Octane boosters... Do they work?

I've got a high compression engine (302 with 289 heads) that pings even on

93 octane. I'm gonna start running 94 octane, but I don't know that it will be enough. This is my daily driver, so I need it to run decent. Do any octane boosters work? Anyone have experience with them? I am probably going to end up changing my cam and perhaps my rear end gear ratio if necessary. In the mean time I just need the engine to run without damaging itself.

Cory

Reply to
Cory Dunkle
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Reply to
Michael Johnson

I put in some 87 octane gas in my 98 GT just to test something... from Citgo.. and yeah... car pinged a bit under heavy load around 4k RPM in any gear... I put in ONE gallon of 101 octane racing fuel... no more ping. Comes at about $2.999/gal here (no typo). I had 3/4 tank when I put in 1 gallon

101 octane racing fuel in... it probably isn't the best solution, but NO octane booster has worked for me before... 89 octane & no ping for me though... but I *did* keep up with a 96 Camaro SS on racing fuel ;D.

-Mike

Reply to
<memset

Why inject alcohol? Why do people think it's necessary or beneficial to inject alcohol?

Water. *That's* what cools the most when it evaporates. The only reason to include alcohol in water injected into a properly tuned engine is to prevent freezing of the water at low temperatures.

100% water is the best thing to inject. You start injecting a lot of fuel (alcohol) and it'll tweak your air/fuel settings.

Dana

Reply to
Dana Myers

Run the tank almost dry and then put in say, 5 gal of the good stuff. Go bump your timing up to 18 degrees or sso and go have fun :-)

BTW, octane boosters only boost the octane a percent of 1 point. So, if your running 92 and you add a bottle, you now have 92.3. WASTE of money. Add a gallon of Toluene or Xylene from a hardware store if you want honest octane boosting. The Turbo Regal guys have been doing this for years.

Mike

1995 Eagle Talon TSi
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of all the old cars
Reply to
TurboMike

Personally, I use 100% water on my supercharged Mustang but sometimes that is not the best choice.

That's not necessarily true. Sometimes the extra fuel is needed to richen up a mixture. While water removes more heat per gram alcohol is a high octane fuel that gives its own benefits. Many people successfully use a 50/50 mixture to get the best of both liquids.

The use of alcohol can be accounted for in the tune (especially on a fuel injected engine) but I use water to keep things more simple and consistent.

Reply to
Michael Johnson, PE

Heheheheh... I'm considering buying a timing adjuster. Any recommendations? Got my eye on Steeda's timing adjuster.. honestly it's b/c I do want to occassionally run racing fuel & bump up the timing. How hard is it to install & change timing?

-Mike

98 Mustang GT
Reply to
<memset

I know lots of Turbo Buick guys running 20+ lbs of boost on pump gas using the SMC alchy kit. Works, period.

Mike

1995 Eagle Talon TSi
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of all the old cars
Reply to
TurboMike

I wish I could help ya but I don't have much experience with the Mod motors. Had a 97 Cobra but never messed with the timing. I'd bet there are a few guys here that have used the Steeda unit though. Give 'em a ping.

Mike

1995 Eagle Talon TSi
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of all the old cars
Reply to
TurboMike

Ah well thanks anyway. I'm reading several reviews on the Steeda timing adjuster & everybody just about is giving it a 4-5 star rating (out of 5). Several people claim to have bumped up the timing 13 deg. Is this feasible or are they blowing smoke up my ass?

-Mike

recommendations?

Reply to
<memset

Don't know the Mod motor's tolerance for timing, but on my 92 LX (TW heads, B303, etc) I could run 18 degrees on 92 octane. Aluminum heads helped. Ran about 10-12 with N20 and then eventually 10-12 with the Vortech. I used thte MSD adj. timing control with a 6AL.. In car adjustable timing control was cool :-)

Mike

1995 Eagle Talon TSi
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of all the old cars
Reply to
TurboMike

Q. When?

(A. When the air/fuel mixture isn't correct.)

Then the engine isn't tuned correctly. See my assertion above.

Yeah. I know. It's a hack method. It's a band-aid way of tuning an engine.

It sounds like you prefer to properly tune your engine. Why do you feel compelled to defend hack methods?

Dana

Reply to
Dana Myers

Works better if the right amount of fuel is injected regardless of the water injection. Alcohol in the water injection tank is either antifreeze or a hack to cover for something else missing.

Dana

Reply to
Dana Myers

How have you measured this?

Based on subjective use of fuels, two shots of Outlaw Power Shot in 10 gallons of Chevron 91-octane resist ping about as well as

3 gallons of 76 100-octane mixed with about 9 gallons of that same Chevron 91-octane. Conventional wisdom would call that 93.25 octane. That's actually closer to 1 percentage point per shot of Outlaw.

Dana

Reply to
Dana Myers

Wrong. the alcohol injection makes up for a LACK OF OCTANE on forced induction motors. All the fuel in the world won't help in there is detonation due to poor fuel. The alternative is running race fuel.

Mike

1995 Eagle Talon TSi
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of all the old cars
Reply to
TurboMike

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Great write upon octane here:

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Mike

1995 Eagle Talon TSi
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of all the old cars
Reply to
TurboMike

Now you're being a dick. The conversation is over.

Reply to
Michael Johnson, PE

Actually, I use the SMC kit on my car. ;) It's a great kit for the money. I was the first Mustang owner to buy a kit from Steve. That was over three years ago. I've run up to 16 psi (didn't try to run more) with a chip tuned for 8 psi. It made a believer out of me.

Reply to
Michael Johnson, PE

This is a wive's tale. It's not surprising how much pseudo-truth survives given the highly subjective way most people approach motorsports. I suppose if you inject half or mostly methanol and adjust your injection map to ease off on fuel from the tank, you can basically make your car into an alcohol-burner at high-boost which gets you into the range around 120 octane (RON+MON/2).

But this doesn't work for very long if you're basically drinking out of the water injection tank instead of the gas tank, and I've talked to at least reseacher that observed very corrosive effects from heavy use of methanol.

So, in the real world, not at the dragstrip, you need to squirt the right amount of fuel through the injectors from the fuel tank and rely on the water injection to cool the intake air to prevent pinging.

Run the right fuel or run some kind of hack. That's my point. I'm not wrong.

Dana

Reply to
Dana Myers

So, either you haven't measured the effect of octane boosters or you are the source of the figures on these web pages, in which case you'll explain at how you measured them.

Which one is it?

Reply to
Dana Myers

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