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omg wtf octane boosters work?

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Old 02-17-2008, 01:39 AM
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Default omg wtf octane boosters work?

okay so i bought a tank of gas yesterday and i was pretty sure that it was a very bad tank... on the freeway when i would try n accelerate on 6th, even though it never went to boost i would hear pinging. which obviously scared me a bit. so at work today, i decided to cop a bottle of octane booster before going home pretty confident that it wouldnt do squat.... but wtf it works??? all pinging has stopped. even after my 40 mile drive home, where when i would do a pull i'd hear it like 3 or 4 times in 91 cali gas but there wasnt any.

is it just my imagination or do boosters actually work well in making gasoline more 'tame' ??? and will there be and bad things coming my way if i decide to keep on adding booster per tank???
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Old 02-17-2008, 03:07 AM
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what grade fuel do you normally put in? what computer do you have, do you have an msd? ive had experience with octane booster and found it did squat.
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Old 02-17-2008, 03:09 AM
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i normally use 91 mobile gasoline... and im using aem fuel ignition controller..
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Old 02-17-2008, 03:10 AM
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the off the shelf boosters do nothing. i read an article about them before. like when they say they raise the octane 7 points, its .7. so 91 octane only becomes 91.7. but the "home depot" boosters are supposed to actually raise the octane
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Old 02-17-2008, 03:16 AM
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what are you running for boost?
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Old 02-17-2008, 03:30 AM
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i know its an extra 10cents per gallon, but getting 93 octane would probably be your best bet. i run nothing but 93 mobile im running 18psi and a link ecu with a knock sensor built in... i havent knocked yet
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Old 02-17-2008, 03:42 AM
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I run 92 or better always. Toluene is supposed to increase the octane a certain amount per gallon. Rafa did research on this because he can't get high octane fuel locally. Worth looking into.
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Old 02-17-2008, 03:53 AM
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im soo jealous... 91 is the best grade i can get here in cali =/.

im running 6 lbs and i dont really think i've experiance knock... i'll hear like a crackling noise when im under high load at low mid range rpm. it eventually goes away at the higher revs. i dont know if that is knock or ping...
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Old 02-17-2008, 04:41 AM
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Emmi, that's knock. What are you running for timing control at 6psi?
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Old 02-17-2008, 04:47 AM
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needz less timing
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Old 02-17-2008, 05:59 AM
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Originally Posted by cjernigan
I run 92 or better always. Toluene is supposed to increase the octane a certain amount per gallon. Rafa did research on this because he can't get high octane fuel locally. Worth looking into.
http://www.elektro.com/~audi/toluene/

Toulene
R+M/2...114
Cost...$4.50/gal
Mixtures with 92 Octane Premium
10%...94.2 Octane
20%...96.4 Octane
30%...98.6 Octane
Notes: Common ingredient in Octane Boosters in a can. 12-16 ounces will only raise octane 2-3 *points*, I.e. from 92 to 92.3. Often costs $3-5 for 12-16 ounces, when it can be purchased for less than $5/gal at chemical supply houses or paint stores.



Only thing that sucks about Toluene is its used to cut drugs, so buying it in large quantities to make it cheaper doesn't look good and might be kinda hard. I used to have a connection for 55 gallon barrels of it but lost that contact.
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Old 02-17-2008, 09:02 AM
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Torco octane booster from this site is the best deal I found:
http://www.need4speedpower.com/torco.html

I was able to run more timing with 8 oz in a full tank of 93, and had to back it off without it. Datalogged the knock sensor to detect the difference. Never added a full 32 oz. I add 8 oz to the tank and keep the lower timing map on track, just to be safe.
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Old 02-17-2008, 09:07 AM
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Seafoam helped reduce the pinging on my 160K mile B2500 p/u.
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Old 02-17-2008, 09:10 AM
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Is it hard for you to get either VP Racing or SUNOCO racing fuels? I've found both locally. The guys that import them also sell them in 5 gl tin cans that are really easy to store. What I'm basically doing is buying one from SUNOCO with 118 octane and mixing 1 gl per 10 gls of 87 octane local "premium" fuel; it works like a charm.

BTW, I used to buy thousands of gls of Toluene for a paint factory I once owned. It is the principal ingredient in Paint Thinners which are used to speed up the drying of automotive paints. If I were you I would contact a small or medium local automotive paint manufacturer and ask.

Good luck,

Rafa
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Old 02-18-2008, 01:11 AM
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Back in high school one of my ricer friends SWORE that octane booster made his 90 something Buick Century fast as hell. He said I just HAD to try it. After a week of telling me about it one day while I was filling up he begged me to try it, and I did. After about 30 miles one of my injectors froze shut.

That was on my 91 240sx. All it did was break my car, I felt no difference at all.
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