Any thoughts on Octane Boosters ? And how about the homemade Octane Boosters, I know the commercial ones are just a rip off. In particular, thoughts about Toluene ??? Will it harm my engine at a %10 solution ??? Thanks

 

I think there's a general rule-of-thumb to follow here which applies to all products that claim to provide too-good-to-be-true benefits: if something was cheap, easy, and provided a significant benefit, it would already be provided. If putting toluene or something else in gasoline was cheap, easy, and made gas better or higher octane, you can bet BP, Shell, Exxon, and everyone else would be doing it already. The reason they haven't is that they've weighed the costs and benefits. Adding something to your fuel to make it higher octane is a benefit, but you can bet it has a cost that outweighs it, otherwise it'd already be provided in your gasoline.

From Wikipedia:

"Toluene also poses similar problems as alcohol fuels, as it eats through standard rubber fuel lines and has no lubricating properties as standard gasoline does, which can break down fuel pumps and cause upper cylinder bore wear.

In Australia, toluene has been found to have been illegally combined with petrol in fuel outlets for sale as standard vehicular fuel. Toluene attracts no fuel excise, while other fuels are taxed at over 40%, so fuel suppliers are able to profit from substituting the cheaper toluene for petrol. This substitution is likely to affect engine performance and result in additional wear and tear. The extent of toluene substitution has not been determined."

 

As you note the "octane booster" sold in stores is nearly worthless... when it says it raises octane 8 "points" it means it changes 87 octane into 87.8 octane.

But overall-

Your car is programmed to run on 91 octane fuel.

Anything higher is completely, utterly, useless in every way except making you poorer

(unless you're doing something weird with the car like building your own turbo system- in which case higher octane might permit marginally higher boost- though you're still badly limited by the compression ratio of the motor)


Anything lower is a bad idea for other, more serious, reasons.

 

Well said, Thanks.

 

Except where all you can get is 93, like Atlanta Then you get no extra benefit and are also not any poorer (since there are no alternatives).

 

Reminds me of the epic biker fail :

 

^^^^^^^^^^^ LMAO I remember this story. What an idiot that biker was.

FWIW - There isn't really any benefits for using octane boosters in our cars, especially if they're stock. I've heard from a c5 corvette owner who's only limited to crappy 91 octane and he sometimes has knock. He can fix it with a bottle of octane booster.