Sunday, January 8, 2012

Early Impressions : Millers Oils ECOMAX

Of all the Millers Oils products Cosmic Elite passed to me for testing, the ECOMAX is the easiest to use. It is actually a petrol/fuel additive and so is to be added to the fuel tank during top-ups. As I had just top-up for a full tank prior to the meeting, I added Ecomax to my fuel tank immediately upon receiving it.

Ecomax is a dual function product in that it is both an octane booster as well as a 'detergent'. As an octane booster, it works to a ratio of 1 part to 1000 parts (i.e. 1ml for every litre of fuel) to increase the fuel's rated octane (ON or RON) number by 2. For Malaysia for e.g., this means if I add 50ml of Ecomax to a full tank of RON97 fuel on my Integra, which has a 50 litre tank, I should have RON99 fuel. For Honda owners like me, who have modified our engines to the extent that it really needs high octane fuel - higher than RON97 - to operate optimally, a product like Ecomax will be a god-send !

Besides the octane boosting capability, Ecomax also cleans the injectors and the insides of the engine, supposedly reducing combustion and intake manifold and valve deposits. For a turbo-charged engine like the one in my Integra, the very rich A/F ratios I need to run at directly leads to lots of carbon build-up inside the engine. So if Ecomax works, then it will be a double bonus. 

The Ecomax that I was given comes in a generic plastic bottle. According to Tony of Comsic Elite, the standard dispenser bottle that Millers Oils uses for Ecomax is prone to spillage as the cap doesn't seal the mouth properly. So he brings in Ecomax by the barrel and bottles them using his own plastic bottle. This bottle is quite easy to use as mine comes pre-marked for 50ml intervals. So I just put the mouth inside the fuel tank inlet and squeeze the bottle.

Early Impressions on the road
The first impression after putting in some mileage is that the engine runs smoother and quieter. This is always a good thing and it actually corresponds to what I get when I add TORCO's Accelerator to my fuel.


The common misconception about using higher RON-rated fuel is always that it 'gives' more power, i.e. enables the engine to deliver more power. IMO, this is a wrong conception. An engine is designed and tuned to work with a specific (or range of) RON rated fuel. Use lower-RON rated fuel than specified and it detonates and knocks. When we use fuel of correct RON-rating, the engine is able to function optimally without detonation. This means being able to deliver the maximum power under all conditions. But contrary to popular belief, using a higher RON-rated fuel than required delivers nothing. In fact, using too high a RON fuel will foul up the insides of the engine. So the key is to use the right RON-rated fuel.

The 'pull' I get from the Integra is more consistently strong after using Ecomax. It is difficult to 'butt dyno' with any accuracy for changes as small as simply upping the RON rating of the fuel by 2 numbers of course but impressions are certainly that Ecomax enables my engine to deliver power more consistently. Most important is how the engine doesn't sound coarser when it revs towards the red-line.

As I continue to test Ecomax, I will be able to form firmer impressions and will be writing a proper review for it in the near future.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, 8 months on, how it is performing?

Anonymous said...

Here ya go...

http://asia.vtec.net/advertisers/Millers/ecomax1.html

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