IS2000

I'm living where the best gas we can get is 95RON (about 90.5 or 91AKI for the states). The car is almost stock except for a tune from German tuning company mcchip-DKR. The car is running fine for most of the time, but once in a while I could hear some pinging under load at lower rpm. I'd like to eliminate this to safe my motor for long term. The only way to improve the octane here is to use an octane booster. I ran the Torco accelerator on my other car with success but that car is far from being a daily driver. So is it safe to run this stuff on every tank filled?
Thanks,
Mark

Wobble64

Mark,
I looked into this when planning to import a Carlsson supercharged SLK55 into the US. Carlsson told me octane boosters flat out did not work and advised against them.

I am a chemical engineer and did some research trying to find out how octane boosters would work and could not find a plausible working principle either.

So I concluded it was hype and did not pursue this. The one way that works is to get race gas or airplane gas (unleaded) and use it in large quantities, like half the tank at a time.

Interesting you have a tune from McChip. I just recently have learned about them. They look to be a very professional bunch with real racing experience at the Ring. Did you ask them about this?

Btw, where do you live, so you cannot get 98 octane?

Merc63

It's says under his name, Bangkok.

91 octane is fine to run, that is what 90% of guys on here run.

If you plan to race the car or anything like that I'd get some high octane race fuel and mix it in to your target octane rating.

BLKROKT

Torco is probably fine, but most of the octane boosters won't even nudge the octane rating of a tank of gas up 1pt. I mean, it's just math. If the 12oz of octane boost is rated at say 120 octane, and you're pouring those 12oz into 15gal of 91, which is almost 2000oz, well there's the math. Basically no difference.

I'm guessing the gas in Bangkok, although rated at 91, is not really the same quality as our 91.

We used to use Toluene back in the day at a 10:1 ratio to gas, and it's pretty well known as an effective octane booster.
http://www.worldofchemicals.com/428/...e-booster.html

m a x i m u s

Torco contains MMT which can clog your cats over time and cause other issues as well. 104+ brand doesn't contain MMT, I've used it and it seems to work, but not as well as MMT ones. You may want to try some Techron to clean out carbon deposits, which can also cause ping.

IS2000

Thanks for all the replies. Race gas and toluene are really hard to find here since they are not legal to sell at the pumps, and unleaded race gas is simply not available. I believe the Torco octane booster is the only way to go. It worked on my Modded catless Evo, eliminating all the knocks when running with pump gas only. However, I only put about 1,500 miles a year on that car. I'm aware of the MMT in Torco octane booster and I've heard it can foul spark plugs and potentially messing up cats and oxygen sensors.

IS2000

The tune was made to work with our local fuel here in Bangkok, but it relies on the knock sensor to pull the timing, which i think took away the performance gain claimed by the tuner. I think higher octane gas will give me extra peace of mind as well.

Wobble64

IS2000 - I completely understand. Good thing is those engines are very robust in how they handle bad fuel - worst case it turns off knocking cylinders completely. But you lose performance, if the fuel is bad.

thesaintusa

Ditto.

We did this as well with great effect but a hassle of mixing rather than just pumping gas into the car.

The good old days. haha