[TESTED] LIQUI-MOLY vs PENRITE Diesel Intake Cleaners - WHICH ONE IS BEST??
Germany vs Australia! Big vs Small! Liquid vs Foam! Sauerkraut vs Pie with sauce! Whichever way you look at it, this shoot-out promises to be very interesting!
In this video we pit Liqui-Moly Diesel Intake Decarb against Penrite P26 Diesel Foaming Intake Cleaner in a manifold cleaner shoot-out to see which one comes out on top! They each have to show their true colours through a range of off-vehicle tests. And by the end we have one clear winner!
EDIT: At 2:55 a viewer thought I said it was necessary to remove the whole inlet manifold in order to use these products. That isn't the case - I was summarising the instructions of each product which were slightly different, but both are just saying you need to remove something from the intake system so you can spray this product into the inlet manifold. In my case I removed the air intake hose directly before the manifold which was the simplest way to do this.
Nice one. Appreciate the effort you've gone to, especially as you're just starting out. I would love to see more Pajero specific content from you. Cheers
Thanks mate, I appreciate your feedback and support! I do have some more Pajero content coming, the catch can one will probably be next. Stay tuned, and please sub if you haven't already! Cheers, Greg
@@TheMusingGreg It might not be a good idea to spray that stuff on your bare skin.
Nice video mate. Thanks for the effort. I’ve had doubts about penrite products through my own experiences.
It kills me to present that information as I love Penrite stuff, but what I found is what I found. I continue to use their oils, and I've *heard* their oils are better than their additives. I can't honestly speak for the rest of the additives range, but certainly this particular product didn't impress me much.
Thanks for your time and for your help! Regards from Spain!
My pleasure, glad it was helpful! Greetings from Australia!
Great Vid, after using all Penrite to rebuild my patrol I've used diesel stabiliser, injector cleaner and turbo cleaner additives. I'd like to see more comparison videos now. Good job.
Thanks mate I'll see what I can do. Stay subscribed as I have a follow-up video coming on the Penrite intake cleaner - I gave it a second chance at cleaning the whole manifold 6000km later.
Awesome video mate! Can’t wait to see if a catch can actually improves this on the Pajero! Thank you! 😊
Stay tuned and subbed mate, I've already collected some data on this and working on the video proof soon!
While I have always liked penrite products and will continue to sue them the liqui-moly is a clear winner here, thanks for the simple, basic and great review
Thanks for the comment Mark, and glad to know it was helpful. I think I will probably do the same as you, at least with their oils. I have actually just bought a second can of the Penrite P26 for a follow-up test (yet to be performed) so make sure you're subscribed if you'd be interested in more Penrite data!
I found out about this cleaning Foam and looking forward to seeing it
I hope it works well for you I found the penrite didn't work too well.
Awesome vids!!! Love your thorough & unbiased approach mate! Any chance of you reviewing the best diesel turbo spray cleaners pls? I.e. Wynns turbo cleaner? Jon Manchester England
Hey Jono, thanks for the feedback and glad you've found it useful! That sounds a great idea, although unfortunately I can't find that or any similar product here in Australia. There are numerous exhaust-side products available which go into the fuel tank, but no sprays I can find for the inlet side. I'll keep looking but it may be that product's only sold in Europe and Russia. Cheers, Greg
I have used the liqui moly product and you have to be REALLY careful especially with the Paj, which is what I used it on, that you don't put the tube too far down as it WILL hit the turbo. Learn from my mistake. I don't know how but there appeared to be no damage done an no nozzle left on the end ....oops. I am currently going to trial a product from the UK called Revive for diesel engines. This is a water based product and if you believe the hype it was formulated for large industrial diesel engines and aircraft. It will be interesting to see the difference. I have also been using Nulon (australian made also) diesel turbo cleaner which is a fuel additive and good for preventative maintainance, along with the Nulon diesel total system clean which I think has been renamed. May use the liqui moly product after the Revive as it is more solvent based. WIll be interesting to see
Rod it sounds like you're squirting the product in before the turbo like you do with the Revive. The Liqui-Moly is supposed to be squirted into the manifold up by the engine, not into the turbo. The turbo would have just munched the plastic tip off the hose, if it wasn't going too fast it wouldn't have damaged the turbo although obviously it's not ideal. I don't know if it would matter but it's not supposed to be done that way. I've used the Nulon product you're referring to. It doesn't clean the inlet manifold (think about it, diesel fuel doesn't go anywhere near the inlet manifold so any additive wouldn't help there) - that stuff is more for cleaning injectors, and if you believe what they say it helps to clean the exhaust wheel of the turbo but frankly I can't imagine there would be much solvent left to do any post-engine cleaning after it's been burnt up in the combustion chamber. But either way it's not going to clean the intake path, you need a product that goes into the air intake to do that which is what Liqui-Moly does. I've seen the Revive advertised locally but haven't used it so far. Please let me know how it works (before and after) - if you reckon there's a measurable reduction in build-up I might do a video on it. Cheers, Greg
I know that this is older video but I used similar product to the Penrite and what I think that Penrite is made to stick to de walls of air inlet and other parts and do the job. I noticed when the engine is warm that foamy stuff slowly liquified and removed the sludge. That would be good for the valves cleaning as the liqui moly is sucked up straight to the combustion chamber and possibly do nothing to the valve stems etc. What I really like on the liqui moly is the long straw insert. I would possibly use the liqui moly on engine not running inserting the straw deep, close to the valves for quick spray while slowly retracting the straw then leave it for a while and suck up all evaporated solvents with vacuum and than use it on running engine.
Thanks for the comment Thomas. Both products are still actively sold so this video is as relevant today as when it was recorded. You're probably right that's how it's supposed to work; unfortunately when I did a follow-up video testing this product on the same vehicle it didn't work any better. So the theory is good but it doesn't seem to work in practice. It would be extremely difficult to suck all that dissolved gunk out of the engine in the way you've suggested. There are so many nooks and crannies in the manifold that it's very difficult to get the straw to go everywhere, and even harder to get a vacuum cleaner everywhere to suck it all out. Whatever you missed (which would probably be a lot) would risk a larger explosion than usual when you eventually start the engine as the remaining solvent will all be sucked into the engine at once.
The main problem with carbon build up on a CRDI is at the inlet chamber behind the inlet valves and the only way to properly target the inlet chambers is to get the nozzle past the swirl valves to each chamber but with the engine running at 2-3k rpm the cleaner is sucked straight out with very little contact on surfaces. You would need 3 to 4 cans to make some impact and that would be feasible at $10-$15 a can(mr muscle heavy duty oven cleaner at $4 a can as an alternative). The only way to thoroughly decarb is to disassemble but that is costly and a pain in the arse.
Very true Kirk! When I had the manifold off in the first Liqui-Moly test elsewhere on my channel, I did squirt some down inside the intake ports. But naturally some valves were closed and others were open, so I couldn't use much as I didn't want to fill the combustion chamber of the open valve cylinders with this product in its liquid form and potentially damage the engine when starting it.
Great video, I just found out my turbo is leaking oil into the air intake and I was going to thinking of which cleaner to buy. I was heading towards Liquid Moly as I have used the diesel additive and noticed the difference.
Glad it was helpful! Which diesel additive did you use and what difference did you notice? Was it just a 'feel' or were you able to measure the difference somehow?
@@TheMusingGreg I used Liqui Moly Diesel Injection Cleaner. I am not able to measure the difference. My daughter lives on a farm 3 hours drive from Perth. I put a tin in and filled the ute up but I noticed on the way that there was more response and the engine felt smoother. 2nd can didn't seem the make any difference as the engine was probably clean by then.
Ok thanks. I only ask because I know from personal experience that a car can feel better just because you know you've done something to it, even if it isn't actually any different (in my case just doing an oil change years ago, I guess I thought the car felt cleaner or happier or something!). However if you've not used a product like that for a long time, it's possible it did make an actual difference. I use Liqui Moly Diesel clean and boost regularly and haven't noticed any difference but then I have used injector cleaners regularly on my vehicle.
Very good comparison! I guess you want be getting any love from Penrite after this but finally someone has the balls to challenge these companies to stand by the "claimed" quality of their products.
Haha, probably not! But again, I'm not here to be popular with manufacturers, though nor am I here to deliberately get them off-side. I would have loved the Penrite to work better than it did, but it didn't so that's the way it is. I can only hope they release an improved version at some point. Cheers, Greg
Great vid, I used to be a Wurth rep I belive the LiqiMoli and Wurth cleaner are if not tge same very similar. Both great produts. There was always talk Wurth now owns Liqui Moli due to the quality of the product. But hey who knows 😉
Thanks Benjamin, I don't have a lot of experience with Wurth but I'll keep my eyes out!
Used a few of these on my Isuzu. Subaru upper engine cleaner seems to be the best so far. I spray directly into the map sensor hole jst before the throttle body. Works a treat.
Thanks for that. Is that designed for diesels? I didn't think Subaru did diesels, and I believe the composition of cleaners for diesel engines is quite different to avoid detonation with the higher compression ratios.
@TheMusingGreg in Australia Subaru have a few diesel models available with their boxer engines. I've done some research and it appears that the cleaner can be used on the Subaru diesel engines (I've been doing it on the Isuzu for 5 years now), however I've always done it after the turbo. In saying that though, perhaps it's safe for their diesel engines and not others. The Isuzu (Mu-x - 3L) is still alive, however there is always the chance that I have been extremely lucky to date.
Ok thanks for sharing. I had a quick look and they didn't specify petrol or diesel but did talk about it fixing things like varnish on valves which (I think) is more of a petrol issue. Glad you've had no problems so far, how have you determined it works well and what other products have you tried less successfully?
@TheMusingGreg I ran an inspection camera down as I was curious. Went as far down as I could. There initially were traces of buildup, however both Liqui moly (can't remember the 2nd brand that I tried) didn't clear it all out. The Subaru stuff was the one that did the trick. One thing I did notice though was that the Subaru upper engine cleaner triggered an engine code each time that I simply cleared and everything would work as normal. The Subaru cleaner requires the engine to be switched off for a short period to allow the liquid to soak into the buildup. Then the process continues with the engine on whilst pumping the rest of the can through. I might give liqui moly a go again as it didn't throw any codes (and the fact that it actually is made specifically for diesel engines). Also should work better now that it's pretty clean in there (did a check recently whilst doing an intercooler upgrade).
Very interesting, thanks Dave! I will take a closer look at it, as so far Liqui Moly has been the best I've used, but none have been particularly effective.
Great Vid
Thanks mate!
That's disappointing to see as ive always purchased Penrite. First thing i was concerned with was the red straw coming off and/or going down the manifold. Did you actually try the Penrite one as the instructions say? Thanks for the effort
I 100% agree re my disappointment with Penrite in this test! But at the end of the day it's data and results we want. I couldn't actually do the full cleaning test with the engine running as they said, because this was a comparison video between the two products, and the last follow-up video I did with Liqui-Moly was only 5000km from the full clean, whereas by now the vehicle had done an extra 25,000km or so. So it wouldn't have been a fair comparo. That's why I did these simulated tests on the same amount of build-up to determine its effectiveness as a solvent. The only real-world test I did with it was spraying a heap of the Penrite foam into the lower manifold and letting it sit for a while before starting and then checking with the borescope camera. It came up somewhat cleaner which was encouraging, but Liqui-Moly may have done the same thing or better so - again it wasn't a fair comparison. That's why I didn't include that test in the final video.
@@TheMusingGreg yeah fair enough. But nothing beats actually taking the manifold off and cleaning it. I only took mine off to remove the screws and swirl flaps
Absolutely. I did the strip down and clean as part of the first video, when I found the Liqui-Moly didn't really do much with the original build-up.
Thanks for this, looks like you have the manifold removal on pat. If you ever past sa south adelaide i would love help to remove and clean mine :p
Haha I'll keep that in mind! It's not a difficult job to do, just takes a while. Mr Pajero on Facebook has a 4 video series showing how it's done. I watched that first and found it helpful.
Yeah i watched those videos. Just a bit scared of the diesel fuel lines that have high pressure
@@fjadventures Don't be. There was no high pressure diesel in there when I undid them. They obviously can get up to very high pressure but it must bleed off after the engine's turned off or something. The fuel lines just undid like any other nut.
Ayeeeeee another Wa Bloke, good too see ya ✌️
Cheers mate!
I agree and think your comments are appropriate
Thanks mate, glad you found it helpful! Please share the video on your socials! 👍
I have been using liqui moly for years and there products are the best iv ever used
Thanks for the input Braden, I appreciate your positive recommendation.
How much of the can do you use ?
I used all of both cans.
Sorry Greg, No running engine test! and straw length, It is meant to be sucked in via the engine, I'm not being negative, But if you take the Manifold off then Carb/Brake Cleaner would be a cheaper option!
You're right, and I mentioned this specifically at 11:44. But I did it this way for three good reasons: 1) I'm comparing two products here, but I only have one engine, and if I did an engine test whichever product I used second would have the advantage of the cleaning work done by the first. 2) I've already done two running engine tests on Liqui-Moly (kzhead.info/sun/mseJZb5qgpVti2g/bejne.html and kzhead.info/sun/rLVmqruOfWt7Z5E/bejne.html) so I already knew how Liqui-Moly worked in practice and this didn't need any testing. That only left Penrite lacking a real-world test.... but... 3) I actually did a running engine test of Penrite 5000km later and its performance was no better. This verified the results I got from this test. However I chose not to publish it because it didn't change any of the conclusions this video had already drawn and it would only further embarrass Penrite, and my channel is first and foremost about informing consumers, not heaping shame on brands. Bottom line is, you can trust what this review tells you.
I recently bought a holden colorado with 102k on the clock. Looking at all the maintenance I need to catch up on. It is obvious short cuts are a short term fix the only way is to get in and do the job properly. I have a provent 200 ordered to install and intend to do a inlet manifold cleanout. Pre filter in the fuel line plus run some morey's or fuel doctor. Disappointed in the penrite product you tested as I ve been a big fan of the oils. Agree with your comments as it looks like penrite are simply profiteering with the manifold cleaner.
Agree 100% KianJorry. It's worth doing it properly if you're intending to keep it for a while, and equally disappointed with Penrite from this product. I hope their oils are as good as I've always thought them to be. Project Farm did an oils shoot-out a couple of years ago and Penrite came out reasonably well so that's a comforting start.
@@TheMusingGreg I have vehicles from the 60s/70s run penrite oil because of the zinc additive feature. I ve had no problems but in saying that for all I know could have got the same result from any number of other oil brands. I will add that the morey's smoke killer injector cleaner is a great product. I used it in two ex taxi's, hiace's with 650k plus kms on the clock. A couple of tanks of diesel with additive made a massive difference. Good luck with your testing its always interesting to see some verified result not just a feeling it is a good product.
@@KianJorry Thanks for the feedback! I ran Penrite HPR Turbo in my Nissan Pulsar ET Turbo and VL Calais Turbo in the late 90's / early 2000's which got me into Penrite in the first place. But as with you, I've not done much objective testing on some of these products until recently, which is proving interesting! Stay tuned!
That's what i'd do in real life: First spray Penerite into running engine. It should stay anywhere due to it's foamy state. Than I'd turn off the engine, wait for a while, mybe for like half an hour. Than I'd firmly start it with short starts - to detect possible hydrolocking situation. When running - I'd spray the the Liqui Molly ( to flush away the Penetrite foam which is supposed to have remained and acted on all surfaces evently for tht half of hour). That would use the best of both produsts and eventually realy do the job without dissasembling the engine. And my comment on catchcan: if you use catchcan to exclude oil to mix with egr gases, the sludge wousld be dryer, harder and dificulter do decompose by cleaning products - although it would be deposited in smaller amounts. So you would have a bigger problem but it would occure much later.
Yeah that' what I'd be doing. This was to test them as per their directions, but I can't see the issue with a warm engine and a good soaking stage. You're spot on on the catch can too.
Liquimoly = German Penrite = Australian 😂😂😂
As far as I know that's correct.
Why didn’t you clean the inlet properly then do 5000k then use the penrite like you did with the moly. Then you would have a proper companion
Thanks for the question Peter. Yes that would have been the ideal; but the vehicle was a daily driver on our road trip so I didn't have the luxury of pulling it all off again at the time, not to mention the additional cost of new gaskets and potentially new fuel lines. A fully produced video like this (vs a quick phone video upload) costs me about $2000 in products and time, and to date our Patreon page has received $0 in viewer donations; so until that imbalance changes the content I produce is constrained by the resources I have available and how important a specific test is to me. In this case, I'd already collected sufficient useful baseline data about build-up levels from the two Liqui-Moly tests to get a fair idea of Penrite's performance relative to Liqui-Moly's. If the test had been closer I might have gone to that extra effort but they were all so clearly in favour of the Liqui-Moly there was little point spending extra money on a more detailed test. As it happens, I did actually buy a second can of Penrite P26 and shot footage of it being tested 5000km later, but its cleaning performance was just as bad as in this test, so to date I haven't bothered producing a video out of that footage. I'm always very open to suggestions for future videos, but if something's a particular priority to a viewer, then it will be a lot easier to prioritise that project with the viewer's financial support via www.patreon.com/themusinggreg. Cheers, Greg
sorry to hear about your towing.. I wouldn't wish that on anyone..
Thanks!
I just used Liqui-Moly. IT IS THE BEST!
Glad you like it! How did you decide you like it that much? It seemed to work better than Penrite for me, although neither gives a sparkling clean manifold.
I used it on my Jetta 06 TDI and it cleared it out right away. I used other brands the engine continue to perform horrible. Liqui Molly make my engine run smoothly again.@@TheMusingGreg
Well I'm glad you're happy with how the car performed afterwards! It would have been interesting to see if you could see any difference before vs after. I've found sometimes due to the placebo effect, that we think something is working because we expected or wanted it to. That's why I always try to measure before and after somehow, to make sure I'm not imagining an improvement. But glad you're happy with it!
9:55why didn’t you just put the cup on the brick/paver edging?
Haha! :D It wasn't my house so I didn't want to risk leaving oil spills on the brickwork!
Penrite isn't what it used to be, I'm now looking for alternatives.
Thanks for subbing David and for your comment! As far as this product goes I'd agree with you that it failed to live up to Penrite's good reputation. Do you have evidence that there's a wider issue with Penrite products?
@@TheMusingGreg I have gone back to using Castrol engine oil as the dpf was clogging more from the same Penrite euro grade/spec vw507, so I'm assuming that the SAPS/ash is higher and not to correct spec regardless of the label. I've not had issues with penrite gear oil though.
@@davidspez7267 Interesting, thanks for the feedback David.
Great Video! But please don't use these products on your skin, as they contain highly toxic solvents like Xylene. I too am disappointed about the Penrite product, but am happy as I just purchased the LiquiMoly de-carb based on your findings! Thank you very much!!
Thanks for the safety tip Andrew! Glad the video was helpful, even if it took you away from what would have been your natural choice. Better to know what works though and what doesn't!
I agree, using solvents and cleaning products without gloves lead to very painful contact dermititus on my hands!
Be careful not to breathe the air outside if you see any vehicles around
You could always use disposable gloves...
Yeah I should have!
Hey mate, great vid, please use gloves. You really shouldn't be getting that stuff all over your hands, you're absorbing some pretty nasty chemicals there, some are particularly bad for your grey matter. Doesn't make any difference where you absorb it from. Nothing wrong with bunging some gloves on before handling stuff like this. 👍
Good point mate I should have done that. Hopefully my grey matter is fi... fu... flmm... fur.... what was I saying?
@@TheMusingGreg ...Flan. You hope your grey matter is Flan. ...wait...?
Liqui moly is over £30 in UK, bit pricey.
Wow that is expensive especially considering it doesn't have far to travel!
GREAT VIDEO!!!! Penrite does NOT like it
Glad you liked it mate! Stay subbed as I've done a second test with the Penrite on a 5000km manifold just to see if it's any better in a real-world scenario!
🐉oil
As far as being a silver bullet to cleaning a gunked up manifold, yes; they don't work as well as you'd expect from the advertising. Although for maintaining a recently cleaned manifold, it may be a different story, as per the Liqui Moly follow up video.
Unpopular opinion but as a mechanic I’ve would never use any Penrite products, I don’t think they are good value and I honestly don’t think they’re overall quality is that great
That's interesting Hugh, and a valuable perspective. Nothing wrong with unpopular opinions if they're right. Could you share your reasoning? And using the same metrics, which products do you prefer?
Penrite make reasonably good oils but I have moved over to Nulon years ago , Australian company and their synthetic oils and additives are far superior . Kerosene and de greaser in a pump spray pack will do a better job than any of these products in cleaning that greasy soot .
Thanks for the comment Evan. Liqui Moly is mainly acetone and naptha, so a similar mix to some degreasers. I daresay the recipe you mentioned would be a cheaper solution though! I'm just preparing a review on Direction Plus Revive which has a handy pump spray bottle which could be repurposed for what you've suggested.
Another slap in the face for the Australian made product. Other countries send their garbage cars here because our fuel isn't up to their standards and this is proof with another Australian made product that doesn't compete on the world stage. I can't help wondering if you received a court attendance notice for dissing an Australian company?
Hi Pete, I share your frustration, and this isn't the result I was hoping for. You'd know from the video that I've been a Penrite fan for decades now. I'm a vigorous supporter of Australian brands and Australian-made products, so it frustrates me too that this Penrite product didn't perform better (I actually bought a second can and used it on the same manifold 5000km later but it performed no better). However this channel is first and foremost about helping people choose products that work, and if one product doesn't perform as well as another then that's how I'm going to call it. As far as being taken to court for criticising an Australian company...., um, no - thankfully, there's nothing illegal in Australia about sharing impartial facts. My hope is that Penrite sees this video, picks up their game and offers an Australian-made product that can stand tall amongst the competition. That would be the best outcome I could ever hope for, and one for which all Australians could be proud. Cheers, Greg
@@TheMusingGreg Let's hope they pick up their game. It's a disappointing product.
Agreed mate, I would be the first one to review an updated version of this product if Penrite was willing to bring it to market. If it was worth the money I would champion it like there's no tomorrow!
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Gloves would be good!