Chevron Field Trip in San Francisco

Chevron (the behemoth oil/fuel/energy company) held a press event in San Francisco last month, giving us journalists a chance to see the California Chevron plant. There were a bunch of other journalists there including Suzanne from RideLust.com, John from CarDomain, and Donald from AutoSpies.

The tour consisted of a briefing and basic knowledge of the products and testing procedures, as well as a walking tour through some labs and testing centers such as the engine testing lab, tribology lab (which tests the effects of friction on metal,) and the outdoor testing center in which they put cars through simulated real-world driving conditions.

The point here was to show us that Chevron does a more thorough job at testing and making sure the fuel and additives going into our car is the best it can be, and that their signature product, Techron Concentrate Plus, is better than the leading competitors. To prove this, they showed us a ton of charts and graphs, got pretty technical, explained how strict the testing procedures were, and provided us with some samples to try for ourselves.

The chemical behind the cleaning is Polyether Amine (PEA) – a technology developed by Chevron for use in the Concentrate Plus product. Not being a chemist, I don’t quite understand the specifics, but the charts and images they showed us were pretty convincing.

I’m going to try using the Techron Concentrate Plus samples they gave us in my 300ZX – the other media folks I talked with at the event seemed already sold on the product from previous use, so hopefully it turns out as good as they say.

What about you? Do you use any engine additives in your car? What are your favorite(s)?

Filed Under: Car Tech