harpz

I was speaking with one of my friends in Toronto and he said the dealer told him to be sure to add Octane booster in the summer time...is there any real significant gain ( I can't feel it and its a stock 2005 w203) so what is the real benifit of adding it? maybe its been answered dunno wasn't able to find it

jedcred

It probably has to do with several factors, but mainly I believe the idea is to maintain the engine's power during the summer months, which usually decreases due to two factors. First, most people use the A/C during the summer, which causes a small drop in power when on. Also, hot air provides less boost than cold air for the supercharger, also causing a small drop in power. I can't think of anything that octane booster would provide from a working pespective of the engine.

harpz

hmmm...is it it dangerous...it says max octane legally allowed b\c i run Octane 97 normally ....i don't really want to damage the engine

Hot Tomato

Well I feel, no stab at anyone, if the engine is rated for a certain octane anyway - boosting octane under normal circumstance is not going to give you much benefit performance wise.

In Thailand, we do get some dodgy gas especially if you head outta town. A friend of mine does that a lot to save the engine from guzzling up lower octane gas just to be safe when he drives out to remote parts where the octane might not be up to par

MB-BOB

I thought the only reason octane boost is available today is for collector muscle cars from pre 1973 that run on "Regular Leaded" gas. Such additives help bring today's unleaded gas to a spec that these old cars can burn safely.

IMO, putting octane booster in a modern car is a complete waste of money, and time/effort to shop for it, or even worry about it.

BabyBenz6spd

I heard octane booster products kills the spark plug, someone more knowledge about "octane booster" please fill in.

patrick_y

The owner's manual says to refrain from using any other gasoline additives except for Merccedes-Benz approved carbon deposit reducers.

I'm going to follow that suggestion.

harpz

I'm eager to find out y it sin't such a good idea especially when the dealer recommended this in the summer time

mleskovar

Where are you located? Toronto? What is the maximum octane rating you can buy from gas stations in the summertime?

harpz

i was in toronto ( OCTANE 97 is the max i've found...shell V)..now i'm in Orlando FL...max i've found is 94

MB-BOB

And according to your manual the max your car will need is 91.

Gilgorm

I agree with MB-Bob. I've been driving MBs for a long time and have never heard anyone suggest an octane booster. It sound like a great way to throw away money. 91 octane (premium in Toronto) is whats required by MB. I tried the Shell (94 or 97) and noticed no improvement. Shell claims the gas is cleaner with more detergents and in winter has gas line antifreeze. The extra cost is not worth it.
I buy my own gas line antifreeze for winter and use it once occassionaly in summer to get rid of condensation in my gas tank.

Buellwinkle

Haha, octane boost, next you'll put a Tornado in your intake. I ran my car with a full tank of 100 Octane unleaded, $5/gal back in the days when gasoline was under $2 and nothing, nada, car ran exactly the same, even put it on a dyno and still zilch, nada, nothing. So if real 100 octane won't make a difference, how is a few ounces of Toulene going to do it. I don't know how hot it gets up in Toronto but it's not uncommon to get up to 120F this time of year in our Inland Empire, heck, it was 104F this weekend 4 miles from the beach yet it hailed last night, go figure.

k_lundquist

Sigh - please do some reasearch. This was a topic I was interested in awhile ago and a simple google search will answer a lot of questions.

This article is very good and I found it in about 2 minutes:
http://www.europeancarweb.com/tech/0...osters_tested/

Basically the Octane boosters you buy off the shelf are safe to use. Whether or not they make a difference in your car is a matter of how the car itself performs to a higher than spec octane, the compression of the engine, and how much gas you orginally had in your tank when you added the booster. 8 treated gallons will have a higher octane than 12 when treated with the same bottle of booster.

In my experience my supercharged higher compression C230 reacted less in power increases (if at all) than my lower compression NA Engine Nissan (butt dyno felt good).

But read the article, get a good understanding, and then try it for yourself.

Buellwinkle

Believe me, I know my fuels, worked for Unocal. I was trying to see if by increasing boost with a pulley from 6 1/2 to about 10 1/2 PSI and thereby leaning the engine at full load, would I benefit from higher octane, not from silly boosters that may have other unwanted effects but from actual 100 octane race fuel and no difference, not just on the butt dyno, but a real dyno. The typical modern stock motor will never, ever see any boost from more octane. As for motors that can benefit, modded Harleys, you've seen them, crazy intakes designed by engineering school dropouts, straight through exhaust pipes and are running insanely lean in the arid southwest, pinging with each twist of the throttle. But you know what, my bike didn't ping any less when I ran with octane boosters.

harpz

oh ok thanks alot, i now have a somewhat better understanding of octane bossters and whether or not to use them....next time i will use google....just got lazy this time...lol...