# Octane boosters?



## AlanSr (Jan 4, 2008)

I seen some octain boosters on sale today and i was wondering if anyone could recomend them or to stay away from them.


----------



## Toyz (Apr 14, 2008)

Every once and a while i put a bottle of a lucas additive. Its not the octane booster but it is suppose to help clean fuel system etc... I especially add a bottle if i am forced to fill up with what i consider "crap" gas. 

Clicky


----------



## The_Goat (Mar 10, 2005)

Why not add a gallon or two of E85. It's about 100 Octane. I've done some research and found that it's not as corrosive as methanol.


----------



## fergyflyer (Apr 18, 2005)

AlanSr said:


> I seen some octain boosters on sale today and i was wondering if anyone could recomend them or to stay away from them.


Octane boosters are a waste of money. Look for a good fuel injector cleaner like Lucas, Sea Foam or not the injector cleaner, but pure Techron. 

If you read the print on the bottles they say they raise octane 1-3 points. Well the way octane is calculated, if you put 87 octane in your car and put a bottle that raised it 3 points in, you'd now have 87.3. To get to 91 which is the minimum you should run in the GTO, you would need 13 bottles. Not ver y cost effective. 

An octane booster that does work is toluene. When added to gas it makes benzene which increases the power potential and the octane of gas. The problem is if you don't mix it exactly right you can really screw things up in the fuel system. 

Another downside to Toluene is that it attacks the nervous system and can cause cancer from breathing the fumes of it. It is still toxic after it has been burned making your car a very dangerous polluter if you add toluene. 

Here's a good link.Toluene - Octane Booster FAQ


----------



## Rukee (Feb 8, 2007)

fergyflyer said:


> Here's a good link.Toluene - Octane Booster FAQ


Mixxing half and half with 92 octane, if I'm doing the math right would get you 103 octane, which would be awesome for the `65, I could bump my timing back up to were it should be.


----------



## fergyflyer (Apr 18, 2005)

Rukee said:


> Mixxing half and half with 92 octane, if I'm doing the math right would get you 103 octane, which would be awesome for the `65, I could bump my timing back up to were it should be.


I've got a friend with a Lightning. He did a pulley swap on it. He mixes 93 octane at 1 gallon Toluene for 9 gallons of gas to get 95 octane in the summer only. I guess as the enigine temperature gets higher it wants to detonate more. Down here in the summer heat he was getting massive timing pulled because of the heat build-up. This mix cured it. As soon as it gets above 80 he starts adding. He said he gets slightly better mileage too, but it's a 1/2 mpg bump on a 12mpg vehicle, nothing to write home about. 

That would be good stuff for old cars as long as it wouldn't tear up the rubber in the fuel system. I don't know about that, you might want to check before you do it.


----------

