Octane Booster

[Lebasi]

Off-Road Community,
I have a Class 12, FAT 1835 motor. I would like to pre-run with my car but I can not always find 112 octane racing fuel. I have 91-92 premium Pemex available, any octane booster recomended ?? In the long run, I may just convert the racing car to a pre-runner... Any ideas ??
Thank you.. Lebasi Racing

[sidekicker]

here info for u http://www.lucasoil.com/ we use it for pre run and racing it give u more power in your engine our team desert assassin use it

[Dezertpilot]

I dont think u can gain 20 octane points with octane booster, sorry but ur SOL.

[TreyP]

Off-Road Community,
I have a Class 12, FAT 1835 motor. I would like to pre-run with my car but I can not always find 112 octane racing fuel. I have 91-92 premium Pemex available, any octane booster recomended ?? In the long run, I may just convert the racing car to a pre-runner... Any ideas ??
Thank you.. Lebasi Racing

What compression ratio do you have?

[nimrod]

I just got done having all my pistons replaced after trying the old Pemex with octane booster trick.....No octane booster in the world is gonna make up 20 points.......I remember when Hot Rod magazine back in the mid 90's did an article and test on octane boosters and the most expensive and advanced boosters were good for 3 points.......Most of the brands were good for less then 1 point.......

Lucas Oil octane booster works great in the DA Bikes and we love it, but I think expecting it to turn Pemex into a decent race gas is asking an awful lot..............

[dsms motorsports]

I use to run tuolene in this supercharged truck I have to stop it from pinging until I got a piggy back computer, but tuolene did work and can be found at home depot. it's about 9 dollars a gallon mix in with 5 gallons. there is an article about this that I read 1st. before trying that.

[John F2000]

The latest hot rod magazine test indicated the best was the NOS octane booster. As previously stated in the thread you wont get a large increase in octane, but they did a test with the major brands and NOS came out slightly higher than the rest.

[charlie_brown]

hey john, can you do a quick run down of 2nd and 3rd?

[redmist]

Do not ever use an octane booster on a race engine. It simply gives inconsistent final octane results. As such can cause detonation.
Why? Fuels are not refined to an exact octane. Octane boosters such as Toluene are required to boost fuels up to the pump rating. Some fuel batches require more boosters to get it to pump rating. The differing concentration of boosters means when you add the additional booster you will NOT get a consistent end octane rating. IE Higher concentration of existing octane boosters mean that when you add your booster you will NOT boost the octane rating as much as you would if you had a batch of pump fuel that had lower concentration of boosters.
The only reliable way to add boosters is to add your booster and test octane rating afterwards. Not something I can be bothered with.

[VeryFast]

The best and least expensive octane boost you can use is Toluene. As you mix a higher percentage you will notice the motor running "flat". Meaning less throttle response. I would not use Toluene in my 12 motor. Only use it in a pinch or in your prerunner. Buying the right fuel is cheap insurance for a race motor.

Do not mix more than 20% toluene. There is toluene already in all fuels. More than 20% and the motor will fall on its face.

You can get up to 5 octane points depending on what fuel you are mixing it with.

Another avenue would be to buy 116 or 118 octane and use it as a booster. 116 and 118 has up to 6 grams of TTL (Tetra Ethyl Lead) and sometimes a dose of Manganese. Mixing 116 or 118 race fuel with pump gas will give you a much higher octane increase than toluene. If your motor has an oxygen sensor, don't use this leaded fuel as it will coat the sensor and send your mapping in to full rich mode.

Don't use any "octane boosters" sold by any performance fuels. Most are toluene and cost much more than simply going to your local paint store and purchasing toluene in a gallon can.
Steve Poole

[danzar]

don't do it, you will end up with a pre runner with a blown motor. Not worth it.

[Baja Fool]

Wikipedia = "Toluene can be used as an octane booster in gasoline fuels used in internal combustion engines. Toluene at 86% by volume fueled all the turbo Formula 1 teams in the 1980s, first pioneered by the Honda team. The remaining 14% was a "filler" of n-heptane, to reduce the octane to meet Formula 1 fuel restrictions. Toluene at 100% can be used as a fuel for both two-stroke and four-stroke engines; however, due to the density of the fuel and other factors, the fuel does not vaporize easily unless preheated to 70 degrees celsius (Honda accomplished this in their Formula 1 cars by routing the fuel lines through the muffler system to heat the fuel). Toluene also poses similar problems as alcohol fuels, as it eats through standard rubber fuel lines and has no lubricating properties as standard gasoline does, which can break down fuel pumps and cause upper cylinder bore wear.":eek:

Just buy some race gas, way easier.

[Lebasi]

Thanks everybody...

I think I will stick to RACE GAS...

[VeryFast]

Danzar.... Toluene has an r+m/2 rating of 114 and a motor octane rating of 107. You will be paying $8-10.00 per gallon for race fuel with the same octane rating of Toluene. If you use race fuel in your prerunner, you will have to use "leaded" race fuel to get anything close to the 114 octane rating. Most prerunners have o2 sensors and the motor will fall its face once the o2 sensor becomes coated with the TEL in the fuel. 20% toluene added to 87 octane pump gas will give you an r+m/2 rating of approximately 97-100.

An octane rating of 97-100 will suppress detonation/preignition in water cooled motors with up to 11.5 to 1 compression with aluminum heads.

Anyways... as the blog started, "in a pinch".... the toluene is much better than adding an octane booster, less expensive and easy to carry in the back of a prerunner in 1 gallon cans.

Hope this helps you all..... See ya at the 1000.

[John F2000]

hey john, can you do a quick run down of 2nd and 3rd?


I tried to find the article, must have thrown it out. In general they were all very similar, in that it only made a small difference. The difference between 1st 2nd and 3rd was small but relatively, nos was better than the rest. They even compared it with straight Toluene. Their test showed NOS as slightly better, if I remember correctly. But note the word "slightly". The nos is just a mix of similar chemicals to boost octane, I forget the mix, but again they indicated that the NOS mix was just slightly better.

Please note my comment is only based on reading an article, take it for what its worth. The only thing that made it interesting was that they did a relative octane comparison with several booster products and then tested the mixed fuels on the same engine.

I agree 100% with the other posts regarding race fuel versus octane booster in pump gas. The octane booster in a high compression motor should be used as a safety bottle you keep in the event that you cant get race fuel only. If the compression is high, your motor will most likely detonate with a pump octane mix, it will just detonate a little less.

[Co-Dog]

There is some confusion with the terms associated with octane. The octane booster manufacturers rely on this confusion to sell their products.

The term "point" means 1/10 of one octane.

Next time you see a can of booster, read it carefully. Most boosters will not even raise the octane of a tank of 87 to 88. Some manufacturers have steered away from listing any numbers at all.

There are additives that make bad gas run better, but you are misled to believe it is an octane boost.

[charlie_brown]

10-4 on the race gas for your race car. i was asking for more along the lines of using it in my prerunner truck with a pretty stock motor.