octane booster?

[Mackid343]

whats the deal with this stuff...

does it work? does it harm you car at all in the long run?

just curious since now summers started and i'll have more of a chance to hit some open highways on a few trips i need to make and a little more fun around town

[Ford_Focus_05]

Well basically if you use a octane booster you dont want to use it over and over and over again... basically I have been told that youcan use it every once in a while but consistantly will hurt your car!

Now I am no expert so I could be wrong.

[AirMoore]

whats the deal with this stuff...

does it work? does it harm you car at all in the long run?

just curious since now summers started and i'll have more of a chance to hit some open highways on a few trips i need to make and a little more fun around town

Octane Boosters are often used to prevent issues such as knocking/pinging or pre-det., your average car (atmoshperic cars) really dont need it and you should run the recommened octane in your Owners manual.

Now sometimes its not bad to run an octane booster... some people feel it can clean up injectors and so-called 'carbon' or junk deposits... they simply get their gas down to an 1/8th tank, put in the correct amount of octane booster and run their car real hard. This really isnt a bad thing to do as it can clean up the engine a bit, clear out the build-ups caused from thousands of miles of stop/go traffic, and low RPM shifts. If you get on the gas every-so-often though, normally these deposits wont built up anyways, and most younger people get on the gas fairly often... but it can help slightly.

If you use one make sure its a good one, but again its honestly not needed unless you having knocking/pinging/pre-det. problems. Infact using it (especially often), when your car doesnt call for it can and WILL DECREASE performance over time. Also running to much octane booster can cause the engine to run rich, again which creates a decrease in performance. Pretty much just run the recommened gas in your car if its a (relatively) stock car... becuase the engine was actually optimized by the engineers to run there.


Some high-performance cars (heavily supercharged/turbocharged) cars may need some octane boosters to run correctly on pump-gas... to boost the octane a bit, as some cars need 98, 100, 107, 110+ ratings etc etc. Also really high-revving machines may also need this (such as 15,000RPM bikes) where (good) pump-gas isnt available.

If you decide to use it make sure its GOOD STUFF, and you dont use it often if there isnt any problem to begin with. Also unless your having problems... octane booster WILL NOT (significantly increase) your HP at all... unlike what many people may think.

It is good stuff, with benfits can increase throttle response and make for a 'cleaner' running engine, almost like a 'smoother pull' on heavy acceleration. Also since fuels now-a-days are junk, they dont sit well, so a little octane booster can stabilize the gas, and may make it run more-pure if its not the best gas.

[MerkXRTurbo]

I used octane boost one time just to try and run up to 28psi! No pre-detonation even with that much boost, but the plugs couldn't fire above around 25psi.

[SmaartAasSaabr]

I think I had an issue with my injectors, going lean even when they were firing continously :shock:

[thestaton]

When I had my Cobb Stage 2 WRX I tried some Octane Booster. I raced my friend who had a stock 05 STI at the time and we where dead even until around 100 then he started to creep away.

We tried it again later without the booster and it was the same results.

I'd say screw the stuff if you have ping or knock its time to get something checked out or if you want to run some crazy boost go meth injection or get some C16.

[HighVoltage]

What kind of octane booster? The off-the-shelf stuff at auto stores is complete waste of money. If you read it closely, it raises the octane by only a few POINTS. So if you put in 92 octane fuel and add one of these boosters with 3 more POINTS, you will get approx 92.3.

If you want to actually increase your octane either purchase a fuel with a higher rated octane or you can try making your own (toulene + xylene, etc). Ive used aviation fuel (seems to be cheaper than the stuff at the strip) Note: technically its illegal to run aviation fuel in a street machine as it doesnt include the road tax.

Some modern NA (normally aspirated) vehicles do seem to take advantage of a higher octane fuel. Perhaps the computer is simply monitoring the knock sensor to adjust the timing curve and exhibit an increase in throttle response. By far though, supercharged, turbocharged and high compression engines have the most to gain from an increase in octane.

Like has been mentioned, if your vehicle doesnt require it dont bother to use it. It can cause a very minor slip in performance or gain in performance but in the end you are just paying more $$ for no real difference.

[amoney]

What kind of octane booster? The off-the-shelf stuff at auto stores is complete waste of money. If you read it closely, it raises the octane by only a few POINTS. So if you put in 92 octane fuel and add one of these boosters with 3 more POINTS, you will get approx 92.3.

If you want to actually increase your octane either purchase a fuel with a higher rated octane or you can try making your own (toulene + xylene, etc). Ive used aviation fuel (seems to be cheaper than the stuff at the strip) Note: technically its illegal to run aviation fuel in a street machine as it doesnt include the road tax.

Some modern NA (normally aspirated) vehicles do seem to take advantage of a higher octane fuel. Perhaps the computer is simply monitoring the knock sensor to adjust the timing curve and exhibit an increase in throttle response. By far though, supercharged, turbocharged and high compression engines have the most to gain from an increase in octane.
Like has been mentioned, if your vehicle doesnt require it dont bother to use it. It can cause a very minor slip in performance or gain in performance but in the end you are just paying more $$ for no real difference.

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