Hi guys, can you tell whats the best octane booster? And how often can i put it?
Thanks

 

I will give you a heads up that this will add no power, but will make the car get slightly better gas mileage and may cause a slightly smoother idle. I would use whatever is the most expensive generally.

 

Please search this has been discussed in detail

 

Why would you even need an octane booster? Your octane doesn't even go up that much (we're talking tenth of a point on a full tank).

 

yup... complete waste of money...

one can, bottle, whatever, of octane booster, when used in their ratios, will raise fuel octane by .1 so, you normally use 93 octane fuel, you add a can of octane booster, and in the proper ratio, your fuel octane is now 93.1

there is no performance benefit to raising the octane of the fuel, in fact, you will probably get worse fuel mileage...

our cars ECU's learn as we drive, they adapt... they monitor the quality of the fuel by increasing the ignition timing curve and listening for knock *preignition* low octane rated fuel will knock with advanced timing before higher octane fuel will... so, your car has learned that it can use a decently high timing curve because you normally use higher octane fuels (right, else we wouldn't be posting this thread)... by adding octane booster, the car is probably not going to relearn within a tankful *unless you reset the ECU every time you fill up* the car will relearn if it starts knocking to lower timing, but once it settles in, it usually doesn't recheck by trying to add timing...

also, what do we know about the octane rating of fuel??? well, the higher the octane rating, the LESS specific power per volume that fuel has... octane is the ability of a fuel to RESIST ignition... the only reason we use high octane fuels is so that we can get away with super high timing advances, and lots of boost on forced induction applications... in those situations, the power gained by advancing timing and adding boost pressure greatly outweighs the power lost by having a higher octane fuel... however, if not doing either, then really, the lower octane the fuel, the more power it has... with that in mind, you should use whatever your engine is designed for...

just as an example, many think they can use the "cheap stuff" or 87 octane instead of 91 or 93 octane (whatever is available in your area) I'm here to tell you, you sure can, but the cars ecu is going to pull timing and may cause a decrease in fuel mileage (remember, we're operating at a lower octane than the engine was designed for)... what's gas cost these days??? I haven't bought gas in over two months, but, lets say for sake of argument that its $1.99 for regular, $2.14 for middle grade, and $2.29 for premium... we have a 20.5 gallon fuel tank, and lets say (to keep the math easy, we only need half a tank)... well, obviously, thats $19.99 for the cheap stuff, $21.40 for middle grade and $22.90 for premium... whats a can of octane booster cost? $4-$5??? for $4-$5, we could easily afford premium gas and have money left over, and have 4 full octane rating points higher, not .1 higher...

hope this helps.....

 

exactly what he said^. dont waste your time or money. just use premium from teh pump.

 

I wouldn't say its a complete waste, especially if you have an older car and they can help clean clogged fuel injectors.

mitsuguy, nice post

 

In Fuel Additives there are usually a whole package of additives inside the bottle, usually including upper cylinder lubricant. In particular cars, this can give you a sense of more smoothness, over just premium from the pump(even from top-tier gas vendors). Especially at lower rpm, your butt dyno might feel some benefits, but not more peak power due to "octane". It is rumored at BITOG that Shell's new "nitrogen" marketing gimmick formulation also tends to have more UCL then other brands and that is what one may feel.

Usually the products that have more UCL will be in something labelled more as a Fuel Injection Cleaner, rather than octane booster.
That being said, a bottle of stuff isn't particularly expensive. Try a bottle of Redline SI-1, or Amsoil PI, or pure Lucas UCL, and see if you really feel a difference. If you can feel a diff, then it was worth it to you. Go to BITOG for more threads to review.

 

****... in my turbocharged Talon, going to MS105 from 93 octane pump gas was over 1 second in the 1/4... prior to having control of ignition timing, I had to dump all kinds of fuel to prevent knock on 93 octane and 21 psi boost... with MS105, I was able to pull a lot of fuel off the curve and raise boost to 26 psi... this was good to go from 12.9 to 11.6 in the 1/4 mile...

that was 120 "points" though, a little more than the point or two you get from the additives, and at the time, regular gas was $2 a gallon, and MS105 was $6 a gallon... had I made no other changes, I wouldn't have expected to gain time, but being able to run leaner safer and add boost on a turbocharged car is like night and day...

 

yeah turbo DSM's love race fuel!

 

here's something i wrote up a long time ago why high octane works in high performance engines and why it's needed.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls4...ghlight=octane

 

Lucas Fuel Injector cleaner/octane booster is the best out there, and it's only ~$3.

If you are looking for better mileage that is.