Does it work? Any benifits?
Myfirst 69SS
Depends on who you talk to. I find it very hard to believe that a few ounces of anything will raise say 15 gallons of 91 octane (the highest you can get here) to any noticeable amount. If that was for sure the case I would think that stuff would be in such high demand that a normal person couldn't afford it. The oil companies could make 50 octane and give a bottle with each fillup. There are some people who swear by it. Maybe one of the car magazines could do dyno tests with it to settle the confusion once and for all.
very little. When they say it raises octane 4-6 points it means .4 - .6 points, like 91 goes to 91.4
There is no benefit to raising octane if you don't need additional octane, and can actually lower performance in some cases. If you need an octane boost then mixing race gas or toluene/xylene does work, and recipes can be found by searching octane boosters.
Jody
There is no benefit to raising octane if you don't need additional octane, and can actually lower performance in some cases. If you need an octane boost then mixing race gas or toluene/xylene does work, and recipes can be found by searching octane boosters.
Jody
We have 91, 87, and 85. When we were on vacation I noticed that all of the States we went through had 93. I don't know why 91 is our highrst unless maybe altitude has something to do with it. We were in a Lexus and were keeping track of mileage and didn't notice any difference in that and no noticeable difference in performance, like starting and idling, but I suppose the computer would adjust for any differences.
Yes it works, but read the can. As stated it will raise the octane raiting of 87.0 gasoline all the way up to (wait for it... drum roll please, ...) 87.2 octane, or two points. If you start with 93.0 octane it will not raise it all the way to 93.2 because the same additive that the refinery added to the gasoline is in that can of 104 Octane boost and there is a level of diminishing returns. The refinery makes 87 octane gas and adds chemicals like tolulene to it to raise the octane rating.
Larger Dave
Larger Dave
As posted above..higher octane does not increase HP.It does aid in combatting detonation issues with higher than normal cyl pressures.The burn rate is slower and could cause driveability and hard starts with engines designed to operate with 87.Perhaps some one can clear this up..but isnt race fuel more about oxygenation for power?
fast burn chambers come to mind..a high octane fuel would appear to be counterproductive.
fast burn chambers come to mind..a high octane fuel would appear to be counterproductive.
Octane postings at the pump are "minimum octane". I have found that most all blends test at 1 to 1.5 points higher then posted. IE: 85 comes in at around 86 to 86.5 and 91 comes in at 92+. Most gas stations now have blender pumps. The mid grade fuel is blended at the pump. NL and PNL are mixed at a 60% NL with 30% PNL ratio. hence if you have a 85 NL and 91 PNL the mid would be 87. You also see some fuels advertising 10% ethonal. These fuels come in at about a 96 to 97 Oct on the PNL. However in this case a higher Octane does not mean more HP. It in fact means less because of the ethonal blend the 97 has a lower BTU then regular 87. Also Octane is affected by temp. Cooler fuel = higher Octane.:thumbsup:
Our mid grade 87 has the 10%. The 85 and 93 don't have Ethanol according to the placard. Also, there are 3 seperate tanks for each grade of fuel. I never heard of the mixer pumps you are talking about though. I would think that could be borderline illegal due to the dealer tampering with things. We did get a 'special' blend a few years back when a new driver filled out of a dirty contaminated tank and delivered it to the station we use. Some people didn't make it out of town. Some made it the 30 miles to the next town. My wife made it 600 miles. She called on the cell phone and explained how it was running. I told her to fill it with premium and 2 bottles of STP Gas Treatment at each town she came to. We had a GMC Suburban and it seems they had 35 gallon tanks. Luckily she only bought a half tank of crud. When she got back I changed the filter and poured the contents into a glass jar. Water, diesel, gas, and some kind of fine black powdery stuff. Anyone that complained was treated to a complimentory tank flush, new filter, and a full tank of good gas. Rumor has it that the cost easily exceeded $1,000,000. P.S. It didn't raise the octane either.
Some stations still have separate tanks for each blend. But with Diesal being so popular now alot of them are adding a Diesal pump to the island. To do that they are putting in blender pumps and using the mid grade tank for the Diesal. It is more common to find blender pumps now then not. Lately we have been finding a rise in contaminated fuel however it is mostly in the diesal. We have tracked most of the bad stuff coming in from South America.
The blender pumps are legal and very accurate. They are just blending the fuel at the pump rather then at the bulk plant. If you have a problem with fuel be sure to call your state Bureau of Weights and Measures and tell them.:thumbsup:
The blender pumps are legal and very accurate. They are just blending the fuel at the pump rather then at the bulk plant. If you have a problem with fuel be sure to call your state Bureau of Weights and Measures and tell them.:thumbsup:This is interesting about the "race" fuel. When I was racing motorcycles we would run Turbo Blue and tuned the bikes for it. There were several guys who would bring their street fuel tuned bikes in and run race fuel. They were actually slower when they did that since they didn't tune to it. My point? Like someone said earlier, just adding higher octane fuel does not necessarily make your vehicle faster...
Octane does nothing for you if you don't need it.
I think most people who think they need it are mistaken.
A 11 to 1 engine with a gas mileage cam will detonate to hell if there is not enough Octane (if the timing is up). Most street Hot Rods have enough cam timing to drop the DCR enough not to need more than premium fuel.
I have had very few probs with my z car in the 25 years I have own it concerning octane.
The are occassions that I may want to bump the timing way up and will need some "good" gas, but only once in a while.
I saw a young man filling up his very clean (but stock) 87 full size truck with the 92 octane. I jokingly ask him "You have a Hot Rod motor in that?". "No, I just don't want to use cheap gas" he answered.
He just wasted his money.
I think most people who think they need it are mistaken.
A 11 to 1 engine with a gas mileage cam will detonate to hell if there is not enough Octane (if the timing is up). Most street Hot Rods have enough cam timing to drop the DCR enough not to need more than premium fuel.
I have had very few probs with my z car in the 25 years I have own it concerning octane.
The are occassions that I may want to bump the timing way up and will need some "good" gas, but only once in a while.
I saw a young man filling up his very clean (but stock) 87 full size truck with the 92 octane. I jokingly ask him "You have a Hot Rod motor in that?". "No, I just don't want to use cheap gas" he answered.
He just wasted his money.
here are a couple of octane calculator sites. i used to used this when i ran my jet boat to get the deisred octane
http://www.motorsportsracingfuels.com/OctaneCalculator.html
http://www.anycalculator.com/octane.htm
as far as octane doing nothing. in my benz and volvo, it is specifically mentioned to only used premium grade octane. i have been told that if you dont used the premium grade gas, the timing adjusts to compisate(sp) for the lower grade and the motor doesnt operate to its potential.
PS, the anycalculator home page is pretty cool. you can pretty much calculate anything.
http://www.anycalculator.com/
http://www.motorsportsracingfuels.com/OctaneCalculator.html
http://www.anycalculator.com/octane.htm
as far as octane doing nothing. in my benz and volvo, it is specifically mentioned to only used premium grade octane. i have been told that if you dont used the premium grade gas, the timing adjusts to compisate(sp) for the lower grade and the motor doesnt operate to its potential.
PS, the anycalculator home page is pretty cool. you can pretty much calculate anything.
http://www.anycalculator.com/
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
