Diy octane booster

[R33E8]

Not sure how safe this is but some people have done it will good results.

http://www.vtr.org/maintain/gasoline-octane.html

[2wickedtoyz]

very interesting i'm going to try it on my lawn mower just incase

[SmokingTires]

Raising your octane (if the formula even works) will do nothing for performance. It's the same as buying higher grade gas. And if you raise your octane from what your engine requires, it won't be able to burn all of the fuel. And that will cause carbon build-up on the inside of your engine, which will shorten your engines life.

Feel free to read more: Click Me!

[R33E8]

The link dosn't work. I know that the octane rating has nothing to do with performance but if you are running boost or high compression then you would need to have a higher octane rating. I think it would be good for the street because you can just buy some 87 or 89 octane and boost it up to 93 or somthing. It might even cost less in the long run. Then if you go to the track, you could add a little more and turn up your boost a bit and be faster without having to worry about your engine knocking.

[SmokingTires]

(I fixed the link)

Well, if you calculate it out, it will actually cost you more.

Assuming the "octane booster" works, in general a bottle costs about $7.00 or so. And premium fuel usually doesn't cost more than 20 cents more than low octane. If you have a 15 gallon tank, it only cost you $3.00 more. While on the other hand, you are paying $7.00 for one bottle of "octane boost" So you are really paying twice as much.

And that's assuming that it does what it says, and is able to boost your octane rating from 87 to 93. Which I highly doubt is possible.


Anyways, if you are running boost, 93 octane will be fine. And if you really are putting down that much power, you should be running racing fuel. 109 octane.

[Stealth]

We sell NOS brand octane booster at Circuit City... I think there's "street" and "racing" formulas... some kid who had a Neon aparently uses it a lot, and it aparently works very well, according to his girlfriend. It was very hard not to laugh at her when she said that because she has no idea what she's talking about and neither does her boyfriend (who's neon has NOS stickers all over it, a fugly ass aluminum wing and a lot of trim pieces spray painted white)

[alltrac165]

The main problem I have with boosters you mix in yourself is that you can't really MIX it well even if you pour the booster in first then fill the tank. If you plan to run your engine close enough to the edge to actually need the extra octane, you would want to be sure the fuel is properly mixed or you will have some fuel with high octane and some with pump octane arriving at the injectors at different times. There are some stations here that sell 100+ race fuel out of drums that you can hand pump into your ride should you want to for whatever reason. I would feel safer with that, I know it's well blended.

[MR1]

stay FAR FAR away from Toluene

HIGHLY carcinogenic

[idrivemyself]

Originally posted by MR1
stay FAR FAR away from Toluene

HIGHLY carcinogenic

yes, but have you ever ran toluene mixed at 30% with race gas (100 oct.) in a higher performance engine? it makes a noticeable difference. you are right though, for most of the people in this forum i would strongly recommend not getting into it.

run a google on it for more info.

[Wraith]

BE CAREFULL WITH THIS BECAUSE YOU CAN BLOW YOUR MOTOR WITH THE IMPROPER MIXTURE

[MR1]

Originally posted by idrivemyself
yes, but have you ever ran toluene mixed at 30% with race gas (100 oct.) in a higher performance engine? it makes a noticeable difference. you are right though, for most of the people in this forum i would strongly recommend not getting into it.

run a google on it for more info.

the pains at which i went to try that on my track vehicle far outweighed the benefits.

was easier to just buy a drum of vp racing fuel.
a BIT pricier; but not by much considering the time and effort i took to mix the gas + toluene

[trd619]

upping the octane is useful if your F/I especially in cali where only 91 octane is availble. many tacoma's on customtacos.com with the toyota supercharger use it and it works very well for them at the track....

[SmokingTires]

Originally posted by trd619
upping the octane is useful if your F/I especially in cali where only 91 octane is availble. many tacoma's on customtacos.com with the toyota supercharger use it and it works very well for them at the track....

You can find higher octane in Cali. Go where you see all the Lambos and Farraris.

But the key to it is, the formual has to work. Not all octane boosters do what they say. You may not be benifiting from it at all. I doubt most of them can properly boost just the octane.

[mcelligott]

Blah, just buy a gallon of 110 or 106 race gas -- its the same damn thing but you get a GALLON and its 1/2 the price. I'm sure it will make your high performance 4 cyl skyrocket

[thespud]

Formula #4 - Methanol or Ethanol
R+M/2.........101
Cost...........$0.60 - $1.75/gal
Mixtures with 92 Octane Premium
10%...........94.3 Octane (Methanol)
10%...........94.7 Octane (Ethanol)
20%...........Not Recommended
Notes: Methanol is wood alcohol. Ethanol is grain alcohol and found in Gasohol in 10% ratios. Both alcohols are mildly corrosive and will eat gas tank linings, rubber and aluminum if used in excessive ratios. Main ingredient in "Gas Dryers", combine with water.

Ethanol is extremely bad for your engine... the way i do it to run at 100RON (what my car needs), is i either buy the bottles of Wynns Octane boost, or if i feel i got enough cash, i buy a 44 gallon Drum of AvGas and mix 5L (first) with 40L (fills the rest of the Tank), and the engine runs smooth as.

*edit* the AvGas method is what we used to rally with... not sure how good it really is for the tank or the engine, so i mostly stick to the bottled stuff which just has the active ingredients of AvGas