Here's Why Your Fuel Mixture Is Just as Important as Your Oil Mixture

Additives present in some premium fuels can have a serious effect on how the wear inside your engine.

Photo by: YouTube

By: Brian Silvestro

Sep 28, 2024 at 3:00pm ET

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If you know anything about how cars work, you'll know how important oil can be for maintaining the insides of an engine. A high-quality motor oil will have all the right additives to keep internals healthy. Which type of fuel you use can be equally important.

The Motor Oil Geek YouTube channel recently published a video explaining the importance of fuel additives, citing a study performed by the Austrian Competence Center for Tribology (the study of friction, wear, and lubrication in mechanical systems).

In this study, engineers used irradiated piston rings to test the difference in wear between an engine that ran fuel with helpful friction modifiers and an engine that ran fuel without those modifiers. They found the engine using no modifiers had over four times more wear than the engine that ran with modifiers.

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The results shouldn't come as a surprise. Piston rings rubbing against cylinder walls is where most engine wear takes place. Meaning it's where fuel and oil work hardest. So having a fuel mixture that's rich with friction modifiers is essential. Having a high-quality oil is only half the battle. If you want to prevent as much wear as possible, you have to run high-quality fuel as well.

It's worth noting that having additives like friction modifiers has nothing to do with octane rating. The test described above-used fuels with the same octane; the only difference was the additive package. If you're looking for a fuel with a healthy additive package, we suggest doing some research, as brands will usually have their own mixtures at every pump. The Motor Oil Geek specifically references Shell's V-Power Nitro+ gasoline, which claims to reduce wear and friction-related damage.