Dipetane-Possibly good stuff.

[Samro]

Earlier this week I caught one of my work colleagues adding a fuel additive called Dipetane to his 2020 Nissan Navara's fuel.

I was surprised as he is a proper engineer and not someone to throw money away in "snake oil".

His Nissan Navara doesn't get enough long runs and has given its share of hassle with the issues you'd expect with a modern generation Euro6 engine.

He reckoned that his engine was now performing loads less regens since he's being using Dipetane over the last 3 months or so. He also uses the stuff in his old gas oil fuelled boiler and he reckoned it is no longer as smokey and needs less maintenance from problems associated with excess coke.

So, I thought I'd give it a try and bought some from Amazon (Amazon.co.uk) and chucked in the recommended quantity when I filled up.



Obviously too early to say if it does anything for my T6.1, but this afternoon I had my Wallas heater on and I noticed that it was stinking. (It is usually a bit smokey and generally smelly on start up, but this was a new level of stinking!) So I turned up the thermostat to max and left it whilst I took the dog for a 3 hour walk to give it an opportunity to burn off any muck.

When I got back, the exhaust was no longer stinking. I believe that the Wallas heater had a fair bit of a decoke due to the fuel additive.

I turned the heater on again once it has cooled (to make sure it fired up without the stench that I experienced earlier) and it fired up quicker than normal and didn't generate its normal exhaust stench which it has done for the last 3 months.

Time will tell if I stick with using the stuff, but I think that in the long term this may be a new thing that I consider to be with faffing with.

 

[Bav]

Mixed reviews on Amazon - seems to get the best results with high mileage vehicles fed on non-premium fuel.

 

[DXX]

From what I’ve seen most of the fuel additives active ingredient is good old ethanol, may as well give the van a double shot of cooking vodka.

 

[Samro]

Mixed reviews on Amazon - seems to get the best results with high mileage vehicles fed on non-premium fuel.

I agree but we'll see how I get on. The heater thing was interesting, as my heater hasn't been right since I blocked the exhaust at the end of the summer. I cleared the restriction and it hasn't burned as clean on startup ever since. I think that this may be of more benefit to diesel heaters than anything else.

My long term trip was 28.5mpg over 1392 miles at the time of adding the stuff to the tank.




I reset my long term trip data and I shall see how things progress in that front. I'll keep my fingers crossed that my heater continues to burn cleanly and the startup is a permanent improvement.

I shall report back.

 

[Samro]

From what I’ve seen most of the fuel additives active ingredient is good old ethanol, may as well give the van a double shot of cooking vodka.

Yes. I would agree, but it's cheap enough for an experiment and seems to have done a good job on my dirty heater glow plugs.

 

[DXX]

Interesting that your Wallas may have been coked up. I have a 5 year old Wallas XC Duo that gets a lot of use, I haven’t had any issues.
There isn’t any planned maintenance but I do wind the temperature up every few months as it’s generally running at minimum setting in heater mode and about 25% when cooking.

 

[Samro]

Interesting that your Wallas may have been coked up. I have a 5 year old Wallas XC Duo that gets a lot of use, I haven’t had any issues.
There isn’t any planned maintenance but I do wind the temperature up every few months as it’s generally running at minimum setting in heater mode and about 25% when cooking.

I had a palaver where I was stupid enough to get stuck in a muddy field. I couldn't get the Wallas stay alive after this and it turned out that driving through a quagmire had resulted in sh17 loads of soft mud being thrown at the exhaust, blocking the exhaust. It then seemed that my (stupid) persistence to get the thing going, didn't do it much good. This wasn't helped by diagnosing the problem but only only initially partially unblocking the exhaust.

I think that the excess unburned fuel resulting from my persistence caused the Wallas to get a premature build-up of soot. (I've since been ramping up the temperature to burn things off, which has been helping.)

Reading about the contents of Dipetane has proved a little tricky, but I am sure that using this stuff today has helped.

 

[Paynewright]

There are threads on diesel additives in the archives. I use millers and noticed a decrease in ‘park up’ regens as soon as I added it. It also boosts the cetane rating and is far cheaper than premium diesel. Time will tell if it is the correct decision!

 

[Lubrown]

The thing I find most curious… a ‘proper engineer’ buying a Nissan Navara!

Those things can literally snap in half!
Literally.

 

[Loz]

My view is that adding anything that has to be burnt, adds to the soot build up in the EGR and DPF, so I avoid adding anything now.

 

[Samro]

My view is that adding anything that has to be burnt, adds to the soot build up in the EGR and DPF, so I avoid adding anything now.

I'm only trying it as I trust the judgement of my colleague when it comes to anything related to diesel engines.

Given that this stuff seems to have de-coked my Wallas hob within a few hours of use, I'm not so sure about that @Loz.

The manufacturers state the following:
The difference between Dipetane and Additives:
Additives are products that do not occur naturally in fuel and are ‘added in’. These are detergents, solvents, Cetane, Octane improvers and Naphtha.
Dipetane contains no such additives, there is nothing in Dipetane that is not already in the fuel and all fuels treated with Dipetane remain within EN590 European Fuel Specification (and the British Standard, BS2869), so all engine and boiler warranties remain intact.

They also say-

Why Dipetane works:
Dipetane works because it uniquely enables the incoming 21 Units of Oxygen to access and burn the volatile carbons much more completely, compared to standard fuels.
This involves Dipetane’s secret of adjusting the volatile carbon chains at the molecular level.
Standard fuels and additives cannot do this.
In effect, Dipetane is increasing the air/fuel mix ratio.
By burning the carbon more fully, the existing unburnt carbon deposits which are in all vehicles and boilers, are not fed any further carbon.
With the addition of Dipetane, these deposits of carbon disintegrate, fall off and do not return.

Before I added this stuff into the tank of my 40k van, I gave the stuff a "jolly good Google" , as I am just as sceptical as anyone! From my "jolly good google" I have concluded that it is likely that Dipetane increases the lubricity quite dramatically. That is a good thing and given the manufacturers claims I don't see the harm in using it.

This could all be nonsense, but I'm going to see how it goes over the next 3 or 4 tanks of fuel.

I'm a good person to do this test as I remain cynical as anyone!

 

[Crazymind]

Wow, the description sounds very stupid

there is nothing in Dipetane that is not already in the fuel

 

[Dellmassive]

I don't use any fuel or oil additives myself, seeing as most are snake oil as you say. ( Last time was prob Redex in my petrol fiesta in the early 90s =) "

And seeing an engine stripped down at 100k that only ever used super premium fuel with fancy additives.......looked no different from a standard fueled engine.

Possibly the placebo effect??

Either way a longer term test with some kind of data set would be needed to show any change in DPF buildup.

So the assumption is this additive causes a cleaner diesel fuel burn, with less soots to be deposited in the DPF causing less regen cycles..... Many factors going into the final outcome like engine temp,load,Air temp, engine size,adblue,etc.

 

[Samro]

I don't use any fuel or oil additives myself, seeing as most are snake oil as you say. ( Last time was prob Redex in my petrol fiesta in the early 90s =) "

And seeing an engine stripped down at 100k that only ever used super premium fuel with fancy additives.......looked no different from a standard fueled engine.

Possibly the placebo effect??

Either way a longer term test with some kind of data set would be needed to show any change in DPF buildup.

So the assumption is this additive causes a cleaner diesel fuel burn, with less soots to be deposited in the DPF causing less regen cycles..... Many factors going into the final outcome like engine temp,load,Air temp, engine size,adblue,etc.

Exactly and it is for this reason that I am confident that I will have likely wasted my money on Snake oil.
The Placebo Effect will not exist in this test, as my expectations for are not just low, but non existent!
That said.....turned on my Wallas hob this morning and it fired to life quicker than it has for ages after the exhaust debacle!

 

[Grim Reaper]

So what about 2-EHN or 2-Ethylhexyl Nitrate, this is marketed as a Cetane improver for diesel fuel.

 

[Crazymind]

Another snake oil?

 

[Samro]

So what about 2-EHN or 2-Ethylhexyl Nitrate, this is marketed as a Cetane improver for diesel fuel.

I don't understand what this comment means?

My understanding is that Dipetane does not contain cetane boosters. Do you know something to the contrary, as cetane boosters will surely add coke build up to the egr/dpf?

Dipetane claims to increase the air/fuel mix ratio.......Goodness knows how this is possible, but that is the claim.

Does someone "sciency boffin" on this forum know if this is possible?

If this is impossible then surely Trading Standards would have been on their case by now?

 

[Lubrown]

Does anyone know where I can buy genuine snake oil.

I don’t want the placebo stuff.

Hit me up.

 

[Samro]

Does anyone know where I can buy genuine snake oil.

I don’t want the placebo stuff.

Hit me up.

Ask for it in any Halfords?

 

[Dellmassive]

eBay of course . . . .

next to Peckham Spring Water.