I live in the South East. They say 45% of our gas comes from the Colonial PipeLine, which is down. Still getting some gas, but mostly regular. I must have 93 for my Hot Rod. Is all Octane Booster just snake oil, or is there any that really works?
Well... There are a number of compounds that can increase the octane rating when mixed with gas. Unfortunately few are effective at the mix ratio you go with when you buy a small bottle and add to a tank of fuel. Tetraethyl lead is probably the most effective booster, but you won't be getting your hands on any of that (and that's probably a good thing anyway). On top of that, we don't really know what the refinery sell as fuel that day. They use whatever they have on hand, mix until it gets the right properties, the right octane rating and so on. One mix may respond (relatively) well to an octane booster, another mix may not get any octane improvement at all from the same amount of booster. So relying on booster for an engine that will destroy itself if run on low octane fuel is probably a reliable way to kill the engine sooner or later.
Like I said in another Tread I buy Non Ethonel Gas its High Test gas & it Works Great. There are 2 Places in my Area 1 is a Steward's & the other is a CEO Station. Just my 3.5 Cents Live Learn & Die a Fool
Octane Supreme contains a good dose tetraethyl lead and is available, but expensive. Just Google the name.. Leaded racing fuel is also available from Sunoco , VP fuel and a few others.I use it in my land speed racing bikes... And LL100 aviation fuel if you local airport will sell it to you, some won't... Why do you fear leaded fuel? Overall little is used and normal precautions are the same as any solvent.... There are a few effective octane booster, again use Google..
It works, even the boss @Ryan ran it in his 38 And FWIW, I spent a few years in the Petroleum Industry. Most of what you hear about fuels and pipelines is BS.
I was unsuccesful in finding MSDS for "Race Gas" brand additive to satisfy my curiosity as well. I have no experience and personally only use VP110 recognizing it diminishes the life of my O2 sensors Their brand has been promoted on https://www.powernationtv.com/post/how-to-turn-regular-pump-gas-into-higher-octane-race-fuel. Here is their website as well http://race-gas.com/ Good Luck!
None of the parts store crap does much. Half a point per bottle maybe. Torco Accelerator is the only "booster" worth a damn, but it's pricey. It's not really a booster, it's concentrated race fuel. A 32oz bottle will take 15 gallons of 87 octane to 94-95 octane. I used to use this stuff when running nitrous and lots of timing in an OT Mustang, it does work. If you have a local race fuel supplier, mix a few gallons of 108 (unleaded) or 110 and up (if lead is not a concern) in with 87 or 89. Also not cheap, but it's more readily available than Torco. 5 gallons of 108 mixed with 10 gallons of 87 will get you where you need to be, and smell really good!
Best thing to do is build your street engines for 9:1 compression. That way you can run all the timing that engine wants and on 87 octane.. My 454 is a 1978 and runs best on 87. I have my initial at 20 and my mechanical adds 16 from 1000 to 2500 and this is with a 180 thermostat.. Never hear anything but that sweet big block Chevy sound. The stock Chevy starter fires this engine right up. Sometimes you barely hear the starter.. Running high compression drag strip compression ratios and temperatures on questionable gasoline octane levels will give you less performance then a low compression engine on 87 that can run all the timing it wants with a high temperature 180-195 thermostat. The low 9:1 compression lets you run that engine with all the speed tricks without a worry in the world.. The higher the temperature the better usually I run a Stant SuperStat 160 degree thermostat from April 1 to December 1. Then all the other times I use the 180 degree Stant SuperStat
Additives can and are added all the time to fuel after production and at the time it is loaded for delivery on a truck. Both in gas AND diesel products. It is everyday common in the industry. Exxon Mobil has their own proprietary package that only they use and it blends when the driver fills the transport truck. Others do the same. It is the same type of chemistry that lets you make cold brew coffee or hot brew coffee out of the same ingredients to dumb it down in laymans terms
I am just looking for a temporary fix, until we get 93 octane back since the shut down (which I agree is BS) Caroline Pipe Line. My hot rod really prefers 93, and I have couple of stations here that have non ethanol 93. Hot Rod really likes that. Engine is not radical. It's 1st Gen 392 Hemi, 2 500 edelbrocks, mild cam. Built to drive, not race car, not show car. I bought Lucas Octane Booster. $9.99 at O'Reilly's. 15 ounces treats 25 gallon, so says the claim. Best I can find in this littlebitty town. I will find out how it works. Leaving in the AM on 3 hour drive to a car show this week end. Thanks for your replys.
I run Vp Octanium it's Not snake oil. AutoZone carries it , and other @ ($20-30) Not cheap by the can , I purchase 5 -10 cases @ a time comes out to be $9 -12 a can , depends on the supplier at the time, I mix it with 91-93 off the pump , 1 can per 10gals . Another alternative is Meth Now I am starting to experiment with Meth injection, was developed in World War II
The Austin in my avatar wont run on 93 octane without pinging, so I keep a bottle of octane booster in the trunk all the time and add it to every fill up. Does it work? It does, as it wont ping or detonate if I give it a shot of booster, but try to run 93 without it and it scares me with the pinging. I use Boostane, which can vary octane rating depending on the ratio of the mix. Not cheap at around $32 for a 32 oz. can, but I get about 6 fill ups of my 16 gal. fuel cell from it.
Stay away from STP. All it does is foul your plugs with that orange crud. Back off the ignition timing a bit and run regular until this mess is cleared up. Joe
Octane? you want octane? In the dino days we just dropped by the local small airport and got a few gallons of aviation (AV) gas. I heard it was 109 back then. Mix it up and------
Now, pull your plugs and look at them. They will be rust red. Don't freak out. There is nothing wrong with your engine. It is a side effect of the octane boosters that I have used. Tman is correct in that everyone has their own additive package. Ethyl Corp in VA used to develop additive packages for fuel and oil for most everybody. They probably still do. It was pretty cool to see all those dynos working those engines and testing the additive packages.
I.usually mix non ethanol 93 with a few gallons of race fuel as the best combo I've found. The old real lead additive (silver bottle) was great but I don't think it's made anymore. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Toluene [ or Toluol] Toluene has a RON octane rating of 121 and a pump octane rating of 114. It use to be marketed as Methylbenzene [an Octane Booster] In the Turbo era of F1 they were running blends which were 86% Toluene [the maximum allowed in F1 restrictions] You can run 100% Toluene but it doesn't atomise very well unless pre-heated to approx 160f Blends up to 35% wont have this issue.
We used to use toluene back in the 70's to bring the specific gravity of pump gas up to the max that NHRA allowed. Seemed to work pretty good. Our gas always tested real close to the limit.
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