Octane Booster - Hoax?

[LiquidBlack]

I was in Autozone the other day and I saw these small bottles of Octane Booster for $2, which you apparently mix into your fuel for higher octane. Seemed like snakeoil to me...

Ok, discuss.

[35th Anniversary SS]

Its basically a joke.. that stuff doesnt do anything.

If you want to raise the octane either buy race fuel, 100oct is available on the pump at some places.

Or you can experiment with mixing to get higher octane.. google search Toluene + octane.

[LiquidBlack]

Originally posted by 35th Anniversary SS
If you want to raise the octane either buy race fuel, 100oct is available on the pump at some places.

That is, some places in California

Never would have even considered buying it, nor do I have a real interest in increasing my fuel octane levels. I am just amazed at the amount of garbage products that are available for cars.

[jchetty]

basically, gas and oil additives are junk..save your money

[Michael Stoops]

I beg to differ. One of the tuner car magazines recently did an article on a couple of these products, one from NOS and the other...er...ah....I don't recall the brand now. Anyway, they actually did increase octane in a tank of 91 octane gas, bringing it up two and three points. This stuff wasn't $2/can, more like $4/can.

But even if it did raise the octane by, say 8~10 points, do you really need it? Of my three cars two are designed to run on regular 87 octane gas and both do fine with it. Running anything higher achieves nothing but a lighter wallet. It is a total and compete waste of money.

The third car is turbocharged, with a Stage 1 upgrade, and premium fuel is all but mandatory. Yes, the car will run on regular, but the ECU will pull timing, thereby reducing power, and the engine will still ping - not good. So I always run 91 octane in it (no 93 here in Cali) and it's just fine and dandy.

Now, at the track, if I'm going to up the boost levels, then I'll stop by a certain gas station between my house and the track and throw a few gallons of 100 octane race fuel into an almost empty tank. But at $6/gallon I don't make a habit of it, and again it's only when I'm running more boost at the dragstrip.

So, are these octane boosters pure snake oil. In come cases, probably. In other cases they actually do raise octane. But do you need an extra point or two? Probably not. And to me, that is the ultimate measure of who gets my money and who doesn't.

[the other pc]

Originally posted by Mike-in-Orange
...Yes, the car will run on regular, but the ECU will pull timing....

That's fine and dandy for you young whippersnappers with them new-fangled pooterized doohickeys. For us old-timers, engine management means to pulling your foot out-a-da-firewall when you hear a rod bust through the block.


PC.

[sneek]

I use a fuel additive after ever oil change, it isn't very expensive and it gives me hope that my car will last me a long time

[35th Anniversary SS]

Originally posted by Mike-in-Orange
I beg to differ. One of the tuner car magazines recently did an article on a couple of these products, one from NOS and the other...er...ah....I don't recall the brand now. Anyway, they actually did increase octane in a tank of 91 octane gas, bringing it up two and three points. This stuff wasn't $2/can, more like $4/can.

I typically dont buy into magazine article comparisons because all too often Ive seen where $ from manufacturers have played a key role in comparison outcomes.

The thing is it may have indeed raised the octane by 2-3 points.. the thing is what most people dont realize is that those points are only measured as 1/10th of a full octane rating. For example.. a few ounces of NOS octane booster will bring a tank of 87 octane fuel to a higher, yet totally insignificant, 87.2 or 87.3. This is also of course depending on what size tank you have.. most off the shelf octane boosters say to add the can when refilling a tank to the top... well.. some cars have 12gal tanks, some have 40gal tanks.

The only way to raise octane is to use specific ratios/dillutions with substances such as the toluene I mentioned.

Id be willing to bet that 99% of people using off the shelf octane boosters really dont see any benefit... and if they do did the benefit outweigh the $2-$8 for the can they bought?

Toluene can be bought at many paint supply stores.. Im planning on experimenting with some this summer. Itll be a great addition to the boost Im running with my supercharger. It might help shove me over the 600hp mark.

Heres a good read.... it is a old article, some of the pricing has changed, but the octane ratings and such remain the same, and it works.

http://elektro.cmhnet.org/~charlie/photos/cars/audi/toluene.html

[Setec Astronomy]

Originally posted by sneek
I use a fuel additive after ever oil change, it isn't very expensive and it gives me hope that my car will last me a long time

You really want to use any fuel system cleaners before you change your oil, they will frequently drop stuff into your oil thru blowby that you don't want in there.

[WaspHunter]

For an extra 8c/L here I can get Super Premium (98 RON) over Premium (95 RON). That's ~65 cents to fill my tank witha higher octane fuel. Much more cost effective than using an octane booster, and the 98 has the cleaning additives already present (probably just ehtanol, but its still a cleaner).

That and the Subie ECU has a large enough timing tolerance to be able to give you a (slight) performance advantage over ULP. Over a number of tanks, however I've found I'm actually spending about the same for the 98 from the mileage.

We have 100 RON here fom Shell... 98 RON with the maximum 10% Ethanol mixed. Bit of a hack if you ask me.

[Michael Stoops]

Originally posted by 35th Anniversary SS
I typically dont buy into magazine article comparisons because all too often Ive seen where $ from manufacturers have played a key role in comparison outcomes.

The thing is it may have indeed raised the octane by 2-3 points.. the thing is what most people dont realize is that those points are only measured as 1/10th of a full octane rating. For example.. a few ounces of NOS octane booster will bring a tank of 87 octane fuel to a higher, yet totally insignificant, 87.2 or 87.3. This is also of course depending on what size tank you have.. most off the shelf octane boosters say to add the can when refilling a tank to the top... well.. some cars have 12gal tanks, some have 40gal tanks.

The only way to raise octane is to use specific ratios/dillutions with substances such as the toluene I mentioned.

Id be willing to bet that 99% of people using off the shelf octane boosters really dont see any benefit... and if they do did the benefit outweigh the $2-$8 for the can they bought?

Toluene can be bought at many paint supply stores.. Im planning on experimenting with some this summer. Itll be a great addition to the boost Im running with my supercharger. It might help shove me over the 600hp mark.

Heres a good read.... it is a old article, some of the pricing has changed, but the octane ratings and such remain the same, and it works.

http://elektro.cmhnet.org/~charlie/p...i/toluene.html

By quoting just the first paragraph of my post and then adding the comments you did you make it sound like I took the magazine article as gospel and that these octane boosters are a good thing and worth the money. In reality I happen to agree with your comments 100%, which should be evident from reading my entire post.

Just clarifying.

[Michael Stoops]

Originally posted by the other pc
That's fine and dandy for you young whippersnappers with them new-fangled pooterized doohickeys. For us old-timers, engine management means to pulling your foot out-a-da-firewall when you hear a rod bust through the block.


PC.

Gee Paul, are you telling me your cool new MINI doesn't have a new-fangled pooterized doohickey controlling the engine????

[SiriusRIMZ]

I think Octane booster is really only for tuners, and performance tuning cars. Otherwise dont bother.


use an additive called "Seafoam" on my gas, even 10 or 15 tanks, its a great product and I highly reccomend it! It cleans out your fuel system and can improve your MPG. My last oil change I poured some down my Throttle Body and let it stall my Jeep. Then started it up, it smoked pretty good for 20 minutes, then drove around a bit. My idle was much lower than before, 800rpms-500rpms, and my throttle was more responsive.

[sneek]

Originally posted by Setec Astronomy
You really want to use any fuel system cleaners before you change your oil, they will frequently drop stuff into your oil thru blowby that you don't want in there.

But the bottle says after every oil change?? I use the black STP stuff

[rammsteinmatt]

Originally posted by LiquidBlack
That is, some places in California

whoa boss, you have no standing to complain about your gas compared to california.

first, your gas is most likely cheaper. second, you can get 92 - 94 as the high octane at the pump right?

we get 91 octane (and some stations have 90.5 that round up to 91)

if you want to get 93 octane like in other states, we have to use a table and mix in x gallons of 100 octane. of course 100 octane is available at the pump in maybe 15 places in LA county, and you can buy it at another 20 or so places in a 5 gallon drum.

but the best part. 100 octane is hovering around 6-7 dollars/ gallon right now, bringing the average price of a gallon of gas in a mixed tank way up.

as for cars running better or something rather on higher octane. 100 has less addatives than regular gas. this basically cleans your fuel system. also it has higher resistance to detonation (thats the octane number) so you can run higher compression (and/or boost) without early detonation. basically make more power without doing anything (if the car is tuned to take advantage of the additional resistance to detonation, with some of that computer trickery mentioned above)

like in my example, i have a 2.0l engine that puts out nearly 350 horsepower at the crank. how does it do this? with 20psi of boost of course. you better bet my car would like higher octane better (because i could raise the boost of course)