Lucas Fuel Treatment Review

I drive old cars. And I drive them carefully, and for a lot of years. What I’ve found is that a little bit of proactive maintenance can go a long ways.

And, not to sound like a sales pitch, but I’ve used Lucas for a lot of years, and their fuel treatments are still some that both my dad and I use on a regular basis.

Now, some Lucas Fanatics will run this in every tank of gas. I probably should, because it’s an incredible lubricant for the upper cylinder area, it improves fuel mileage and it helps cut down on build up and that harmful scoring of the cylinder walls that leads to lost power.

However, I find that running it every 2-3 months, along with regular oil changes and yearly radiator flushes keeps even my old clunkers running way longer than anyone else thinks they should be. I constantly get comments “Are you still driving that?

Is It Safe In New Cars?

This is a great question, and thankfully, it is safe to use in both new and old cars. There are no solvents, so it won’t be destroying any seals and is easy on the engine. It actually seems like the only sensible thing to do — protecting your investment in your vehicle.

Does Lucas Fuel Treatment Improve Your Fuel Mileage?

For years, users have been tracking their mileage and have been saying “Hey, it seems like Lucas is giving me an extra mile or two per gallon!” However, since every car is different, it’s tough to say whether or not you will see fuel mileage gains by using Lucas.

In general, drivers of older cars (Pre-2000), with higher mileage have seen the best benefit when Lucas is in the tank.

Recently, some enterprising individuals ran Some Lucas cleaner through a Spectrometer. And it appears that it is mostly isobutylene, a compound that has been separately proven to help balance the spray of fuel from the injector nozzles and that seems to help the engine get a more complete and even burn.

So maybe these mileage claims are truthful. You’ll have to try it and see.

Is the Upper Cylinder Lubricant with Injector Cleaners the Same Thing As The Lucas Fuel Cleaner?

Cars used to run longer in them because of the lead content in Gasoline. When that was removed, it became harder to engineer a long-lasting vehicle because the lubrication of the Lead was removed.

The neat thing about the Lucas Fuel treatment is that, without using harmful chemicals, it actually provides the same lubricating power that lead fuel did for gasoline cars and sulfur used to do for Diesel trucks.

Now you can get the same, long-lasting secret our grandaddy used to use. Basically. Only less harmfully.

The Lucas Fuel Cleaner is often referred to as the “Upper Cylinder Lube” because of its restorative properties. And this is the injector cleaner that you will want to use on a regular basis.

However, they also offer some more aggressive fuel treatments that are great for trying to restore the cylinder health of an older or abused vehicle. We’ll take a look at those below.

Need a Deeper Clean?

The Lucas 10512 Deep Clean Fuel Treatment

One of the things that I really like about Lucas products is that they are not nearly as aggressive as their competition. In fact, most of them are not acetone or solvent based so you can run them mile after mile without harming your engine.

You couldn’t do that with, say STP injector cleaner.

While these fuel treatments do offer a minimal cleansing value, their greatest advantage is that they help lubricate and reduce the stress on the engine.

That said, when I feel like my car needs a little more aggressive treatment, I like to run the Lucas Deep Clean. This treatment just has a little more octane to it and is going to be able to remove deposits better.

In fact, a lot of users on different car forums have reported that it can remove octane pinging and bucking problems that their competitor products such as STP or Seafoam weren’t able to touch.

And, once again, it is gentler and less harmful to the engine so you don’t have to worry about running through a few treatments until your problem is resolved.

Lucas Fuel Treatment Vs Seafoam

This has got to be one of the biggest face-offs in the history of fuel additives.

Both have tons of raving fans. In fact, my father-in-law swears by seafoam and goes through more of the stuff than I do fancy lattes.

And, I go through a LOT of lattes. And Cappuccinos. And French Presses. And Pour-overs…

Here’s my official take on the matter. After studying the ingredients, the reviews, and trying it myself, Seafoam seems to be a miracle worker on decrepit old cars. I’ve had some cars that after a full oil change, new fuel filter and complete tune up, just refuse to run smooth.

One dose of seafoam fixes ‘em. It is such an aggressive cleaner that it simply works miracles at removing carbon build ups that wouldn’t come loose without doing a full rebuild.

So what I do now on my cars with 100k plus miles is that before their yearly tuneup I run Seafoam in it. Then I swap out the fuel filter and do the tuneup. So far I haven’t had it screw with an O2 sensor, although I could see how it might push an aging one over the cliff.

Then I go back to my Lucas as a more consistent maintenance.

Bottom line? Sea Foam is a great deep-cleaner.
Lucas is an excellent engine-extender.