does octane boost really work? and what kind is the best?

 

The higher the octane, the slower is burns, hence can produce more power. But really, one quart of octane boost can't really help. But it can't hurt...

 

Not really..It does work, but it'll only give you a few POINTS (like 92 octane boosted to 92.2), and is way expensive.

The chances are, you car doesn't need it, but without knowing about your car, I can't say that for sure.

One thing you can do that is MUCH cheaper, and will give you a much bigger boost in octane (because you can add more, and not break your wallet), is this stuff called Toluene.

Toluene is sold in paint stores, it's used for a cleaner of stains, and oil based paints and such. It's the EXACT same poo poo that most of these "octane boosters" use in thier formula. The store bought Octane Boosters often contain petroleum dyes, a lubricating agent, and a cleansing agent. You can skip the dyes, but add transmission fluid (or light turbine oil) for lubricating, and mineral spirits (or diesal fuel, or kerosene) for the cleansing agent. You can read all about using Toluene all over the internet, as it's a method that has been used for years and years.

A typical mixture:
100 oz Toluene
25oz Mineral Spirits (or diesal or kerosene)
3oz Transmission Fluid (or light turbine oil)

That makes one gallon. Add that one gallon to 10 gallons of gas, and you will have 94.2 octane gas. If you added one gallon of store bought octane booster, you would probably get a similar number, but it would be MUCH more expensive. You can probably make a gallon of this homade stuff for the price of 16oz of the store bought stuff.

There are other types of fluids you can use instead of Toluene. Xylene is one kind, Methyl-tertiary-butyl-ether is another, then of course, Methanol and Ethanal.

Anyways. There's my octane booster lesson for the day.

 

 

had you ever put this chemistry into your car yet?

 

Haha, WTF - POINTS?

Uh, hey, dumbass. I never said it didn't work. What? Like it doesn't burn or something? Your post talking about points didn't make any sence to me, very confusing. Please don't contradict yourself by trying to show that you have more knowledge than me...

 

I wasn't even talking to you fool, I was answering his damn question. WTF? Taking offence because I'm explaining something to someone else? Calm down, guy..

Yes POINTS...As in .1, .2 (decimal POINTS). Do you understand? Try reading it again.

 

exactly

 

Ah, see you didn't explain. Sorry, I didn't mean to get sooo offensive, it seemed like you were trying to debate with me on something.

SEFI8LOxCivic: - why did you just post that!? Are you martini's sidekick, what's that all about!? Post ****** make me laugh so I don't care anyway, it's kindof funny.




[Modified by B21A, 2:13 AM 1/28/2002]

 

no, its just your response really irritated me, and i didn't want to get into it with you. most people with reasonable intelligence would have understood it the FIRST time around, but you however are on the unreasonable side of the intelligence spectrum.

I thought it was really funny how you thought you knew what you were talking about, but you were fooled (that doesn't surprise me one bit) by an advertising trick.

i'm done talking with you.

 

Have you actually used this mixture yourself? How much does 100oz of Toluene cost? This is great info for everyone who lives in CA, cause of the poo pooy octane we have

 

This does in fact work. what works even better is if you add 1/2 gallon Toluene to 1/2 gallon of Xylene to every 10 gallons of gas. this is equalvalent to some real high octane race fuel, and has been used by old skool v8 guys for decades. the only draw back is that toluene and xylene aren't exactly that cheap either.

 

If I use the 1/2 gallon Toluene and 1/2 gallon Xylene, do I still need to use the cleansing agent(Kerosene) and Lubricating agent(mtf)? Or can I run just the straight The toluene/Xylene mixture to my 10 gallons of 91 octane? Thanks man

 

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

the vibe I get from this website is to use one or the other, not both

 

if you read under formula #2 Xylene they say

"Notes: Similar to Toluene. 12-16 ounces will only raise octane 2-3 *points*, i.e. from 92 to 92.3. Usually mixed with Toluene and advertised as *race formula*."

so it looks like they confirm the method i described above of mixing xylene and toluene. in fact if they're doing up to a 30% mixture, that's even more than what i reccommend. i'm a bit rusty on my homebrew gas and i wanted to keep the numbers conservative just incase. but if you start adding things up, things get pretty expensive, and prices aren't that far away from true race fuel.

2.75/gal for Xylene
1.50/gal for premium
equals
5.75/gal for 99.5 homebrew octane.

i usually run leaded 118 race fuel and off of memory its about $40 for 5 gallons
which comes to about 8/gal.

i think 100 octane unleaded cost almost as much, so it seems like we're not saving much.

but if we're only looking for a mild increase lets say to 94 octane. it would only require a 1:10 ratio of Xylene or Toluene or a combination of both. which is pretty affordable. and i'm sure we would recognize a difference.

i'm not familiar with adding any of the other chemicals they recommend.

 

wow..
you guys have bigger nuts than me..

how much is 1/2 gallon on toluene cost?

did you know that toluene is in Dynomite?

TNT = Tri Nitro Toluene

 

If you're tuned for a specific octane, it won't help you.

Also, has anyone bothered to check your plugs while running these "mixes"? I ran NOS octane booster one time, decided to check my plugs, and it was gross. I ran it all out, and rechecked my plugs on the next fill up... all good.

I think octane boosters are a waste of cash on a N/A application, unless you are tuning with a dyno to adjust for it. On a boosted application, it "could" be useful in theory... but I'll stick to REAL higher octane fuels myself. (Sunco)

 

Save your money and save for a turbo - there is real horsepower!

 

You mentioned 5.75/gal for the toluene/Xylene mixture, and you also mentioned this yielded a ~99.5 octane. Did you get that octane with the 1:10 ratio or the 3:10 ratio?

Im just curious. Little confused on what the ratio was for the Toluene/Xylene to pump gas mixture.


Mike D

 

According to the website listed 30% Straight Xylene will give 99.5 octane. $5.75 is the price of a straight xylene mixture. 1 part xylene, 2 parts pump is 33% xylene which is close for simplicity's sake.

So for a xylene / toluene mixture it would be 1.5 gallons of Xylene / 1.5 gallons of Toluene for every 7 gallons of gas. Xylene and Toluene are also pretty close in price.

Please don't blame me if anything crazy happens. let's just say this stuff is for entertainment purposes. I think mixing 30% is kind of getting out of hand expense wise. I think I'm going to stick with a 10% mixture.

 

sweet guys !

nice work on the chemistry !

now consider this :-
when you guys go out and race I know you guys don't full up your gas tanks ! (or do you , cause more gas is more weight in your car )
So how much gas do you guys put in ( $10 , $15, $20 ,$25 ) ?

say you put in $10-20 , how much Toluene-Xylene mixture would you put in to get the 97.0 or 99.5 octane rating ?
Do you have to sit down and calculate the "30% of the gallons" you put in and add the percent gallons of "GO GO JUICE" ( octane booster ) ?

Just wanted to know !
Do I still need to add the mineral spirits and transmission fluid to the mixture ?
OR can I run the Toluene-Xylene mixture straight ?
How do I mix the Toluene-Xylene mixture ?

Thanks



[Modified by Short_Shifter, 5:26 AM 1/29/2002]

 

oh where can Xylene be bought ?

 

paint store, ie sherwin williams, home depot, ect.

 

sweet ! Thanks !

So what about me 1st post ( above where Xylene can be found ) ?

 

damn yall are smart