I was "talking" with Mike about my micro-tuner and happened to mention that I used a can of octane booster because I had 3/4 of a tank of regular when it arrived in the mail. I wanted to try out my new "Chip" right away and thought that was a way to do it. He told me that wasn't a good idea. Even though the can says it's safe for catalytic converters, O2 sensors and plugs, it ain't necessarily so. He went on to tell me that these boosters can leave a pink to red coating on things that can shorten their life span. In short, steer clear of them.

I only used this stuff once and so it shouldn't be a problem. I mention this though because I can see how someone might think it was an economical alternative to use regular gas and a can of this stuff instead of just using premium gas. (The numbers worked out that way where I live.)

Just a word of warning. "Just Say No!"

 

Didn't want to tie up Mike with this question but maybe you know ... what happens if you were to install the microtuner with half a belly of 87?

 

The way I understand it, nothing. You just won't see the significant gains until you get the good stuff in there. You will see effects from changed shift points, but you won't feel the extra giddyup until the premium is in.

 

Hi Larry & Yean,

Larry, thanks for your post, anytime we can get the word out on octane boosters, it will help someone else.

And don't get me wrong, there are some octane boosters that will actually work to raise octane, it's just that they result in a poor fuel formulation when enough is used to actually raise 15-20 gallons of 87 octane to 91 or higher octane, in addition to the issue of the pink, red & purple deposits they leave behind.
Using it just once doesn't mean you have to replace your spark plugs & O2 sensors, but just once *is* enough to pick up some idle deficit from the plug deposits. Over time, as you burn only good quality premium gasoline you should burn off that deposit, since you only used the octane booster once, so you should be in good shape.

What can happen with prolonged use of octane boosters, or using it even off & on, in addition to the obvious idle deficit issues that will crop up, is that the motor can run either too lean or too rich (usually too lean) from the O2 sensors (and here we're talking only about the upstream O2 sensors in the OBD-II trucks that have 4 of them, so we're only concerned with the closest O2 sensor on each side of the engine, referred to as the "upstream" O2 sensors, as these are the ones used by the PCM for A/F feedback & control) no longer being able to properly "read" O2 content in the spent exhaust stream due to the deposits left behind (or not being able to read quick enough, etc.) the pink & red stuff we talked about earlier.

Octane boosters generally don't harm the catalytic converters, but they sure do leave deposits on just about everything they touch, like the plugs & O2 sensors.

To answer Yean's question, what happens if you do not use the required premium gasoline with the Superchips tuning is first, you won't get the power gain, and second, you could have detonation in the engine from not using the proper fuel, so you *never* want to run the Superchips Micro Tuner on anything less than top-quality premium gasoline of at least 91-94 octane.

Now in your case, you asked specifically about what happens if you have say, half a tank of 87, and in that case, what you should do is to *not* use the Micro Tuner (or use it to return to stock), then burn out all of that 87 octane, and then fill it up with the required premium gas and *then* use the Micro Tuner. That way you'll be certain that you aren't going to have any detonation.

As Larry mentioned, on regular gas you would feel the changes to automatic transmission shift characteristics, but you would not get the power gain, and you could go into detonation, which can cause engine damage if allowed to continue. How much detonation you'll get can range from none to quite a bit on regular gas, it depends on the quality of the fuel as well as the total effective compensation range of the knock sensor system in your particular vehicle, as they vary in their "performance," too.

The bottom line is, never use the Superchips Micro Tuner without premium gas of at least 91 octane, and stay away from all the off-brands & no-name cheap fuels, too, as they are low quality regardless of their octane rating.

Have fun,

 

eh?....

just cram a 100shot of nitrous down your engines mouth after some octane booster... It'll clean it all back to nice and shiny!

 

thanks larry and mike ... just ordered mine yesterday and lookin' forward to the thrills!

 

It will be a blast. And the first time you can diagnose a check engine light...You'll have to roll over and smoke a cigarette!

 

I just caught that, good one, Larry.