I’ve started adding Millers Diesel Power Ecomax to my CX-5 fuel tank. I’ve done about 300 miles since adding it, so it’s too soon to tell what difference it may have made, although I do feel that the motor is a little more responsive to throttle inputs. I’m always wary when it comes to claims made regarding fuel consumption based on a top-up to top-up basis. I feel that the figures can only be valid if they’re made under strictly controlled conditions with accurate measuring equipment. I’ve been wondering how this additive works in such a very diluted form. I e-mailed Millers Customer Service and asked if they could explain a little of the technology involved, but all I received from them was just some patter that appears in their normal advertising blurb. I also contacted Opie Oils of Redruth, who supplied the Millers, but they couldn’t do much better, as they explained that they were oil specialists, not additive specialists. So I’m none the wiser as to how it actually works. Do you have any information that would throw some light on how this product works, when it is diluted so much that there can only be a few molecules of it per cubic centimetre? Perhaps an in depth technical article in Diesel Car might be of interest to many of your readers?
Mike Arnold

Mike, if you want to read about what sort of chemicals are used for Cetane Value improvement, lubricity improvers and detergent additives, you can find out about them on the web. I’ve spoken to my contact at Millers, and you would not expect him to mention specific chemicals and addition levels. But I’m told that of the 1,000 parts per million that is the standard additive rate, effectively around 600ppm is used to boost the Cetane Value by four units, with the remaining 400ppm split between lubricity improvers and detergent additives. It just shows how effective these additives must be that they work at such high dilution. In Millers’ own words “The initial reaction of better (engine) response is very normal, as the cetane improver acts immediately, but the detergency will improve injector cleanliness over several tanks of fuel and thus give a more gradual improvement. These levels of additive for fuel use are fairly typical, and some actually work down as low as single figure ppm concentration. The use of Diesel Power Ecomax has to have a “Wow” effect fairly early on so that people can feel the benefit even before they start to do mpg tests, and that was our prime consideration when formulating it.” Sounds good! Regards,
Doc Diesel