nissan Frontier).

Let me explain. The fuel sending unit on this truck also has a fuel temperature sensor. Without this information, the truck had the following DTC's (diagnostic trouble codes):
Codes that apply to this issue:
P0183: Fuel Temperature Sensor A Circuit High Input (fuel temperature sensor was missing as it was damaged while installing the new fuel pump last year)
P0463: Fuel Level Sensor Circuit High Input
P0328: Knock Sensor 1 Circuit High Input (Bank 1 or Single Sensor) (similar effect, poorer gas mileage because the truck may run less timing advance or spark advanced as this model of truck doesn't have valve timing)

The shocking add-ons to my DTC's recently that'd cost me approximately $620 is devastating. I need an engine for my Chevy Prizm (see Did I Hydrolock My Engine?), not catalytic converters for my Nissan Frontier!
P0420 Catalytic converter inefficiency code for bank 1
P0430 Catalytic converter inefficiency code for bank 2
Check out my diagnosis and understanding article on this topic:
P0420/P0430 Catalytic converter below efficiency 

Personal story of almost killing myself a year ago:
(BE SAFE!)
I got stuck under my truck once when I tried adjusting how the truck bed was lifted up by myself. I didn't have the strength to get out from under the bed, but I had to use strength continually to keep from getting crushed as well.

As I kept trying to get leverage to get an old fence post back up and under it I let myself get crushed for a few seconds, feeling my life risking, slipping away, I exploded, using the nearly planned on fear to get the truck bed up and get that board back underneath it!

Don't let the apparent ease in the video of the leaning truck bed tilt bed method fool you. It, like any other raising of a vehicle is DANGEROUS.

This is the truck bed's, tilt or lean method for getting to fuel pumps part 1, and surprisingly, more importantly for my truck's miles per gallon, the fuel temperature sensor.

Spoiler alert for part 2!
With this fault gone, the truck is willing the create LTFT, or long term fuel trims. This is a permanent fuel adjustment for more or less fuel to get the O2 sensor behaving right, which is how much it's adjusted versus what the truck thought it needed to satisfy the O2 sensors, but then it needed to adjust a bit.

As vehicles age or break down, these LTFT's can change a lot and seeing their patterns, they can help find a diagnostic direction.

 STFT, or short term fuel trims, are adjustments that are changes on top of the LTFT. They can be additive or take away whatever change the LTFT commanded. STFT are exactly as they sound, they're temporary adjustments, when a certain level of them is needed enough times, LTFT's come in to set a baseline so that STFT can do it's job, which is to make the O2 sensors switch across lean and reach, which helps the catalytic converters last the longest possible, keeping the engine in a range that is safer for all of us. It's our world. Let's take care of it.

Something I've learned since the part 2 video is that my Nissan Frontier has flipped it's roles on it's miles per gallon to something for normal. I was getting freeway MPG in the city and city MPG on the freeway and they've flopped back.

So it'll save me more on trips and less the rest of the time. Oh well, my longer trips cover far more miles than my little city uses in gas.

by AutoBravado

New Distributor Cap for a 2004 Nissan Frontier 3.3 V6

As a matter of course in maintenance, we should replace, distributor caps and rotors, spark plugs, and spark plug wires right? In this article, we'll discuss this and the effect it had on my Nissan Frontier's timing advance.

Distributor Cap

Taking a look at my old distributor cap, the contacts were worn. Instead of them facing flat to the rotor, they had worn away and become angled. This is a good sign that I was correct  to replace the distributor cap. I normally would replace the distributor rotor at the same time, but I'm still waiting for it to arrive. Summit Racing's website has good prices and 1 product I've ordered there came quickly out of a few, but other parts were projected to not arrive for over a month, so I bought it at
AutopartsWarehouse. Cost more, but I couldn't wait when I could hear my engine missing.

Spark plug wires. 

Normally, on a vehicle of this age, spark plug wires probably should have been replaced a few times, but the stock spark plug wires have endured incredibly well. Checking the ohms of resistance, they're still better quality than spark plug wires available new on the shelf (at aftermarket parts stores).

I have put new platinum spark plugs, as per recommended by Nissan in the 2004 owners manual. I've run them through about a year of driving and while they have needed some regapping to be running just right, they still don't look worn...good for the spark plug and the condition of my engine, bad as I don't want to waste them and I've been dying to try out some iridium spark plugs for months, lol (They're on my shelf just waiting for me! They were on sale, that almost never happens.).

Timing Advance.

Timing advance has a modern technique to it in current designs. Cars adjust their timing advance continually based on load and RPM. Generally the faster the engine is spinning, the more timing advance you need. Meaning, the spark will be initiated before top dead center or BTDC. The flame front takes time to fully combust the fuel, so at higher RPM more timing advance was needed.

I observed through my torque app that timing advance went up to 28 degrees when I let off the gas completely or went into neutral. It'd come down to 10 to 16 degrees of timing advance when under load or acceleration.

I believe the truck was compensating for the worn distributor cap. Now it behaves normally when accelerating by going up instead of being decreased. I believe the additional gap from the worn points in the distributor gap was making the flame front be late due to raised resistance. So the PCM has a program to compensate.

Truck Miles per gallon.

Now that this has changed, my truck's miles per gallon when cruising seems to be a lot better. I won't report back until I've used a couple gas tanks of gasoline to be sure versus just the belief of improved miles per gallon that has been estimated by my Torque App.

by AutoBravado