AZBENZ-CTSV

Do they work? any good ones?
On my E55 i bought with eurocharged tune 2 years ago for 93 octane.
Only 91 octane is avail here in the valley of the sun. I've been filling up with 91
and adding 3-4 gallons per tank of 100 octane race fuel the past year. Getting tired of the extra $20 every fuel up

Benz-O-Rama

I've only heard of one that works well, it's called Torco.

There's probably more, but this one is supposed to be very good. I doubt it's for everyday usage though. I'd probably have Eurocharged knock your tune down to a 91, and fill up with that.

bnzuovr

ive used seafoam and love it in all my cars get better MPG's to i feel a slight notice in performance but not much my .02 cent.

alextaylor29

I live in AZ too, so when not have EC retune you (they'll do it for free), for 91 Octane?

MRAMG1

Back in the day, racing my whipplecharged mustang, I use to use half 93, have turbo blue 100 at the track.

TB became too damm expensive, so I tried 104 BLACK label octane boost. Worked like a charm. Best part was/is that this car had adjustable timing from the cockpit. With just 1 bottle of 104 BLACK label, I could keep my timing at the same spot as half a tank of TB 100. So in a nut shell, YES it worked.

PS: I still through in a bottle in my S600 for ANY track days, just to play it safe.

Oh yeah, I used it in my C32 for track days as well.

Glyn M Ruck

Torco is about the best you will get in the aftermarket. Most "Octane boosters" available in the aftermarket slow flame front propagation. All decent octane boosters that have no detrimental side effects on combustion are extremely hazardous/carcinogenic compounds that you could not sell to the public in concentrated form & are handled in refineries with due HAZMAT consideration.

AgSilver

dychen

That was my suggestion as well. Just have it retuned and save the trouble of having to dump extra money every fill up. If they do it for free even better.

e55amgrocket

the over the counter stuff dosent do anything. Torco is really good or just buy race gas like i do. VP Q16 FTW!!!

dychen

Wouldn't that just defeat the point of the original post/thread?

MRAMG1

While I agree that race gas IS the best stuff, I can assure you under road racing conditions that over the counter stuff DOES work as well.

Just depends on how much octane you want/need.

May I suggest some Toluene instead of race gas as it is cheaper and works better

At least that is what was king back in my refinery days

BenJ

Toluene/xylene are becoming more expensive so the returns/gains aren't as economical anymore. Last I checked, a gallon of Toluene was ~$15 so might as well buy some race gas at that point.

Glyn M Ruck

Toluene & xylene both slow flame front propagation.

MRAMG1

It's been years since I looked my friend. But I know that when you bought it in bulk, think 55 gallon drum here, it was VERY cheap.

Ask me how I know

Glyn M Ruck

Remember: The Octane rating of a fuel in isolation is purely it's resistance to preignition or knock, detonation, pinging etc. by whatever name you know it.

An engine has a specific octane requirement. Using anything over that is octane giveaway for no benefit.

The greatest benefit to be enjoyed from higher octane fuels is they allow higher compression ratios & more advanced timing to be employed IF THE ENGINE IS DESIGNED & TUNED TO HANDLE THIS. If this is the case the engine won't run on lower octane fuels without displaying high &/or low speed knock. The only way to allow operation on lower octane fuel is to retard the timing or allow the ECU to retard the timing at the onset of detected knock by the knock sensor. Some ECU's don't have the latitude to retard timing sufficiently.

Properly refined & blended racing fuels are more dense fuels. More dense fuels contain more latent/potential energy if they can be combusted completely. This requires a balanced distillation curve & suitably tuned engine.

Higher octane in isolation over the minimum engine requirement = zero gain in hp or torque.

e55amgrocket

Thats not 100% correct. The higher octane means the fuel burns slower as you know. Some fuel are actually less dense depending on the application and some are heavier such as nitrous fuels. These cars do react well to some race gas and the ECU allows some more power and we've seen this on the dyno not just speculation. My car is tuned for Q16 and we picked up over 50hp adding 2 degrees of timing over the base we were at. Forced induction cars love race gas because it all but stops knock on a conservative tune and you can also throw some more power at it.

Glyn M Ruck

Yes - I know where you are coming from. I'm talking stoichiometric or below for petroleum fuels. In petroleum fuels there is a direct relationship between density & potential energy.

And yes - anything such as racing fuel that allows more advanced timing will give a benefit. Don't worry - I've spent half my life on dyno's.

TheOtherDodge

Also, some race fuels are oxygenated.

If you run too much octane and slow the burn rate too much, you can hurt performance as well as your wallet!

urbamworm

Plain and simple don't waste your money on any "octane booster" you can buy at any of the auto parts stores. That is all marketing, and when you read it can give you up to 6 points of octane increase (just made up #6) it means your 91 octane just became 91.6, not that it was 95 octane after installing that junk.

Like mentioned earlier the real deal "octane booster" is called a race fuel concentrate with Torco being one example. A local race shop to me sells Accelerator race fuel concentrate which is a quart bottle for $22 and adding it to like 15 gallons of premium pump gas will boost your octane to a legit 100 octane level. The stuff in it is what is used to make stuff like 100 octane race fuel out of regular pump gas.

It is an unleaded race fuel concentrate and can be used on every fill up to make your tank of pump gas become a tank of race gas for that addition $22 which is not a bad deal, especially when fuel prices aren't out of control like they are right now making an additional $22 not much to have much better performance.

I read there has been one guy that had a lab test fuel though and whatever 93 octane he was using with some of this stuff added caused his fuel to be 98 octane according to whoever it was that tested it for him (think it was a 10 gallon mix). Another guy mentioned with their shop car they picked up a consistent 2.5mph at multiple different tracks while adding in the Accelerator to pump gas showing it really works. Another guy claimed he had talked to the chemist who made the stuff and was told the unleaded version will only bump the octane a true 3 full points (91 up to 94), but either way, many people have used it with positive results.

Glyn M Ruck

Whatever & discounting nitrous & other oxygenators, oxygenated components & heavy alcohols (which actually do very little for Motor Octane Rating which is what we are striving for here) - You will always be better off with a balanced, blended, refined high octane fuel with a well balanced distillation curve & high energy value than by adding knock suppressants to pump gas. As I said above the best Octane boosters are not available to the public. They are simply too dangerous to handle as a concentrate. I'm talking within AF ratios attainable by the car without modification.

Blending a decent lead free racing fuel with pump gas will get you closest to this goal if you do not want to run 100% racing fuel.

If you did not have emissions control devices to look after then a leaded fuel would be desirable as it has added lubrication benefits etc. & lead is still one of the great Octane boosters but lethal in concentrated form.

Toadster

you can get this Torco stuff in a 6-pack of 8oz for like $48 on Amazon

Toadster

What I don't understand is what is before, after, and then Torco?

Glyn M Ruck

That unit has been modified & remapped.

Toadster

wow - so 69hp from a tune, and an additional 16HP from the octane booster

Firechaser

Run E85...same price as regular unleaded w/ 100+ octane. just gotta spend $2K in upgrades to run it ...But it does work fantastic!