do they work? are they worth it? should you just buy premium gas to begin with?
octane boosters anyone
- Thread starter mewisemagic
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Just last night I went with a tank of premium with a bottle of Techron and street legal octane boost.
It got rid of the detonation I was experiencing. But its a small 4cyl project car that also had some old gas in it.
Are you having problems?
It got rid of the detonation I was experiencing. But its a small 4cyl project car that also had some old gas in it.
Are you having problems?
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What kind of car/engine do you have? Do you even need premium? If your engine was designed to run on regular 87 octane, using premium is a waste of money. The ONLY reason gas stations sell 89 and 91/93 octane is because some cars NEED the higher octane to run properly. If your engine runs fine on regular, there is no need for anything higher. It will not make your engine last longer, and it will not give you more power or better gas mileage. Check your owner's manual and see what octane it recommends, and use that.
If your compression ratio is lower than 10.5/1, and is not turbo- nor super-charged, you probably will run fine on 87 Octane, unless you have an overheating problem (either locally in the combustion chamber, or systemically in the cooling system).
As another poster said: higher "Research Octane" (to be more accurate, as the term "octane" is technically referring to the relative concentration of a particular group of molecules) doesn't necessarily equate to "better performance". It depends on the design of the vehicle, as well as the flexibility of the ECU.
For most passenger cars, Premium is a waste of money.
As another poster said: higher "Research Octane" (to be more accurate, as the term "octane" is technically referring to the relative concentration of a particular group of molecules) doesn't necessarily equate to "better performance". It depends on the design of the vehicle, as well as the flexibility of the ECU.
For most passenger cars, Premium is a waste of money.
Most octane boosters only raise your octane by POINTS per bottle, that is, 87 to 87.8, not 87 to 95. So even ten bottles of the stuff will have little effect.
One really good octane booster is ethanol. If you start with 100% premium gasoline (no alky) and add the right amount of E85, you can raise the octane quite a lot for very cheap.
One really good octane booster is ethanol. If you start with 100% premium gasoline (no alky) and add the right amount of E85, you can raise the octane quite a lot for very cheap.
2 things I see here:
(1) street-legal octane boosters more often than not (at least the ones sold here in Ccrrappy Tires) are based on Ethyl corp's MMT which maganese will kill your cats and other sensitive emissions stuff.
(2) most technically-advanced vehicles made during the past 7 yrs (*Im talking about imports here*) are already comes with full dynamic ignition mapping that would automatically adjusts to the fuel octane rating w/o any worries. In the case of my fit: with 10.3:1 compression and factory spec'ed for 87 octane (ron+mon divide by 2), running anything other than 87 makes no difference whatsoever in terms of acceleration, budt dyno, etc.
Octane is meant for older vehicles with carb and/or distributor and very ancient computerised EFI control (pre OBD-II days for most vehicles), also for those vehicles with a lot of accumulated combustion chamber deposits (raised compression calls for higher octane gas to combat detonation). Higher octane does not equate to higher energy content(calorific content on gas sold here in NA is already standardised) or burns "slower", it's just meant for specific needs on vehicles.
With the advancements on engine management and control, I can see that eventually there may never be the need for anything higher than 87octane for anything past that point, computer can automatically adjusts to it dynamically.
Q.
(1) street-legal octane boosters more often than not (at least the ones sold here in Ccrrappy Tires) are based on Ethyl corp's MMT which maganese will kill your cats and other sensitive emissions stuff.
(2) most technically-advanced vehicles made during the past 7 yrs (*Im talking about imports here*) are already comes with full dynamic ignition mapping that would automatically adjusts to the fuel octane rating w/o any worries. In the case of my fit: with 10.3:1 compression and factory spec'ed for 87 octane (ron+mon divide by 2), running anything other than 87 makes no difference whatsoever in terms of acceleration, budt dyno, etc.
Octane is meant for older vehicles with carb and/or distributor and very ancient computerised EFI control (pre OBD-II days for most vehicles), also for those vehicles with a lot of accumulated combustion chamber deposits (raised compression calls for higher octane gas to combat detonation). Higher octane does not equate to higher energy content(calorific content on gas sold here in NA is already standardised) or burns "slower", it's just meant for specific needs on vehicles.
With the advancements on engine management and control, I can see that eventually there may never be the need for anything higher than 87octane for anything past that point, computer can automatically adjusts to it dynamically.
Q.
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