On The Road With The Engine Answerman: Syracuse Nationals - July 16-18

Hi Y'all,

Stayed in Harleysville, PA with Mike a friend with Pypes exhaust Sunday night thru Wednesday. We went to a great Japanese restaurant on Tuesday night and had a great time. Got to Syracuse on Wednesday night and had time to wash the truck that evening. Set up on Thursday and with Marcel’s help, we washed all the mowers and a blowup. Rain on Friday morning, but that didn’t stop people from coming to this show. Friday was steady, but Saturday was a lot busier, and we were constantly talking with people all day long. Sunday was a little slower but still talked to a lot of people. Had a lot of comments on the mowers and questions on all of the products, especially the STA-BIL brand and today’s Ethanol fuels. There were 7,500 registered cars at the show.

Marcel and Jen were a big help

We had great questions on STA-BIL® products, with the majority of them being about Ethanol, and what product works best. We had a lot of inquiries on where to buy the gallon sizes, which I get at every show more and more now with the Marine Formula. A lot of people mentioned not being able to find the Marine Formula at the stores, because when they go to buy, it is constantly sold out. An engine builder of a customer suggested using Marine Formula all the time. A lot of the guys are using it in every tank already in their hot rods because they have heard about the issues with Ethanol, or have already had trouble before. One guy mentioned switching to Marine Formula because Regular STA-BIL wasn’t strong enough. A guy said his friend recommended to him to use STA-BIL last year because he had never used before, and had always had to clean his carburetor out. He used STA-BIL and didn’t have to do it this year. A truck owner that uses Marine Formula says he now gets 2 more miles to the gallon after starting using it, and he was so excited about it he told everyone here at the booth how great it works. A NAPA dealer in Schenectady, NY says he cannot keep Marine Formula on the shelf. It is always selling out. A Volkswagon owner had a quarter tank of fuel that had been sitting for 5 years with STA-BIL in it, and he drove it to the show.

Several questions about alcohols in HEET® and Iso-HEET® products. One guy running a high compression engine was looking for methanol to run, so gave him 2 bottles of HEET to use, because he can’t find it out of season. Talked with many customers about water removal and how Iso-HEET would work great for them. A mechanic told a customer to use Iso-HEET to prevent corrosion in his fuel tank and muffler system. I have never heard that one before.

Gave a transmission, oil, and power steering NO LEAK® product away to a few of the car guys that had been having problems while they were here at the show. The engine stop leak guy came back the next day to let me know the leak had improved since putting in NO-LEAK. A customer from another show came by to tell me the transmission product had worked in his car.

Gave a tube of AlumAseal® to a guy who was having a problem with his cooling system leaking here at the show. Told him to come back or call in to let us know how it worked.

Seems like I’m getting more and more questions on the 104+®products. All are complaining about the bad fuel they are getting, and realizing they need to use something in their high compression engines, and losing fuel mileage. A few of them have told me that they carry a few bottles in their trunk when they travel since they never know when they are going to get bad gas. One customer had vapor lock when he started using Ethanol blended fuel. I gave him a bottle of 104+ to try.

A few inquiries on DieselPower!® lubricity product. I had several of the vendor truck drivers ask about the DieselPower! as I had given them a bottle to try and they liked how performed in their systems.

Talked to a guy who had problems finding StartYourEngines!®, but after he finally found it, it fixed his motorcycle problem, and he loved it! Talked to several small engine mechanics that talked about troubles with corrosion and gummed up carburetors like they’ve never seen before – so we talked about STA-BIL and Start Your Engines!

*** Thanks to Marcel and Jennifer for all their help and support. ***

Good show – They had a record number of attendees at this event this year, and ran out of parking lot space for everyone on Saturday.