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Toluene / Xylene / Race-Gas Comparison

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Old 06-10-2009, 07:44 PM
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Default Toluene / Xylene / Race-Gas Comparison

Was out for lunch and drove past a Frazee... and stopped.
Was curious about the street price of those 2 chemicals.
For info, mix them 1:9 with 91oct and you get 93.3 or 93.6. You can't run a cat, but it's cheap insurance for the track or dyno.

Here's an awesome calculator to tell you exactly what type of chemical or race-gas to add to normal gas to get the octane you want:
Octane Calculator / Reference Page

Anyways, they're $16 a gallon, even in 5gallon jugs. That makes a $43 fillup at 1:9 for 93octane.

On the other hand, I found a place online that sells Sunoco 110 for $70/5 or $450/55... which makes $14gal or $8gal.

2:8 makes 95octane and a tankful costs $52 or $40, depending on your bulk buying.

If I could find a local place who would sell me 110ul for $8gallon, I'd just keep a gallon in my trunk for refills and not worry about detonation. 1:9 makes 93octane and a $35 fillup... DONE!

Just sharing.
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Old 06-10-2009, 08:29 PM
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You can't run a cat? I was under the impression that toluene was what the gas companies added to it to raise the octane.
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Old 06-10-2009, 08:30 PM
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Gasoline - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Old 06-10-2009, 09:34 PM
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Dude, 93 is $3 a gallon in Ohio.......

At VIR the leaded 110 was the same price as the unleaded 100, both of which were only like $5 or $6 a gallon. Guess which one I used (no cat).

Stupid Cali pisswater...
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Old 06-10-2009, 11:32 PM
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Yep, $3 a gallon 93 octane in Texas too. That is what I fill up with, everytime
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Old 06-11-2009, 12:13 AM
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That was actually a well written wikipedia on gasoline. I read most and understood.

2.76 93 oct in Charlotte , all over...
100 is at the pump too. but its a steady 5.99

cali does stink... exp with the ref and what not sniffer inspections.

.

goodluck
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Old 06-11-2009, 12:41 AM
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Too bad this isn't in every major town or even every track/strip:

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Old 06-11-2009, 10:20 AM
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Most people know you can get 93 almost everywhere in the country except CALIFORNIA!!! We only have 91 here, and race gas purchased at a speed-shop is usually ******* retarded expensive, and there might be 2 or 3 places in all of Socal you can get that **** at the pump.

Also, start at the Mexican border and drive north... do you know when you reach the first real drag-strip or road course? It's about 1/2 hour north of LA. Yup, in all of San Diego/Orange/LA/SanB/Riverside/Imperial Counties, there is one 1/8mile dragstrip at an Indian reservation. That's it.

You can apply the same gains if you start with 93... make it 95 for an extra $5 a tank for some overhead on the dyno or track. Just thought I'd share what I found.
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Old 06-11-2009, 11:42 AM
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Originally Posted by samnavy

If I could find a local place who would sell me 110ul for $8gallon, I'd just keep a gallon in my trunk for refills and not worry about detonation. 1:9 makes 93octane and a $35 fillup... DONE!

Just sharing.

Sam; if I were in your shoes, I'd much rather drive around with a small container of octane booster rather than with a gallon of a flammable product in my car's trunk.

Just my 2 cents.
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Old 06-11-2009, 11:45 AM
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Consider Torco Race Fuel Concentrate.

It works. IIRC, it works out to be something like 230 octane for octane calculation purposes. Potent stuff.

But also bad stuff in that, again IIRC, it has MMT.
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Old 06-11-2009, 12:00 PM
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Originally Posted by samnavy
We only have 91 here, and race gas purchased at a speed-shop is usually ******* retarded expensive, and there might be 2 or 3 places in all of Socal you can get that **** at the pump.
Up in North County, there were two places I used. The first is VW Paradise in San Marcos, which sells the whole VP line in both cans and from the drum. Methanol is less than $6 a gallon there, so I can't imagine that gasoline is too outrageous.

The other, in San Marcos and Vista, is Ochs Oil Co., which specializes in fleet fueling but also sells race gas. They have F&L both at the pump and in cans / drums.
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Old 06-11-2009, 12:58 PM
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You can't get 93 in Maine either. Only 91 here. We had 93 until recently, but it silently disappeared. What's annoying is that the prices didn't drop for "premium" when they dropped the octane.
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Old 06-11-2009, 01:01 PM
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Originally Posted by deliverator
Consider Torco Race Fuel Concentrate.

It works. IIRC, it works out to be something like 230 octane for octane calculation purposes. Potent stuff.

But also bad stuff in that, again IIRC, it has MMT.
VP racing gas contains lead which also fouls your O2 sensors.
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Old 06-11-2009, 01:17 PM
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Originally Posted by Rafa
VP racing gas contains lead which also fouls your O2 sensors.
Like most racing fuel suppliers, VP makes both leaded and unleaded gasolines. In fact, their StreetBlaze 100 is CARB-legal.

Here are their leaded fuels: VP RACING FUELS - LEADED FUELS

And the unleaded ones: VP RACING FUELS- UNLEADED FUELS
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Old 06-11-2009, 03:46 PM
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there's 2 76's that i know of down here (So-cal) that sell 100 octane... a couple years ago... one of the sold it at $5/gallon while the other sold it at $7/gallon.
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Old 06-11-2009, 04:07 PM
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Standard small bottles of octane booster that you buy in an autoparts store are typically just a mix of both the chemicals we're talking about and because they're usually about 6oz, they raise your octane about .1, not 1. You'd need 10 of those bottles at $8 each to do anything.

As I do more homework on my 300whp build, detonation on the '99 block running 91octane has me worried. It seems like just as big a hassle to refill a WI reservoir than it does to securely strap down in a safe container a gallon of hi-octane gas.

Only being limited to a few select gas stations isn't in the cards either... I need a solution that will allow me to fill up anywhere I want and get the protection I need. A gallon of good **** in the trunk is the solution. The homework has led me to discover that buying race gas in bulk and carrying around a little with me is the easiest/cheapest solution. If I put it in a durable "approved" container and strap it down, it'll be fine.
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Old 06-11-2009, 04:12 PM
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Originally Posted by Rafa
VP racing gas contains lead which also fouls your O2 sensors.
See Pictures above.

Originally Posted by samnavy
Standard small bottles of octane booster that you buy in an autoparts store are typically just a mix of both the chemicals we're talking about and because they're usually about 6oz, they raise your octane about .1, not 1. You'd need 10 of those bottles at $8 each to do anything.

As I do more homework on my 300whp build, detonation on the '99 block running 91octane has me worried. It seems like just as big a hassle to refill a WI reservoir than it does to securely strap down in a safe container a gallon of hi-octane gas.

Only being limited to a few select gas stations isn't in the cards either... I need a solution that will allow me to fill up anywhere I want and get the protection I need. A gallon of good **** in the trunk is the solution. The homework has led me to discover that buying race gas in bulk and carrying around a little with me is the easiest/cheapest solution. If I put it in a durable "approved" container and strap it down, it'll be fine.
Can you get e85 reliably in your area?

Chris
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Old 06-11-2009, 04:18 PM
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There are a couple places I know of.

Dennstedts Automotive (the Miata mechanic of choice in SD) is across the street from a place that sells E85/Propane/LNG/Biopuke/etc at the pump... I15/ElCajonBlvd.
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Old 06-11-2009, 04:31 PM
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Originally Posted by samnavy
Dennstedts Automotive (the Miata mechanic of choice in SD) is across the street from a place that sells E85/Propane/LNG/Biopuke/etc at the pump... I15/ElCajonBlvd.
No ****? I went by Dennstedts' place once, not sure how I missed that. I knew we had a lot of CNG places downtown, but I'd never seen E85 anywhere in SD County. If you can get it reliably, that's the answer.
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Old 06-11-2009, 06:40 PM
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What's the octane rating of E85 and can I mix it 1:9 or 1:8 with 91 and still be OK without changing the tune?
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