So today I was surfing the good ole world wide web and decided to google how to raise the octane of gasoline. I know alot of people are going to say go buy race gas and what not but where I live that would mean a 3 hour round trip at least unless I bought a 55 gal drum. I am was only wondering if there was a way to raise octane levels more than say 9 points or to 93.9 as most pep boys octane boosters or the ones at local stores carry. When I searched a common thing mentioned on alot of forums is a chemical called teluene and another called xylene. Both are already in gasoline and used to determine the ocatane level, and therefore safe to use if mixed correctly. Alot of them say a 30% to 70% mixture raises octane to around 120. So technically on a 10% to 90% mix or 1 gallon to 10 of gasoline would raise octane quite a bit. Anyone ever heard of this stuff or tried it before. Just curious to find out since alot of the research yielded alot of talk about this over on nasoic, or whatever that subie forum is lol and even talk that indy car racers used this and had success or going from 39 psi with a little knock to running 59 psi with no knock.

 

xylene and toluene are both aromatic hydrocarbons and have both been used successfully in forced induction applications as an octane booster. Depending on your target octane rating and prices in your area it may be a great idea or a horrible idea. Tenn can also get pretty cold in the winter and toluene/xylene will both have issues. Older indy teams used to run the lines around the exhaust to keep the temperature acceptable.

Since you seem to be looking for 93 octane I'm going to imagine you have 90 or 91, we can just go with 90. Toulene octane is 114 and xylene is 117 so no combination of either with gasoline in any amount would net you more octane than 117. Also running straight xylene or toulene could be very rough on your fuel system, similar to running e100 or straight methanol. Anyway with 11 gallons of 90 octane gasoline and 1 gal of 114 octane toluene you would have 92 octane tank of fuel. 2 gallons of toluene would give you 94 octane avg.

I would recommend staying away from many of the octane boosters you find at service stations, those rarely increase your octane as advertised. Torco is a good choice, I use that as an additive from time to time with good success.

If your looking to increase octane for daily driving it can be a pain in the ***, consider going to e85 or methanol injection if e85 is not available in your area, you'll get many of the benefits and they are a little easier to handle than a barrel of xylene in your garage.

Living in alaska and dealing with the crap 90 octane we have here I have looked into using this stuff but locally its over $10 a gallon and race fuel here is less than that. e85 is cheaper, methanol is cheaper. 1/3 can of torco to 10 gallons or so gives me around 93 octane and its only $7 worth of torco if you pay $20 for 32oz and do 1/3rd can, even more be can be had with a 1/2 can and your still doing better than toulene.

Hope this helps

 

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...-formulas.html

and

https://www.evolutionm.net/forums/ev...ur-octane.html

There are many more threads on EVOm on the topic

 

Torco makes a race gas concentrate that really does work. Only downside is that it leaves a residue like carbon but orange.

 

Thanks for all the input

Akeric,
actually we do have 93 at the pumps here. The closest e85 station is over an hour away and further for any type of race gas. With that said the 93 here is crap and might as well be 89 im guessing due to the ethanol. I can notice a big difference in how the car feels on 93 with no ethanol than with it.

 

however if you decide to go the e85 route, dont forget to keep your current tune for the winter! or have another map made when the winter blend of ethanol comes to a town near you. It can be catastrophic on your motor =(

 

^I doubt I will be going that route. Don't get me wrong I would love to with hearing peoples success but just the fact of the closest station being an hour away can't justify it for me. And e85 coming to my town? Ha, that's wishful thinking for me as I live in a town where there is 2 stoplights. If u blink u miss em.