3 min read
Summer's here - is your boat's fuel ready?
We’re past Memorial Day, the weather's warming up, and the open water is calling. But before you fire up your boat for its first summer cruise, there’s one critical question to ask:
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4 min read
Hurricane Season Fuel Readiness: Preparing Commercial Fuel Storage Systems for Severe Weather
As we approach the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, which officially begins June 1st, now is the critical time for businesses and organizations to...
3 min read
Using a Fuel Additive for Old Gas
All fuel has a limited storage life. Over time, its quality will degrade and break down because of chemical reactions that happen in the fuel. These...
4 min read
Getting Your Yard Equipment Ready for Summer
Unless you live somewhere like Florida (not that there’s anything wrong with that), you’ve probably had your small engines - lawnmowers, gas-powered...
3 min read
The Outlook for the 2024 Summer Driving Season
Memorial Day is at the end of the month and, with it comes the start of the unofficial Summer Driving Season. Of this, two things are true every...
2 min read
More E15 Coming In Summer 2024
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this, but in April, news broke that the EPA is planning to temporarily expand the sales of greater-than-10%...
2 min read
What to do When Your Diesel Fuel Starts to Gel
Are you gellin'? No, this isn't a Dr. Scholl's ad, but rather a question all diesel fuel users should be asking themselves during the cold winter...
3 min read
It's Here: More E15 In Our Gasoline
This past year (past two years, really) has been kind of rough on the gasoline budgets of American families, as supply fluctuations and certain world...
8 min read
EPA Rules Mean More Electric Cars In Our Future?
Our automobile landscape is about to undergo a fundamental shift that will forever transform it. We’ve seen tipping points before - points where...
2 min read
How to Winterize a Diesel Engine
In cases where diesel engines are going to be inactive for stretches during the winter, special steps need to be taken to prepare them. Most...
6 min read
What's Coming In 2023 For Gas Prices & Technology?
Back in January 2022, the view for most people was that after having gone through 2019, 2020, and 2021, the year 2022 had to be better. In some ways...
2 min read
How do cold flow improvers work?
With fall and winter upon us, diesel fuel users are getting into the winter fuel mindset. The biggest issue with diesel fuel in the wintertime is the...
2 min read
Diesel Fuel Gelling - Get Prepared for the Coming Cold Weather
As the country's climate changes, we're seeing more and more severe winter weather events. As of this month, August, across much of the nation, the...
4 min read
What To Do When Your Car Hits 75,000 Miles?
The car & truck landscape looks very little like it was when we were growing up (or our parents). It used to be true that 100,000 miles were a...
3 min read
How to Take Care of a Motorcycle
Most motorcycles made since 1980 are pretty reliable if they’re maintained properly. To some extent, the high reliability of today’s motorcycles has...
4 min read
Post-Pandemic road trips are back, baby!
As the pandemic gets further and further back in our rearview mirror (hopefully), summer road trips are making their way back into our plans. By the...
6 min read
Diagnosing Common Engine Noises - James on Engines #3
Through the Contact Us forms on the Bell website, we get all kinds of inquiries about fuel problems and engines from the general public. Some of them...
5 min read
How to Prepare for a Summer Road Trip
On any road trip, nobody expects bad things to happen. Eventually, though, there’s a good chance one will happen to you. It’s always a good idea to...
9 min read
Rough Running Engine - James on Engines #2
Through the Contact Us forms on the Bell website, we get all kinds of inquiries about fuel problems and engines from the general public. Some of them...
4 min read
Engine Oil Consumption - James on Engines #1
Through the Contact Us forms on the Bell website, we get all kinds of inquiries about fuel problems and engines from the general public. Some of them...
2 min read
What Can You Do About High Gas Prices?
So we’re coming into the summer of 2022 and, let’s face it, lots of people are hurting right now. We’ve come out of a multi-year pandemic that caused...
2 min read
How to get your car ready for a road trip
Are you ready for a summer road trip? That sound you hear is the sound of a zillion hands being raised all across the nation. With Dr. Fauci’s...
2 min read
Revisiting Maintenance for Older Vehicles
Almost ten years ago, back in 2013, we wrote The Bell Performance Guide To Maintaining Your Older Vehicle. Time marches on, as they say, and we’re...
3 min read
Will Biden's Lifting Of The 15% Ban lower gas prices?
What does President Biden’s recent authorization of 15% ethanol in the summertime mean? It’s been a while since we’ve written about ethanol issues,...
6 min read
Are Electric Cars Going To Be Good Enough?
The electrics are coming... When people hear about having millions of electric vehicles (EVs) in the future, they have questions. How much will it...
4 min read
More charging stations for our electric cars
A few years back, we wrote some blogs talking about trends with the production of electric vehicles. Similar to the assumptions surrounding...
3 min read
If You Have a Ford Truck, You Need to Pay Attention
Back in 1992, and then again in 2006-2007, diesel fuel lubricity was the buzzword with truck owners. In diesel engines, diesel fuel has always served...
2 min read
Are Oil Additives Bad For Your Engine?
Bad for your engine, you ask? Probably not - but are they actually all that good? Many of them aren’t, while many of them mischaracterize the...
James on Engines - Classic vehicles and Diesel Fuel
Hear Bell Performance resident master mechanic James Dunst talk about classic cars and trucks and how to manage diesel fuel and diesel engines.
2 min read
Does motor oil have a shelf life?
It’s a simple question, really. Does motor oil have a shelf life?
2 min read
Uber's getting out of driverless cars
Self-driving cars have been the inevitable end point that the industry has been looking to ever since the technology developed to the level where the...
4 min read
A Question revisited: Do fuel additives really work?
This is a question that under-girds a lot of the discussions about fuel additives. Do they really work? It's a fair question that's important to have...
4 min read
Diesel Fuel Additives: Top 5 Things You Never Knew You Didn't Know
Here are 5 things you may not know about diesel fuel and the diesel fuel additives used to treat it. We like to call them "the things you never knew...
2 min read
Summer Car Care Tips for 2020
We're all hopeful that the coronavirus pandemic won't rear its ugly head again later this year. So we talk about the summer driving season with a...
1 min read
A New Shopping Experience at the Bell Web Store
Bell Performance is happy to announce a redesign of our online web store this week! We are offering all of the same solutions that help fix your fuel...
2 min read
Should you be Worried about the 2020 Hurricane Season?
While we've all been sheltering at home and worrying about toilet paper, the 2020 hurricane season has been slowly creeping up on us. The season...
5 min read
Why is Gas so cheap now? - Cheap Gas from Cheap Oil Part 2 (Is It Good or bad?)
As the coronavirus pandemic spread in 2020 and the consequences hit oil markets, lost in the shuffle was the fact that oil prices dropped to lows not...
4 min read
Why are oil prices so low during the global pandemic? Cheap gas from cheap oil - Part 1
As the coronavirus outbreak spread in 2020 and the consequences hit oil markets, lost in the shuffle was the fact that oil prices dropped to lows not...
3 min read
The History of the Lamborghini
What notable things in history happened on April 26th? The Mutiny on the Bounty happened in 1789, and the album Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd...
3 min read
What To Expect from new cars in 2020
Both time and technology march on inevitably. Many of the things that we used to think were science fiction – the “stuff of the future” – well, the...
6 min read
How to Maintain Your Car's Air Conditioner
Automotive Air Conditioning Maintenance: Things You Can Do and Things That Are Best Left to a Trained Professional As we approach the summer months...
2 min read
Bosch's (Potentially) Game-Changing Diesel Breakthrough for 2020
Changes and breakthroughs in the gas-powered car side of things tend to get the most play in the news. But diesel engines aren’t ready to go to the...
5 min read
The Real Racing Story of Ford v. Ferrari
Hollywood does love a good underdog story. Make it a racing story and Hollywood loves it even more. Those of us old enough to remember, first-hand,...
4 min read
Engine Oil Additives that work
How many different kinds of engine oil additives are there? Do they really work? To answer that question, we first have to separate "finished oil"...
3 min read
When do you need an engine oil flush?
There’s an ongoing debate among gearheads regarding whether engine flush products are good or bad. And the answer to that depends on the situation...
1 min read
Is there a low oil pressure additive?
Is there an oil additive that can correct a low oil pressure problem? That’s a question that’s been asked for years by various drivers. They notice...
3 min read
Lawnmower Care
Would you be surprised if you were told that the average American knows less about lawn care than their parents did? A 2016 survey by the National...
3 min read
How to Prepare Your Car for your next road trip (2019 edition)
As Labor Day approaches, we got to thinking 'we haven’t done a summer driving blog yet this year'. So we enlisted the help of our friend Keith Jacobs...
4 min read
How to Fix Bad Gas in a Car
When you’re asking the question ‘how do I fix bad gas in my car’, you’re talking about a different kind of situation than fixing bad stored fuel...
2 min read
What does a fuel stabilizer do?
At their cores, fuel stability and fuel stabilizers are much more about science than anything else. If we want to know more about what they are and...
4 min read
Common fuel-related small engine problems
Many kinds of motorcycles, scooters, ATVs, and go-karts have something in common with lawn mowers, generators and many other smaller machines –...
3 min read
Small Engine Fuel Stabilizers: what you need (and don't need)
We’re pushing now twelve years since the revolutionary widespread influx of ethanol in our nation’s gasoline supply. Or is it thirteen? In reality,...
2 min read
President Trump: New Steps Towards An E15 Future
It’s the first half of October, we’ve just gotten past the contentious confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and the...
5 min read
Winterizing an RV: Treat it right this winter
The great thing about the internet is that there's so much useful information out there, on almost any topic you want. And there are blogs like this...
6 min read
An Update On 2018 Hurricane Season - Gordon, Florence, and What To Expect Next
Before the start of each hurricane season, weather scientists from places like the National Weather Service and Colorado State University issue their...
4 min read
Self-driving cars: the auto industry speaks
With each passing year, the reality of sharing the road with fleets of self-driving, autonomous cars comes more and more into focus. Virtually every...
4 min read
Where does the oil for your fuel come from?
Today, we’re going back to the basics in talking about the fuels we use, the gasoline and diesel that we buy at the gas station. Even the most...
4 min read
This year's summer driving forecast
It’s that time again - summer driving season is here. Every year we do a blog post about this time where we talk about what the experts are...
3 min read
The Life and Mysterious Life of Rudolf Diesel
Ask an American to name a giant of automotive history and they will probably name Henry Ford first. And rightly so – Henry Ford wasn’t just a giant...
3 min read
Trump Administration looks to change fuel economy standards
One of the more significant regulatory requirements enacted by the Federal Government in recent decades are the fuel efficiency standards required...
1 min read
Fuel treatment for boats in 2018
Ten years into the ethanol era for fuel in the United States, we’re finding that more and more marinas are selling ethanol gas for marine use. This...
3 min read
Self-Driving Car Fleets by 2019?
As car drivers and owners, we’re at the point where we don’t think it’s strange to have a car that can parallel park itself or warn us if someone is...
2 min read
The Car's Early History
True or false – Henry Ford invented the automobile around the turn of the 20th century, making it one of the many history-changing contributions the...
2 min read
World Cities that Seek to Be Car-Free
It’s a trend that has been circling the globe for the last few years. Cities placing restrictions on the use of cars. And it’s something that may...
2 min read
Still driving a 1998 Camry? You could have a classic car
The classic car market is almost the very definition of niche. It’s populated with people who have a deep and abiding interest in the vehicles of...
2 min read
Is ethanol-free gas bad for your car?
This seems like a rather strange question. Is ethanol-free gas bad for your car? Isn’t that the same gas we all used before they started putting...
2 min read
Self-Driving Car Update: The Future Is Now?
We blogged a couple years ago about the rise of self-driving cars (“autonomous vehicles”) and how that was going to change the industry as we know...
3 min read
Avoiding Home Heating Oil Problems in 2018
As Bell Performance has been based in Florida since the late-1930s, we don’t see much home heating oil usage down here. But we do a substantial...
2 min read
A Bell Legend Passed - Our Tribute to Dr. Christian Clausen
Throughout Bell Performance’s long history, there are a handful of individuals who have shaped the company’s future to such an extent that their...
3 min read
Don't let heating oil sludge give you headaches this winter
"Sludge" is a phenomenon that you see with any kind of petroleum that’s left in storage for extended periods of time. As time passes and petroleum is...
2 min read
Don't Fall Into These Winter Driving Traps
Winter driving season is upon us, which means we know we have to drive differently. Over the years, there are certain assumptions we all have come to...
3 min read
Winter Heating Oil Additives and Other Steps For Your Heating System
This blog is for the portion of the country that still uses heating oil for their homes. That's about 6 million households across the country burning...
2 min read
When Is Engine Oil Consumption Considered Excessive? James on Engines #6
Bell Performance's master mechanic James Dunst gets more than a few questions from the automotive public on aspects of lubricating oil. What's the...
3 min read
How to Thaw Frozen Gas Lines in a Car
The cold temperatures are here and bring with them certain hassles like frozen fuel lines. A frozen fuel line will stop an engine dead in its tracks,...
1 min read
Classic Cars, Ethanol, and Our Master Mechanic
Last month James Dunst, Bell’s resident master mechanic, was the featured guest on The Classic Car Show podcast.
2 min read
Three Ways To Protect Your Tankless Water Heater This Winter
As winter approaches, we typically publish various blog articles with helpful advice on getting important appliances and equipment ready for winter –...
2 min read
Water in Gas Tank? Symptoms Explained
You accidentally left your gas cap off in rainy weather. Or the gas station you fueled up at has a bad water filter and delivered you a slug of water...
2 min read
Can I Use Last Year's Gas in My Generator?
Generator gas tends to be out-of-sight-out-of-mind. We don’t care about it until there’s a real possibility that we’ll have to fire the generator up,...
3 min read
Tips for Choosing the Best Motor Oil for Your Classic Car
Over the past decade, owners of classic cars have watched as ethanol has infiltrared the nation’s gasoline supply. Ethanol is an alcohol added to...
2 min read
Fuel Problems Most Classic Car Owners Face
Classic car owners love their vintage cars. Most owners know their engines inside and out - fuel tank, fuel line, carburetor, spark plugs, ignition....
8 min read
What to do about your classic car oil leak
Oil leaks can be frustrating because they don’t come from one place on your car, and that can make them difficult to pinpoint and resolve. Engine oil...
4 min read
Car Batteries and Other Classic Car Electrical Problems
This is part two of a blog post post series dedicated to classic car electrical problems and classic car batteries. Click here to view the first...
3 min read
Classic Car Batteries & Electrical Problems
ote: This is Part I of a 2-part blog series covering classic car batteries and electrical problems. The use of lead acid batteries goes back over 100...
2 min read
Retuning Your Classic Car for Today's Gas
Owners of classic and antique cars are well aware that today’s gasoline fuels are significantly different from the fuels they used to use. The...
3 min read
Gas for antique cars: things to consider
What was gas like back in the day when antique cars were in their prime?
2 min read
Storing Your Generator For Future Use
Generators are one of those things where you hope you never have to use them. But when it comes time, you’re glad you have one. If you have a...
1 min read
Hurricane Irma vs. Hurricane Andrew
As of today, Friday September 8th, Hurricane Irma is bearing down on Bell Performance’s home state of Florida. Irma’s unusual size and strength have...
3 min read
Boat fuel additives: watch out
The marine fuel additive galaxy could aptly be described as a group of planets, all named “ethanol gas treatment” revolving around a boat-shaped sun....
2 min read
Does oil help with noisy engines?
Nobody likes a noisy engine, and if you have one, you’re probably on the lookout for an easy fix for it. In truth, there are lots of potential causes...
2 min read
How Carbon Deposits Are Formed In An Engine
Any time you have heat, pressure, and oxygen around petroleum, you’re going to get the formation of carbon deposits. That means the internal...
2 min read
Recent Motorcycle Safety Innovations
They don’t make motorcycles like they used to. And that’s a good thing. There are more cycles on the road today than ever before and the number isn’t...
3 min read
More Comparisons of Multi-Purpose Grease
To select the best grease for your most important lubricating jobs, you have to know what you need the grease to do. Not in a generalized sense of...
2 min read
Different Lubricating Greases For Different Needs
Expensive equipment with moving parts that have the potential to generate heat and damaging wear cannot survive with a good quality grease. Not all...
4 min read
Will You Pay More At The Pump This Summer?
Just as hurricane season starts June 1st and boating season starts on Memorial Day, summer driving season kicks off around the end of May. It’s the...
4 min read
Running Your Car On Vegetable Oil?
Whenever trends raise their heads in modern society, there’s always a group of outliers who want to take that new practice to the limit. The rise of...
2 min read
Getting Ready for Boating Season
Most people would consider a successful boating season to be one where they stayed safe and they got a lot of use out of their boat without having...
3 min read
Synthetic Oils In Classic Cars
People who have classic cars go out of their way to baby them, to take care of them. It’s not just because they have a bunch of money invested in...
2 min read
How to Clean a Diesel Engine
Some of us may remember the conventional wisdom passed down for years, that you’re not supposed to clean a diesel engine. Turns out, this isn’t...
3 min read
Should You Clean Your Car's Engine?
At first glance, that sounds like a loaded question. Kind of like “should I eat a balanced diet” or “should I get enough exercise”? I mean, what’s...
2 min read
Fuel Additives for Storage Are Not All the Same
Professional stored fuel users often have fuel stabilizers in their fuel PM (preventive maintenance) arsenal to make sure the fuels they aren’t going...
3 min read
Stabilizer Additives For The Gas You Store At Home
Gasoline doesn’t have as large a market for storage additives as diesel fuel because it’s not stored for as long periods of time. In the business...
2 min read
Diesel Fuel System Cleaners
Whether you’ve got a diesel or gas vehicle, keeping the fuel system clean is a critical step to retaining the peak performance your vehicle had when...
4 min read
Self-Driving Cars and Better Gas Mileage
Within the next ten years, analysts project a significant chunk of the new cars on the road will be "self-driving" vehicles, also called autonomous...
3 min read
How do you know when a car needs an oil change?
To some extent, car maintenance is like cooking. If you want to cook, one approach you can take is to grab a recipe and follow the directions as...
2 min read
Sparkless Gas Engines: The Line Between Gas and Diesel Is Getting Blurry
Change is coming and it could be rather revolutionary. We’re talking about gas-powered engines and the reports of a new technology that could...
2 min read
Fuel Supplements: What's In A Name?
There’s lot of power in a name, in what you call something or in how you classify something. If you associate a given name with something good or...
3 min read
The Low Down on Gas Treatments for Cars
Let’s say you’re in a local auto parts store or even your local Walmart. Chances are that store has a shelf lined with bottles of gas treatment....
2 min read
Do You Need An Ethanol Fuel Treatment?
With ethanol being an accepted part of our nation’s gasoline supply, consumer questions have largely migrated from ones centered on “how do I get...
3 min read
Can A Bad Exhaust Cause Rough Idle?
The first question is, can an exhaust leak cause a rough idle? When you have a rough idle situation and it's being attributed to an exhaust leak, it...
2 min read
Boutique gasolines explained
People think that gasoline is gasoline. They think all gasolines are the same because they don’t know any better. Part of that comes from not knowing...
2 min read
How to know if you've got engine deposits
Automotive research has consistently shown that not having enough detergency in your gasoline leads to engine deposits that result in all kinds of...
1 min read
How to get a snowblower ready for winter
It’s always best to think about important things before you need them. Before they become urgent. Fall is upon us with winter not far behind. If you...
2 min read
Biodiesel Problems - What You May Not Know
Some comments today about biodiesel fuels and biodiesel problems. It’s now been ten years since production and use of biodiesel exploded in the...
2 min read
Detergents in gasoline can make a big difference to your car
It wasn’t until 1996 that detergents started being required in gasoline. Before that time, you had a lot more engine deposits because the gasoline...
1 min read
How to use gas treatments
We get some complicated questions in the fuel treatment industry – how do PAO detergents work? Why does diesel fuel gel in the winter? Are...
2 min read
Why people buy the gas they do
Have you ever considered the reasons why you choose the gas station you do?
2 min read
Are ethanol issues still a concern?
We’re about ten years into the Ethanol Era in the United States. 2006-2007 saw perhaps the most substantial changes to our nation’s fuel supply in...
2 min read
Put money back in your pocket – Premium vs. Regular gas
Many people still have this idea that premium gas is better all-around for their car. They swear that they get significantly better mileage and that...
1 min read
Gas shortage in the Southeast - What's the outlook?
There are 149 refineries in the United States, all working at high capacity around the clock to pump out enough gas and diesel to meet...
2 min read
Avoiding Home Heating Oil Problems
Bell Performance has been based in Florida ever since company founder Robert Bell moved down from Norfolk, Virginia in the 1930s. There’s not a lot...
2 min read
How to store fuel (to make sure it's ready when you need it)
No petroleum fuels have an unlimited shelf life. And the shelf life of today’s gas and diesel that you buy at the gas station isn’t anywhere near...
2 min read
Recommendations for Performing a Diesel Engine Flush
An engine flush can be a useful thing for removing sludge and oil deposits that build up in an oil sump. They work within some relatively-simple...
2 min read
Your Leaf Blower, Ethanol Fuel and What You Need To Know
If you buy a leaf blower or other small equipment from a retailer like Home Depot, you may have seen signs for the Look Before You Pump campaign....
3 min read
Self-Driving Car Accidents - Tesla and Google
There’s something creepy or unnerving to the average person when they think about “self-driving cars” tooling around our streets. The fact that...
2 min read
Are diesel fuel additives worth it?
“Are diesel fuel additives worth it?” That’s a difficult question to answer unless we know some things. The answer to the question of Are They Worth...
3 min read
Greasing Wheel Bearings: What To Know
Repacking and greasing wheel bearings are essential periodic maintenance for trailers, boats, and other rolling wheeled equipment. If not done...
1 min read
Figuring Out Motorcycle Noises
A while ago, Bell’s master mechanic James Dunst wrote a blog post on diagnosing common engine noises. The focus of his advice was geared towards cars...
2 min read
Symptoms of Stale Gas
“Stale gas” is the term commonly used to describe gasoline that has degraded and lost a significant portion of its combustibility. The causes for...
2 min read
Storing fuel for generator use
The nature of owning a generator is that you never know when you’ll need it most. It’s a hedge against the unpredictability of life. 99% of the time,...
2 min read
Old Oil in Car Symptoms? Signs That It's Time For A Change
Changing your oil within the manufacturer recommendations is the single best thing you can do to maximize the working life of your car’s engine....
2 min read
Essentials of Ethanol Fuel Stabilizers
A big difference between the fuels of today and the fuels of yesteryear is the need to protect the fuel quality of today's fuels in storage through...
2 min read
Generator Fuel Tank Cleaning - When's the last time you did it?
Back in 2004-2005, we had four (or was it five) major hurricane barrel their way through the Southeast United States. It was a scene that we may...
2 min read
Get The Most From Your Boat This Year
The good news this year is that gas prices are likely to be lower for the fourth consecutive year. So that will save boat owners some money. Boats...
3 min read
More Families Hitting The Road This Summer
Memorial Day traditionally signals the start of both the boating season and the summer driving season. Schools are out and families hit the road for...
1 min read
How to Speed up your Boat
Whether you own a Performance model or just a runabout, you want to get the most out of it, every time you take it out. You don’t need a major...
2 min read
Treating Gas For Outboard Motors
Google a combination of terms concerning gasoline treatment and outboard motors, and you’ll find a variety of parties chiming in. Some of them (West...
2 min read
Avoiding ATV Ethanol Problems
All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) aren’t cheap – maybe they don’t cost as much as a boat does, but they’re certainly worth taking care of. For the typical...
2 min read
The Coast Guard's Advice For Staying Safe On The Water
A couple years ago, we shared some advice for boaters from the U.S. Coast Guard on the best ways to be prepared for emergencies while you’re on the...
2 min read
2016 Hurricane Season Outlook: Get Ready
Hurricane season starts on June 1st and is slated to last through the end of November. Each year around this time, the National Weather Service and...
1 min read
A Boat's Biggest Concern - Water In Fuel
Boat engines aren’t designed to handle large volumes of water despite all the time they spend out in the marine environment. Boaters that use fuel...
1 min read
Choosing a Marine Fuel Treatment: What To Look For
This past winter wasn’t nearly as bad as the winter of 2014-15. But that’s all behind us now. Boating season is around the corner and summer fun on...
2 min read
What Boat Fuel Problems Will You Face This Year?
The amount of non-ethanol gasoline available across the country continues to go down. This is bad news for boat owners who treat their boats with...
3 min read
Finding a "Female-Friendly" Mechanic
People get skittish around things they’re not familiar with. And they get especially nervous in situations where they sense there’s a chance they...
1 min read
Preparing for Boating Season
Memorial Day (end of May) is traditionally considered the start of boating season. Here in Florida, it starts earlier than that. It’s never too early...
2 min read
Top Gardening Mistakes to Avoid During National Lawn and Garden Month
April is Lawn & Garden Month, or National Garden Month as the National Gardening Association calls it. People are starting to break out their lawn...
2 min read
The Barrett Jackson Auto Auction: $130 million and counting
The next iteration of the Barrett Jackson classic car auction took place recently in Palm Beach, Florida. Dubbed "the worlds greatest collector car...
2 min read
Handy Car Care Tips For National Car Care Month
We’ve missed doing a blog for National Car Month the past couple of years, so here it is! National Car Month is the brainchild of the Car Care...
1 min read
What could top the Daytona 500?
Daytona Beach, Florida. The world’s most famous beach. The spring break capitol of the globe. The name alone is known around the world. What event...
3 min read
Automotive AC Systems - Things You Can Do (And What's Best Left to the Pros)
With the summer months approaching, your car or truck AC system becomes a priority. It has to work well in the hot weather. This is especially true...
2 min read
Fuel Stabilizers for Car care: Necessary or Not?
Washing, wax, vacuum the interior. Make the tires shine. Clean the windows. Refill the washer fluid. What kind of things do you include in your car...
3 min read
When Life Gives You Lemons, Make a Car List
It’s been a while since we’ve done an automotive list and we got to thinking – what are the worst lemons of all time?
2 min read
Ethanol Fuel Injector Problems
Outside of driving behavior, fuel injectors are the single biggest influence of vehicle mileage and performance. Clean injectors are essential to...
4 min read
Accidentally mixing gasoline and diesel fuel - What happens then?
Here's a couple of scenarios we've come across. Someone calls us at the Bell office and starts to describe a situation where they had a diesel tank...
2 min read
How Much is Volkswagen on the Hook For?
The fallout from the Volkswagen diesel emissions cheating scandal is still settling and the final penalties for the #1 automaker in the world and...
2 min read
Volkswagen's Competitors Weigh In On Emissions Cheating Scandal
As the penalties for Volkswagen’s environmental cheating are being figured out, some significant players in the industry are offering their own...
2 min read
What makes a good fuel stabilizer for your car?
Fuel stabilizers are big business for diesel fuel, but may not appear to be so important in gasoline. But gasoline is still petroleum and still...
1 min read
The Unlikely Origins of the Smart Car
What do a 1980s fashion icon and a Smart car have to do with each other? Turns out, more than you think.
2 min read
Self-driving cars are coming (if they can get over some hurdles)
The self-driving, “autonomous” car seems like something out of the Jetsons. Or Blade Runner. The future that used to be only in the movies is now...
1 min read
Drivers loosen the purse strings - car loans top $1 trillion
The economy may be considered “slow” but that doesn’t appear to be stopping folks from buying cars. This is evidenced by the news that, for the first...
2 min read
One step closer to autonomous driving
What would it be like if you could sit back on your morning commute and watch TV or even recline your seat and eat breakfast without worrying about...
2 min read
Going back and forth about ethanol
One morning, a Google Alerts notification bugged across our screen – it’s what we use to make sure we don’t miss news and happening within the...
2 min read
Distracted Driving Can Be Really Expensive
Who would have thought that the biggest problem with drivers in the early 21st century would be distracted driving? There are laws against it, but...
1 min read
The best time to buy auto tires and other parts you need
It’s great to know how to fix your own car. You can save big bucks vs. going to the mechanic’s shop and you know the quality of the work being done....
2 min read
Why does my front end shake while braking?
A not-uncommon question that mechanics are asked concerns “why does my front end shake while braking”?
2 min read
Do home heating oil additives work?
Bell Performance is based down in Central Florida, which doesn’t get very cold in the winter. But we know it’s a different story up north, and a lot...
3 min read
Car Safety Scandals of Automotive Giant Proportions
Public trust in the automotive industry has been taking some giant hits recently, although the fact that gas prices are at their lowest marks in...
2 min read
How to increase your winter gas mileage
Winter gas mileage tends to be lower than what you typically get in the summer, leaving many drivers scratching their heads. Some may theorize it’s...
4 min read
Criminal Test Rigging By Volkswagen
Riding on the heels of $2.1 billion in criminal penalties assessed to Toyota and General Motors comes another big scandal involving Volkswagen –...
2 min read
Putting Kerosene In Your Diesel Engine or Tank
If you snoop around on the internet, sometimes you’ll see a question of a forum like this:
2 min read
The stories behind car innovations we take for granted
The car and trucks we drive today are innovative marvels that pack surprising amount of power and technology into relatively small packages. The...
2 min read
Does diesel fuel go bad?
Depending on what you mean, sure it can. But do we really know what we mean when we ask the question?
2 min read
Tesla Breaks The Consumer Reports Rating System
Consumer Reports releases its annual new car ratings report in October. But on August 27th, Consumer Reports issued a press release to talk about how...
2 min read
Fuel storage recommendations for everyone
Fleets and businesses aren’t the only people who need to store fuel. Many consumers regularly keep smaller volumes of fuel at home, for use in lawn...
1 min read
Interesting fuel stuff - not just for business any more
Have you checked out our B2B blog recently?
1 min read
Red diesel sludge lurking
Apart from farming, the primary use for red dyed diesel fuel is in home heating oil.
2 min read
Run-flat tires: benefits and drawbacks
Imagine if you could have a tire that never got flat. Or a tire where you could run over nails and the tire stays inflated long enough for you to...
4 min read
Does Fuel Treatment Really Work? How to Know.
We've been in the fuel treatment business far longer than most - if you're reading this in 2015, it will have been 106 years this year. So we've seen...
1 min read
Gas mileage up, greenhouse gases down. And there was much rejoicing.
Back in 1975, if you bought a new car, you could expect its mileage rating to be about 13 mpg. And you were happy to have it, because you didn’t care...
2 min read
New car tech not a winner with every driver
Up till today, the trend among automakers has been bigger and better whistles in each new car model. The assumption is that drivers are used to...
2 min read
Best Selling Cars of All Time Ford, Toyota or VW?
Time for some bits of fun trivia. Ever since the introduction of the Benz Patent Motorwagon in 1886 (widely regarded as the first automobile –...
3 min read
How to Make your Car Smart
Lots of people we know now own these new devices called Fitbits – little wearable computers that track how much activity they do, how they sleep,...
1 min read
Six Steps for Getting a Jet Ski Ready For Summer
Owners of jet skis and personal watercraft (PWC) have waited patiently for this time of year. No need to wait any more. Summer is upon us and the...
4 min read
Fuel Storage and Aged Fuel Issues - James on Engines #5
Through the Contact Us forms on the Bell web site, we get all kinds of inquiries about fuel problems and engines from the general public. Some of...
5 min read
Low Engine Power and Poor Performance - James on Engines #4
The Common Problem: Low Engine Power & Poor Performance Checking the computer for diagnostic codes If you suspect that there’s an internal problem...
1 min read
How To Remove Engine Sludge
This is the second post of a two part series on Engine Sludge. Don't miss post 1: How to Check for Engine Sludge. Maybe you haven’t changed your oil...
2 min read
How to check for engine sludge
This is the first of a two part series on Engine Sludge. Dont miss Part 2: How to Remove Engine Sludge. Car owners who do a lot of stop and go...
2 min read
Out With 10-and-2, In With 9-and-3 (Steering Wheel Hand Position)
For decades, those of us who took Driver’s Ed were taught that the proper position for best and safe driving was to have your hands at “10 and 2” –...
2 min read
Marine fuel treatment: Things to consider
Many of us have suffered through the worst winter in memory, with record snow storms and all-around cold and misery equally shared by all. Except...
2 min read
How to choose the best lawn mower additive
With all the frigid winter weather we've been having (Boston? Serious? 108 inches of snow?), it's easy to forget the spring is not that far away. The...
2 min read
Recognizing fuel problems in cars and light trucks
Cars and trucks operating properly and running on good in-spec fuel should give you great performance with a minimum of problems (most of the time)....
1 min read
Gas Station Owner Uses Mix-i-Go Instead of Looking for Ethanol Free Gas
An article recently appeared in The Chronicle in Lovell, WY. Jim Minchow, owner of Minchow's Service talks about gas prices but his comments about...
1 min read
Breaking in a new car - has the old thinking changed?
Back in the day, if you bought a new car, you figured you had to "break it in" - follow certain driving patterns for the first x number of miles of...
4 min read
Ready for a game changer? How about "Google in your Car"?
The iPhone may have become the phone that’s synonymous with the public’s image of a smart phone, but Google actually has a larger slice of the phone...
2 min read
France says to diesel fuel users: "no more"
It seems like Europe has always done things a little bit differently than over here in the United States. But this news takes that to a whole new...
3 min read
Cheap cars for the masses - Not what they really want?
Car buying public, we’d like to introduce you to the Tata Nano. Never met before? That’s okay - allow us to make some introductions. The Nano was...
2 min read
Computers to put a man on the moon and get you around town
These days, drivers are used to having vehicles that seem almost like a home away from home. Powerful systems like indash navigation, wifi internet...
1 min read
Electric cars pass 1 billion kilometers
Earlier this year (December 2014), Nissan announced that its top flagship electric car model Nissan Leaf has become the first electric car model to...
2 min read
Falling Gas Prices Impacting Ethanol For Consumers
As you drive by your nearest gas station, it probably brings a smile to your face to see gas prices dropping below $2.50 for the first time in five...
2 min read
Holiday driving forecast: Busy with a chance of less pain at the pump
The nation's largest car club, AAA, released its Christmas season driving forecast on December 16th. What's the outlook? Lots more cars on the road,...