About Hot Shot's Secret
Hot Shot's Secret started in a two-car garage in Ohio, built around a specific engineering problem rather than a product line. Its flagship formula, Stiction Eliminator, was developed in 2005 for International Truck and Engine Corporation to address sticky-injector failures on the Ford Power Stroke 6.0-liter diesel engine, and that diesel-first focus still defines the brand. The company operates as Lubrication Specialties Inc. (LSI) out of Mt. Gilead, Ohio, and became part of the Gold Eagle Company family in 2022. Hot Shot's Secret says its formulas go through laboratory R&D, independent third-party dynamometer testing, and real-world fleet validation before release, and the company holds Better Business Bureau accreditation.
The current lineup runs to more than 30 products spanning fuel and oil additives, specialty oils, coolants, and transmission fluids for gas and diesel vehicles alike, with a particular following among Powerstroke, Duramax, and Cummins owners. On RevRated, the Diesel Extreme Fuel System Cleaner is featured in our fuel injector cleaner testing as the diesel-specific option in a roundup otherwise dominated by gasoline-only PEA formulas -- a category where purpose-built diesel chemistry, rather than a general-purpose additive, is what a common-rail injector actually needs.
Brand website: hotshotsecret.com
What Hot Shot's Secret makes
Hot Shot's Secret's range runs wider than the products we review. The lines we know best from our own testing are marked with a star:
Diesel fuel additives
cleaning, cetane-boosting, and lubricity treatments for common-rail diesel injectors -- featured on RevRated — featured on RevRated
Oil additives
friction modifiers and stiction-fighting treatments for gas and diesel engines
Specialty engine oils
full synthetic and blended motor oils formulated for diesel and gas applications
Transmission fluids
additives and fluids for automatic and manual transmissions
Coolants
extended-life coolant and coolant additive products
RV, racing & marine additives
fuel and oil treatments formulated for recreational, towing, and marine engines
Why we recognized Hot Shot's Secret
The RevRated Top Brand recognition isn't paid for and can't be applied for. We award it to the brands whose products consistently stand out in our hands-on category reviews. Hot Shot's Secret earned it on the strength of the products below, evaluated the same way every product on this site is: bought, run on real vehicles, and judged on merit.
Hot Shot's Secret products we rated highly
Hot Shot's Secret Diesel Extreme Fuel System Cleaner
Purpose-built diesel chemistry that targets internal diesel injector deposits, including the waxy and polymeric buildup that forms inside modern common-rail injectors running at 30,000-plus PSI -- a fouling mechanism gasoline cleaners are not formulated to address. It carries a cetane boost of up to 7 points alongside the cleaning package, and in our testing owners reported smoother idle and quicker cold starts on high-mileage diesels. It also adds back lubricity that ultra-low-sulfur diesel strips away, protecting the high-pressure injection pump between fuel filter services. A 4.7-star rating across 5,809 Amazon reviews and a strong following in Powerstroke, Duramax, and Cummins owner communities back up the results we saw.
Read the 8 Best Fuel Injector Cleaners of 2026 guide →What earned Hot Shot's Secret the recognition
- Featured in our fuel injector cleaner testing as the diesel-specific pick, built around chemistry engineered for internal diesel injector deposits rather than a gasoline-first formula adapted for diesel use.
- A 4.7-star rating across 5,809 Amazon reviews, with a strong grassroots following in the Powerstroke, Duramax, and Cummins owner communities we saw referenced repeatedly in our research.
- The Diesel Extreme formula combines injector cleaning with a cetane boost of up to 7 points and a lubricity package that offsets what ultra-low-sulfur diesel strips away, addressing three separate diesel fuel system needs in one treatment.
- Formulas go through laboratory R&D, independent third-party dynamometer testing, and real-world validation before release, and the company holds Better Business Bureau accreditation.
- Grew from a two-car garage in Ohio into a 30-plus product line built around a specific diesel engineering problem -- sticky injectors on the Ford Power Stroke 6.0-liter -- and has kept that diesel-first focus as the brand expanded.