Octane booster: which ?
 

Hello,

I'm looking for a GOOD octane booster...

Any advice ?

TIA.

one that has MMT-methyl cyclopentandienyl manganese tricarbonyl in it

the best is called 110 octane and you can find it at almost any track and some sunoco gas stations {thumbup}

Just found one I really like at the local auto parts store . Called Xtreme Performance from Sport Compact Products. You add a bottle to 8 gallons of premium unleaded, or can be added to race gas.

Torco fuel additive.

I tried it last week. Car runs a lot smoother.

Octane boosters don't work.
Splash a little race gas in there.

Race gas woud be ideal, but dude, some fuel additives really do work.

I've always heard that octane boosters don't really do that much. I haven't looked for a long time but maybe it's gotten better over the years.

most octane boosters do not raise the octane one full point. They only raise it in tenths. So you go from 91.0 to maybe 91.1-91.3 understand?

NOS octane is supposed to be one of the better products though.

I just mix 3 gal of 100 octane per every 11 gal of 91 which comes out to 92.9 octane.

The old vp octane used to work but they pulled of the shelves where i live but if you find it give it a try

Put one gallon of 110 for $4 in there and it'd be a better investment than that $5 bottle of octane booster. If you're worried about lead, get like 1.5 gallons of 100 octane unleaded or 105 unleaded. Do the math and avg out your octane. :)

Toluene bought from a local petrochemical dealer. A place called Tarr sells it here in Portland. It is 114 octane, so a gallon of it mixed with 13 gallons of 91 octane gives you 92.64 octane, or 16.4 "octane points" as they like to call it on the octane booster bottles. Toluene is about $6/gal so it's about as much as the bottled additives but you aren't putting snake oil lead substitutes that do god knows what to your engine, you are just putting something in your tank that is naturally in gasoline anyway. The only reason they don't use more Toluene is because of emissions requirements. The turbo F1 cars which got an amazing 1,000hp/liter of displacement (1.5L turbo making ~1,500 hp) ran Toluene.

Don't buy the junk in the store, it's rubbish AFAIK, and even if it works, you have to question what kind of crap they put in that bottle such that a small amount has a huge effect. I would much rather burn a straight petrochemical.

Thats best IMO too.

For $5-7, get 1 gallon of either 109 unleaded or 110+ leaded. With a half tank of gas (14gal) its going to raise the octane around 2 points. A bottle of octane boost, even the best (NOS brand) will not even raise it 1.

Turbo Mag or SCC did a test using the octane boosters and I learned some cool things:

Adding a bottle of booster to 87 octane is much more effective than adding it to say 93. When they added it to 87 it made a big different but when adding to 93, it was a very very negligible gain. Just do the gallon of race gas, its the best thing.

I do it usually on Saturday nights if I go out hunting V8s {devil} Of course I notch the boost up a lil too.

+1. i used this and it did seem to curb the knock. now i just go to Ace Hardware and pick up a gallon of toluene and fill that little container with toluene and pour it in. seems to help the knock as my timing stays more consistent now. Toluene is rated as 114 octane. {thumbup}

{thumbup}

in my Integra Type R, the car use to detonate when it was untuned on 93 pump gas

i dont know if its safe, but i would pour like 6 bottle of octane booster into the tank when i got gas and it would run 100x better!

lol

Try running a gallon or two of xylene mixed in with your pump gas.

anyone know if there is an issue running high concentrations of toluene/methylbenzene and xylene/dimethylbenzene through the fuel system....hoses, orings...?

Shouldn't be a problem with Toluene. I've used it many many times on my Eclipse and a few times on my Evo with good results. Xylene is a bit more harsh. Dunno about the rest.

What I've done at times is run 1.5 Gallons of denatured alcohol on a full tank of gas. People run it on alcohol injection setups. Alcohol burns cooler and is already present in gasoline.

If I'm not mistaken denatured alcohol is ethanol which wont eat the fuel lines like methanol.

right now when i know im going to be on boost often, i'll pour 1 gallon of C16. gives me about 96 octane, good enough for safety since my car is tuned w/ 93 octane at under 11.0 AFR.

yeah i always have 5-6 gallons on stand as often as i can.

This should work too AFAIK but it will raise your A/F ratio readings, but 1.5 gallons shouldn't hurt anything if you have a safe tune.

I kept the mix at 10% toluene or Xylene, I believe you can go as high as 20% (don't quote me on this). Pump gas already has some Toluene/Xylene in it, beyond the 20% the octane #s will not improve and you may alter the dynamic of the combustion too much.
Then again I've heard of peoples claiming they run 50/50 premiun pump and Toluene without any ill effect.

Torco has been tested by an independent lab. One can ($10-15) will give you about 50-55 point of octane. Added to 10 gallons of 93 pump premiun you should get about a 97-98 octane mixture.
Don't know if you can use it w/ cats.

so most of you guys add either toluene or xylene, and crank up the boost a bit.....1psi = ~7 to 10psi rule?

thats odd it would detonate on an untuned 93oct. sound suspicious....hmmm were you turbocharged and running enourmously high boost along with your high compression?? sounds almost backwards... :crap: :confused: :beer:

I ran 1-2 gallons Sherwin Williams brand xylene for 3 years constantly in my old SFI Buick Grand National, which have a 15 gal capacity gas tank, and was able to increase boost 2# with one gallon mix and 4# with the 2 gallon xylene mix. This was mixed with 92 octane Super.

With straight 92 octane I could only run 15# boost w/o knocking. With one gallon of xylene I could turn the boost up to 17.5# w/0 knock. And with 2 gallons of xylene I was able to run 19-20# without any mv of knock as obseved on a Scanmaster with digital knock readout in milivolts.

Added benefits were lowered EGT's and no signs of deterioration in injector o-rings or seals in Walbro pumps and a beautiful tan color on my plugs. However as with any fuel additives always observe care in handling and avoid breathing the vapors and direct contact with skin(wear gloves).

FWIW, xylene used to be an additive in fuel injector cleaner additives so it keeps your FI system squeaky clean.

you went from 92oct to ~95oct from the mixture of 2 gallons xylene and could up your boost 5psi
((2/15*117)+(13/15*92))=95.3oct. Good info

Did the lower EGT reading come from advancing timing?

Did the lower EGT reading come from advancing timing?[/QUOTE


Look, if my memory serves me well, 'cause it's been a few years.....I am talking about 0.00mv of knock, so I could have turned the boost up another couple pounds safely and still be under a safe 2 degrees of knock. This was on a custom burned street chip that added timing on the bottom and in the middle and rolled it back off a few degrees up top so that we could run a bit higher boost safely on pump.

Other guys preferred running less boost and more timing for the street, on pump gas. I always preferred a bit less agressive timing above 4500 rpm so that I could increase the boost as much as possible on pump. My race gas chips had more timing on the topend.

But, to answer your question you would see reductions in EGT's and an increase in the knock threshold with the xylene, which would allow you to either turn up the boost or increase timing.

I throw this info out there FWIW, realizing that these were only my own experiences and with a different make of car and in different times and under different circumstances.

Just go buy race gas. It's guaranteed to work and be safe. When you start being cheap and mixing all this crap into your tank bad things can happen.

I'd be the 1st to agree, higher octane pump if they have it in your area or a mixture with race gas is preferrable to any sort of concoction or homebrew. That being said,however, I for one, never had any problems running xylene or toluene, and preferred using it to running on straight pump gas....just my .02

For most of us the main reason we resort to booster is convenience and availability, I think that's the reason for this thread.
Nobody is going to argue that race gas is better safety wise as well as performance wise but when nothing else is available, well booster will just have to do.

Outlaw octane booster
Sports compact car did a test on it. They took it to a lab for their test. It raised our California crappy 91 octane gas to a crappy 92 octane gas. (Man how come we do not get 93 octane :( Race gas is a better choice but it would cost me more to drive out of the way for those 2 gallons of 100 octane. I also do not feel like caring around 2 gallons of fuel in my trunk.

when i was in tucson az, 91octane = ~$3.40/gal. Now here in austin tx, 93 octane = $2.90/gal:)

Here in Italy we now have the new Shell V-power 100 RON... 95 r+m/2... and it's the one I use in my car...

BUT it is at 1.50 euros per liter...

that is to say 7.08 $ for 1 us gallon...........

:crap: :crap: :crap: :crap: :crap: :crap: :crap: :crap:

[
Man...just pay the tariff and run that 95 (R+M/2) octane, Shell-V stuff in your new Evo. The better octane boosters aren't cheap and if you read the small print where they say that it raises your base fuel's octane by 7 points....they mean 0.7 of an octane number not 7.0 numbers...so they only raise the octane level one number at best.

If you are not willing to pay the price for the 100 RON octane stuff then you might try blending it with the cheaper 95 RON stuff. But hey, high performance turbocharged cars require the best fuel available. In the long run it is cheap insurance and detonation is your enemy. If you plan on tuning your car to the edge and running 25-27# of boost, then run the best available fuel.

I understand the reason for the question, because hey, who doesn't want high octane tankfulls of gasoline by mixing in a small bottle of snake oil. Too bad those bottles are filled with stuff that will at best not even raise the mix one full octane rating number, and may do damange to your engine in the process...

Yes, obviously I use always the 100 RON fuel,
but I'd like to have some options to use when dynoing and in track days to increase safely a bit the boost.... :D

Snow Performance And Blue100

Can you get Shell Optimax+CVLTurbo gasoline at the pump? It has a RON of 101.4 and a MON of 89.9, with that stuff you shouldn't need anymore octane(95.6 R+M/2).

If however,you are set on using an off-the-shelf octane enhancer, then I would recommend Millers CVL, produced by Millers Oils in Britain. This stuff will raise the octane level of a tank of gas by three whole octane numbers(30 points).

What I used to do when I would go to the track was carry two gallons of Xylene in the trunk, pull over a 1/2 mile from the track entrance and dump the 2 gal of Xylene into my car's 1/2 full gas tank.

The petroleum companies used to rely on tetraethyl lead to raise the octane of gasoline, whereas now they use a combination of MTBE, MMT, Toluene and Xylene.

In your case, I guess you are just being extra safe....which is understandable. Personally, if I had a IX I would feel safe running it at 25 to 26# of boost on that 100 RON Shell gasoline.

The IX's, because of improved design of the coolant passages in the cylinder head and the upgraded turbo's more efficient, colder-blowing compressor housing are much less detonation prone than the earlier generations of Evolutions.

Water injection: Its just easier and cheaper in the long run...I personally dont beleive that octane booster is any real help. for the money Just do water/meth injection Its more efficient.