There are many Octane boosters on the market ranging from 104+ to just plain ole snake oil. Most of these Octane boosters are used in carbureted race vehicles are of benefit and pose few problems. However, when used in a fuel injected engine, I've read that using some brands and hard on the injectors and will destroy the O2 sensor in short order. Anyone regularly run octane boost in an FI engine that works well and doesn't harm the sensors and injectors?

UPDATE found this. Tested, proven octane increase and gets excellent reviews online:
Lucas Octane Booster delivers 3x the boost of other brands. It is suitable for fuel injected, carbureated, throttle body or rotary engines. It is safe for turbos, oxygen sensors, and catalytic converters. Lucas Octane Booster provides the same benefits as the Lucas Fuel Treatment. It also boosts the octane rating of the fuel by 3 points (ex. 93 to 96). One bottle treats up to 25 gallons of leaded or unleaded gas.



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" THE BLACK PARALYZER" -87GT 3800SC Series III engine, 3.4" Pulley, N* TB, LS1 MAF, Flotech Exhaust Autolite 104's Custom CAI 4T65eHD w. custom axles, HP Tuners VCM Suite.
"THE COLUSSUS"
87GT - ALL OUT 3.4L Turbocharged engine, Garrett Hybrid Turbo, MSD ign., modified TH125H
" ON THE LOOSE WITHOUT THE JUICE "

[This message has been edited by Dennis LaGrua (edited 05-21-2010).]

http://www.lucasoil.com/pro...=50&catid=8&loc=show

quote Originally posted by IMSA GT: http://www.lucasoil.com/pro...=50&catid=8&loc=show

Just found it and added it to my post. Just the ticket if your KRs are on the edge and you don't want to tune down the timing any further. Thanks

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" THE BLACK PARALYZER" -87GT 3800SC Series III engine, 3.4" Pulley, N* TB, LS1 MAF, Flotech Exhaust Autolite 104's Custom CAI 4T65eHD w. custom axles, HP Tuners VCM Suite.
"THE COLUSSUS"
87GT - ALL OUT 3.4L Turbocharged engine, Garrett Hybrid Turbo, MSD ign., modified TH125H
" ON THE LOOSE WITHOUT THE JUICE "

[This message has been edited by Dennis LaGrua (edited 05-21-2010).]

Toluene.

114 ( R+M / 2 ) octane.

You can get it from paint shops.

I would be wary about using too much, but pump gasoline already has ~30% aromatics.

http://volvospeed.com/Reviews/octane_boosters.html

The link is to a testing of various octane boosters on the market. They rate the lucas on as one of the best. One bottle in a Fiero tank legitmately raises octane from 93 to 96.5. Add an additonal bottle, and you should get ~98 octane.

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'88 GT- 3800 Turbo 11.367@121.03mph
gmtuners.com -Build info

quote Originally posted by AkursedX: http://volvospeed.com/Reviews/octane_boosters.html The link is to a testing of various octane boosters on the market. They rate the lucas on as one of the best. One bottle in a Fiero tank legitmately raises octane from 93 to 96.5. Add an additonal bottle, and you should get ~98 octane.

They also rated the Outlaw Super Concentrated Octane booster very highly. One bottle raised 92.1 octane gas to 97.15 octane gas. THese tests were done using a Shatox meter which is an accurate portable $4000 octane measurement system and an engine test.
The NOS brand also rated highly but I did not see that it was O2 sensor safe.
I believe that trick to using these additives is to use just enough to get the slight amount KR's (that you might have left after tuning) down to zero. Using too little won't help the knocks , using too much slows you down as the burn and cylinder pressures will be adversly affected.
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" THE BLACK PARALYZER" -87GT 3800SC Series III engine, 3.4" Pulley, N* TB, LS1 MAF, Flotech Exhaust Autolite 104's Custom CAI 4T65eHD w. custom axles, HP Tuners VCM Suite.
"THE COLUSSUS"
87GT - ALL OUT 3.4L Turbocharged engine, Garrett Hybrid Turbo, MSD ign., modified TH125H
" ON THE LOOSE WITHOUT THE JUICE "

[This message has been edited by Dennis LaGrua (edited 05-21-2010).]

I have run the Lucas brand through my old Mustang. No real testing, and my seat-of-the-pants-o-meter had not registered a significant HP increase, but the old guys in Mt. Clemens, MI sure LOVED the smell of it on a Wednesday Summer's night. I always got a comment about the smell of Lucas booster. Actually, well worth the price of a bottle just to get in good with the old folks. The gots the knowledge.

quote Originally posted by Dennis LaGrua: Just found it and added it to my post. Just the ticket if your KRs are on the edge and you don't want to tune down the timing any further. Thanks

If you are running on the edge of KR then running ocatane booster is not the fix.......

quote Originally posted by MstangsBware: If you are running on the edge of KR then running ocatane booster is not the fix.......

Please explain. Higher octane makes for more stable gasoline and allows you to develop maximum horsepower without detonation. You can only tune so much on pump gas and then you start losing horsepower.
If what you say is correct then there would be no need for octane boosters, premium and racing gas but apparently there is a need. I'd like to hear your take on it.

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" THE BLACK PARALYZER" -87GT 3800SC Series III engine, 3.4" Pulley, N* TB, LS1 MAF, Flotech Exhaust Autolite 104's Custom CAI 4T65eHD w. custom axles, HP Tuners VCM Suite.
"THE COLUSSUS"
87GT - ALL OUT 3.4L Turbocharged engine, Garrett Hybrid Turbo, MSD ign., modified TH125H
" ON THE LOOSE WITHOUT THE JUICE "

quote Originally posted by Tony Kania: I have run the Lucas brand through my old Mustang. No real testing, and my seat-of-the-pants-o-meter had not registered a significant HP increase:

Octain bosters and higher octain gas do not add HP, they simply allow for greater cylinder pressures before detionation. They basically slow the flame front which actaully makes lower octain more powerful thogh quite undesirable in high comp/or/bosted engines.

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[IMG]




trueleo.com
RSpiderII@aol.com

Not sure why anyone with a stock Fiero engine would want an octane booster unless they simply didn't understand the concept or had fallen prey to advertising BS.

Unless you are running higher compression than stock - and I mean a LOT more compression, there is absolutely no need to run any sort of booster.

I run cars with compression up to 10.7 on pump premium without any additive. Above 11.0 it may be necessary if you don't have good premium available in your area.

I also run 12 psi of boost on an 8.5 Fiero on pump 92 with no knock and no additive.

I just start with the 105 octane stuff

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Turbo 3800 E85 5spd spec3
11.74@123

quote Originally posted by BillS: Not sure why anyone with a stock Fiero engine would want an octane booster unless they simply didn't understand the concept or had fallen prey to advertising BS. Unless you are running higher compression than stock - and I mean a LOT more compression, there is absolutely no need to run any sort of booster. I run cars with compression up to 10.7 on pump premium without any additive. Above 11.0 it may be necessary if you don't have good premium available in your area. I also run 12 psi of boost on an 8.5 Fiero on pump 92 with no knock and no additive.

Under my signature you can see that I run a 3800SC engine with a few mods. Even with a small cutback in the advance curve, the engine still reports a few KR.s on the scans within the 40000-5800 RPM band. Further reduction in timing advance will only cause a horsepower loss. The choice then becomes intercool (on this summers plans) use of racing gas or using Octane booster. E-85 is also an option but you need totally different fueling tables for that fuel. With 85% alcohol you will need to run very rich mixtures and this would involve developing a brand new PCM program. I guess we can ask Darkhorizon about this as I believe his Fiero runs on E85
BTW, if you are running 12 psi of boost, I assume that the boost is intercooled.

quote Octane boosters and higher octane gas do not add HP, they simply allow for greater cylinder pressures before detionation. They basically slow the flame front which actaully makes lower octain more powerful thogh quite undesirable in high comp/or/bosted engines.

Octane boosters in themselves do not add horsepower; they allow the engine to run more agressive timing to make more horsepower. In you own words greater cylinder pressures before detonation will equate to more horsepower. Octane boosters safeguard the engine while permitting it to make more horsepower . just adding it to a normally functioning engine will do no good and could actually cause it to make less HP. However, there are now outlaw gas additives that WILL boost horsepower by making the gasoline have more energy. I have no expereince with these horsepower in a bottle solutions as I believe that they are banned by the NHRA in competition.

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" THE BLACK PARALYZER" -87GT 3800SC Series III engine, 3.4" Pulley, N* TB, LS1 MAF, Flotech Exhaust Autolite 104's Custom CAI 4T65eHD w. custom axles, HP Tuners VCM Suite.
"THE COLUSSUS"
87GT - ALL OUT 3.4L Turbocharged engine, Garrett Hybrid Turbo, MSD ign., modified TH125H
" ON THE LOOSE WITHOUT THE JUICE "

quote Originally posted by Dennis LaGrua: Please explain. Higher octane makes for more stable gasoline and allows you to develop maximum horsepower without detonation. You can only tune so much on pump gas and then you start losing horsepower. If what you say is correct then there would be no need for octane boosters, premium and racing gas but apparently there is a need. I'd like to hear your take on it.

My reply refers to if you are having KR then you should not be dumping ocatane booster in your tank all the time to correct for KR. You should of course tune it out and correct the issue. Maybe the way you said it and I read it are two differant ways.

quote Originally posted by MstangsBware: My reply refers to if you are having KR then you should not be dumping ocatane booster in your tank all the time to correct for KR. You should of course tune it out and correct the issue. Maybe the way you said it and I read it are two differant ways.

I would agree with the above statement. Proper uning and /or intercooling is always the best solution to limit KR's. In the case of my engine, I don't have the IC installed just yet and I didn't don't want to retard the 3800SC timing more than 1* or 2* in the 4000-5800 RPM range. Being that we still see 1 or 2 KR's here and there and also being afraid that cutting back the timing may cause too large a horsepower loss, I decided to go the Octane boost route just for now. Now it could be that I end up being off base with my theory so we will go the dyno route this summer and get some verfication data. If a bottle (or 1/2 bottle) of Lucas Octane boost in the tank proves to eliminate the KR.s, I guess we will have succeeded to a point.
A word to all the tuners out there. If you have a 3800SC series III and decide to run a 3.4L pulley on the Gen V supercharger, you will get huge boost and even with supporting mods, you will find it difficult to manage spark and fuel as to tune out all the KR's across the RPM band. This combo really requires an IC so but you do not add an IC right away, higher octane gas should give you the safety factor that you need . Now please allow me to prove it. .

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" THE BLACK PARALYZER" -87GT 3800SC Series III engine, 3.4" Pulley, N* TB, LS1 MAF, Flotech Exhaust Autolite 104's Custom CAI 4T65eHD w. custom axles, HP Tuners VCM Suite.
"THE COLUSSUS"
87GT - ALL OUT 3.4L Turbocharged engine, Garrett Hybrid Turbo, MSD ign., modified TH125H
" ON THE LOOSE WITHOUT THE JUICE "

quote would involve developing a brand new PCM program. I guess we can ask Darkhorizon about this as I believe his Fiero runs on E85

It takes about 20-30 seconds to write a e85 tune. Just add 30% in the injector tables and you are done. The rest of the tune would require a bit more timing, maybe a small tweak or 2 to the ends of maf table.

You can also increase the injector size by 30% on a bone stock car, or modify the maf sensor (probably impossible for most people).

I agree with the simplicity of tuning; it's just a linear scaling of the pulse widths.

The bigger issue is...

I have NEVER, EVER seen a pump with E85.

Then again, I'm not very well traveled, but in the last two years I've visited New York state and Maine, and I live in Quebec.

Toluene on the other hand...

[This message has been edited by pmbrunelle (edited 05-23-2010).]

Just FYI, you can buy Toluene at the local hardware store. For example, Lowe's sells it in quart or gallon cans.