Pun intended

Now that California has decided to drop its octane rating to 91, from the already bad 92, the chips I have are ever so slightly detonating

I feel that if I have my chips sent back and reburned, I'm going to be losing yet more power because they are already tuned for 92.

So my question is, what would be the consequences of running octane boost with every fill-up? I only want to raise the rating to 93-94. Are there any products out there that wouldn't do damage? I can also get 100 octane at a local station for like $5/gallon, but mixing it with 91 would be more expensive than octane boost.

I know there were threads here in the past on the issue, but I didn't see where anyone was running it consistently all the time.

Thoughts, comments (should I just send the chips back and quit complaining)?

Thanks!

 

DB, I noticed my truck was detonating at the top of each gear also. I discovered this a couple of days before the the Carlsbad meet. The blown engines seem very sensitive to octane, especially on hot days. I was going to use some 76 100 octane rae gas, and mix it with the 91 that is now the highest octane available in CA. I have a mixing chart if you need it.

I thought that I would give some octane booster a try. For the most part the stuff does not work, but I bought some of the NOS octane booster a PEP Boys. It eliminated the detonation entirely while it was in the tank. During testing at Carlsbad, I experienced no detonation with the NOS Street Mix.

I ran my truck hard yesterday, after it had cooled off, and It still detonated. This was with a new tank of gas, and no octane booster. I am going to have my chip reburned, as my truck is a daily driver, and it will be very expensive to run booster with every tank, until it cools down, sometime in late October.

I have purchased a lower pulley to make up some of the lost Hp, that will be a result of the reburn. Danny will have to take timing out to accomodate the 91, but I feel I can pick-up some net HP.


If you are going to race the truck seriously, the solution is probably to buy a 2 stage chip with a race gas program, and a 91 octane program.

 

I used 104 race formula for awhile on my blown 302. It will create red deposits on your spark plugs and in your tank. It is a band-aid patch at best. Cut your fuel with some unleaded race gas, but I don't suggest using an over-the-counter additive. I clogged 8 injectors using this stuff. It's bad news. E-mail me if you want more details.

 

Thanks guys for the responses. The L's my daily driver as well, so I'm going to go ahead and have the chip reburned. I've got one chip on the way that is tuned for a pulley, so we'll see what happens with that one.

Jay,

I would definitely like to see that mixing chart. My email is jboggs0@hotmail.com. Thanks!!

Scott,

You've got mail.

Jason

 

DB you have mail.

Please Reply to:

scott.weatherford@lightningguy.com

or you'll have to wait for a reply.

 

I think Torco makes the best and only "real" octane additive. Torco will take the octane rating up in actual points, like 91 to 100, instead of 91 to 91.3 like most store bought brands. You can buy it online or at most speed shops and some gas stations.

 

Gentlemen:

I think that your safest, cheapest, and most effective option is to add some methanol to each tank. I know that this is popular with the Syclone crew, and all of the numbers check out in an old reference I was looking at a couple weeks ago. I also found a good dissertation on the 'net that confirmed this. If you're REALLY desperate and needy, I could dig up the specific numbers/references for you, but I'm pretty busy this week.

Where to get methanol (methyl alcohol)? Home Depot, of course. Get it by the gallon where they have all of the solvents (turpentine, acetone, and the like). Remember that "wood alcohol" is a common name for it. Make sure that you get the anhydrous (water-free) stuff - may have to read the label. A high-performance shop may be able to hook you up as well, as the Northern Lights/IRL cars run on the stuff, as do the Federal-Mogul cars (other than the injected nitro boys).

As for how much to add, you'll just have to figure it out, or in a pinch I might be able to research that also.

 

I use Turner Laboratories Octane booster in my motocross applications, they have been reccomended by GYT, Yamaha's factory racing works team for safe, real-world octane boost for both street and dirt applications. 8 oz per 16 gal yields a four point boost to the base rating of the fuels' rated octane, i.e. 91 + 8 oz per 16 gal (breaks down to 1/2 ounce per gal) = 95 oct RMS rating. Using that ratio you can mix your own boost levels up to about 105 oct without innaccuracies.


It is sold in a large metal can at AutoZone.

 

DB, I'll try to scan it today, and get it to you. Our scanner is old, and low res., but I'll give it a try.

Jay

 

Thanks Jay! Yeah I've got one of those old scanners too, technology just keeps movin' on...

 

DB, I can't get the mail to go throgh, tried it twice. I get a user unknown once and inactive account the next. Sounds like technical problems, so I'll try it later.

 

DOH!!! My mistake...

My email is jboggs0@hotmail.com

 

There is a shop here in Houston that sells Torco Accerator. One bottle of this stuff will take 10 gallons of 93 to 105oct. It's not a oct. booster, but more of a concentrated race fuel. If you send me an e-mail put you in contact with the shop.

~LB
mustang73@houston.rr.com

 

I've been using Xylene for a while on my SS and it works pretty well. After doing the stage II heads (milled to increase compression to 10.9 to 1), I have to be extremely careful w/ detonation. I typically mix a gallon of Xylene w/ 3 gallons of 93 octane....it works out to 99 octane.

I've ran several Autotap sessions and my Knock retard is practically zero across the rpm range even in 95 deg heat. I

BTW....like someone else mentioned...Over the counter "Octane booster" (NOS brand) is garbage. Excuse me if I refuse to pay $4-5 for .3 octane increase.....nope, don't think so.