One more question about my new 03 L...I was thinking about this last night. Would it be better for me to buy regular gas and add octance booster or just pay for the preimum? If I go to the booster, is it cost effective and good for the engine. Thanks for the advice!

 

Those so called octane boosters only raise the rating by a few tenths of a point! SOOooo when they are advertising "raises octane by as much as 7 points" you're getting a whopping 0.7 increase in octane number. Many of them also contain an additive called MMT (methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl) which will leave a nice coating of orange-red goop all over your spark plugs & the walls of the combustion chamber. This stuff builds up faster than carbon fouling and holds heat big time, which makes the combustion chamber a lot hotter than normal & can lead to pre-ignition.

Doug C.

BTW.... just so y'all know I'm not just some kook on a soapbox, I worked in the petrochem industry (lab analyst / training coordinator) for 7+ years & Homebrew Race Gas has been a hobby of mine for 10+ years.

 

Captianinsane-o why dont you share some of those reciepes for some homebrew race gas?

 

Toluene is an excelent additive to boost octane and is readily available at many distributors. Here is a rule of thumb for octane boost:

Toulene
Mixtures with 92 Octane Premium
10%...94.2 Octane
20%...96.4 Octane
30%...98.6 Octane

Toluene is currently used in the blending of gasoline as an anti knock agent.

 

Captianinsane-o

YES, please share some of your recipes.

Jason

 

Xylene (117 R+M/2 octane) & Toluene (114 R+M/2 octane) are the most effective of the commonly available 'boosters' & can usually be found at paint supply stores like Sherwin WIlliams or Duron for $25 ~ 35 per 5 gallon can. The following is the most cost effective 'ratio' for using these products:

1 gallon of booster for every 3 gallons of pump gas

SOOoo for Xylene: (117 * 3) + (93 * 9) / 12 = 99 octane final mix

And for Toluene: (114 * 3) + (93 * 9) / 12 = 98.25 octane final mix

You also need to be sure and add ~0.5 ounces of a top cylinder lube such as Marvel Mystery Oil per gallon of booster. The lubricants normally found in pump gas WILL get diluted by the xylene / toluene & the MMO will bring it back up to spec. AN added benefit of running a xylene / toluene blend is that they are excellent fuel system cleaners & over a few tanks will remove 99.9% of any varnished old gas residue in the fuel system AND carbon buildup in the combustion chamber.

Keep in mind, you'll need to get a re-tune to take advantage of the extra octane, anyone dumping it into a bone stock ride & expecting to go faster will be sorely disappointed.

Doug C.

 

Ditto that.

 

with my advanced brain i started using octane booster, as the specs on the lightning said to use 93 mim. octane.
My truck has mods also, so i started using it with the exact specs. on the bottle.
It ended up costing me over 500.00 for screwed up plugs and rental car.

 

i found this link online:
http://www.team.net/sol/tech/octane_b.html
some info on fuel blending.
Also, here is the MSDS for toluene:
http://www.sherlink.com/sher-link/te...s/1542372.pdf?

Chris

 

TORCO !!!

 

So basically you can just poor all this into the gas tank and fill her up (With the correct ratios of course) and you have higher octane fuel?

Do any of these parts of the mixture start to separate at any particular time, like if the truck/car sits for a while?

 

WOW! Great thread here!

 

1/4 tank of gas with 5 gal of Tolulene = 104 Octane ...

Ran my best times with this mix ... Be advised that running
50 percent is about the max you can go. Heed the MMO
hint and you should be fine ...

Sal converted me to Torco, though ... much easier and cheaper.

 

I've found that a 1:3 ratio of xylene/toluene is the most cost effective mix. Any more than that & you quickly get diminishing returns (in potential performance gains) for your investment. Plus aromatic hydrocarbons are very hard on any plastic / rubber parts in the fuel system when used in too high of a concentration. There are inhibitors in the Marvel Mystery Oil that help block this effect, but it can only compensate for so much.

I'd advise mixing your homebrew up in a gas can prior to adding it to the gas tank. Xylene/toluene are a lot denser than pump gas & it takesa bit of agitation / mixing to get them into total solution. AGain keep in mind, you can't just pour some homebrew into the tank & expect to run faster! You have to retune the truck to take advantage of the higher octane fuel!

Good thing is once you have it mixed up well the mixture WON'T seperate unless you get it REALLY cold... close to 0° F!

As for the guys using TORCO, I don't have any 1st hand experience with this stuff yet so can't say too much about it. Though from talking with people who use it on a regular basis, it most likely contains a good dose of the previosly mentioned, and not very good for your engine, additive known as MMT. Again this is just conjecture based on what I've been told by people who use the stuff ( ex. ALL have mentioned an orange residue on their plugs after using it.) I will eventually get a hold of some & do some testing, but it may take a while since I don't work in the petrochem industry anymore.

Doug C.

 

Does xylene/toluene effectively change the burn rate of the fuel?? Maybe someone can explain burn rate in relation to octane rating for me. Also, can raising the octane of the fuel with these additives reach a point where it would actually make less power?? I would like to learn more about properties of fuels that we would generally run in modded Lightnings if someone can point me in the right direction.

Thanks,
Jason