Survey for people with and without fuel dilution

[dondonbabyraptor]

About 2/3 of the respondents have reported some sort of mod(s), although that includes people who only reported installing a tailgate damper.

This is coming, once I have a little more time. Tunes are one thing I wish I had asked specifically about, but thankfully quite a few people have volunteered that information.

Life sciences. Not mechanical, but basic analyses like this transcend the scientific fields.

Shouldn't need to be. I'm not trying to assess the fuel dilution issue in relation to its prevalence in the general population, but rather I'm trying to assess fuel dilution as it relates to individual variables. Thus, I need representatives of the different variables, not representatives of the general population. I will grant, however, that the non-random sample that responds to this survey may be essentially missing key variables that are present in the general population.

Yeah, I would say this is the biggest limitation, especially for subgroup and multivariate analyses.

This will be coming

I didn't ask about OCI, but probably should have. I expect, though, that lower OCI would be associated with higher fuel dilution. Not because a shorter OCI would cause fuel dilution, but because folks who know they have fuel dilution will probably be doing more frequent oil changes to mitigate the problem.

I just want to add my humble opinion that we should not got too caught up in "statistical significance." P-values are a fantastic tool (which is why I calculate them), but they are not without their limitations, especially for small sample sizes. I certainly don't advocate for the abolishment of p-values or even for the elimination of significance thresholds, but I do think it important that statistics, like all data, be interpreted within their proper context (including the underlying assumptions of the statistical tests employed). In other words, I do not completely agree with this commentary published in Nature a couple years ago, but I do think its authors raised some important, valid points.

Awesome, agreed on all your points. Nice to see another life science field. You definitely speak like you have research methods under your belt haha. And sorry you’re definitely right about the study of fuel dilution in relation to certain variable. I didn’t word my point correctly that we are missing possible variables the general user’s may factor in, like you mentioned.

you bring up a great point on p values, it’s definitely a powerful tool and technically any data can be modified/cleaned to have sig p value.But in regards to the data, .7 inches doesn’t seem too big of a difference in an avg n of 25, then again I don’t know much about trucks/cars. Just can’t wait to see more data from here, a little bit of skepticism on the low sample is all. Great stuff and keep rockin’ on with the data collection and great ability of explaining things in laymen terms. Not the easiest thing to do, I see you have some conference or public speaking experience perhaps haha.

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[Mike C.]

I don't know much about trucks or cars in general, however I am thinking a good portion of owners on these forums mod their trucks is that how the survey demographics ended up? I was wondering if you did data analysis on the items of spirited driving and mods (in relation to tunes specifically) and this fuel dilution problem. By the way, what is your field of studies? Great analyses and the item creation was way better than I was expecting. Of course the most obvious limitation is that the study population may not be as in line with the general public of Ranger owners and of course, the low n, but what can we expect. I think what would be really interesting to see is if there is moderation happening through catch can or oil change frequency, possible moderation analysis with the data? Definitely the FX4 and non-fx4 is not statistically significant in terms of fuel dilution but again, low n, could be way worse or way closer. Would have a lot more power with more respondents.

I took off my catch can a month ago. The fuel smell went away. I wonder if the catch can, in my instance, aggravates the fuel odor. I did not notice a change yet in fuel level.

 

[ccasanova22]

I went from cross country driving to now mostly 15-30 minute local trips (minimum 10 miles, most 15-16 miles one way) and guess what? Dipstick level is rising and fuel odor in oil.

I betcha next time I go to Vegas or Maine for a concert or ski trip the fuel dilution will be back to normal.

Drive these things on the highway (not just a few miles, a few hundred miles) and the fuel dilution tends to go away.

At least on mine…

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