Prolong OCTANE booster?
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Typically, so-called Octane Boosters do little or nothing but waste your money.
When they claim to raise the octane by 4-7 "points", what they mean is 4-7 TENTHS... i.e. they'll make a tank of 87 octane fuel into a tank of 87.4 to 87.7 octane.
My personal experience with my '68 Buick Gran Sport that requires 99 octane is that they did nothing. I still had to retard the timing to make it run on 93 without massive pinging. If I added a second bottle, all it did was foul the plugs.
When they claim to raise the octane by 4-7 "points", what they mean is 4-7 TENTHS... i.e. they'll make a tank of 87 octane fuel into a tank of 87.4 to 87.7 octane.
My personal experience with my '68 Buick Gran Sport that requires 99 octane is that they did nothing. I still had to retard the timing to make it run on 93 without massive pinging. If I added a second bottle, all it did was foul the plugs.
Originally Posted By: RF Overlord
Typically, so-called Octane Boosters do little or nothing but waste your money.
When they claim to raise the octane by 4-7 "points", what they mean is 4-7 TENTHS... i.e. they'll make a tank of 87 octane fuel into a tank of 87.4 to 87.7 octane.
My personal experience with my '68 Buick Gran Sport that requires 99 octane is that they did nothing. I still had to retard the timing to make it run on 93 without massive pinging. If I added a second bottle, all it did was foul the plugs.
1000000000% correct.
If you want to raise octane add a gallon of xylene,toluene or acetone. All if these products are in excess of 120 octane.
A little bottle of octane booster doesn't boost anything but cash from consumers who don't know any better.
Think about it. How is it possible that a bottle less than a pint will mix into 20 or so gallons of gasoline and raise octane.
That stuff would have to be 1000 octane to make any appreciable difference when diluted into a full tank.
True snake oil.
Xylene costs 12 bucks a gallon and I mix it with tc-w3 for my fuel.
I can honestly say I can feel the difference when I don't add it to my fuel. The car feels less lively.
Typically, so-called Octane Boosters do little or nothing but waste your money.
When they claim to raise the octane by 4-7 "points", what they mean is 4-7 TENTHS... i.e. they'll make a tank of 87 octane fuel into a tank of 87.4 to 87.7 octane.
My personal experience with my '68 Buick Gran Sport that requires 99 octane is that they did nothing. I still had to retard the timing to make it run on 93 without massive pinging. If I added a second bottle, all it did was foul the plugs.
1000000000% correct.
If you want to raise octane add a gallon of xylene,toluene or acetone. All if these products are in excess of 120 octane.
A little bottle of octane booster doesn't boost anything but cash from consumers who don't know any better.
Think about it. How is it possible that a bottle less than a pint will mix into 20 or so gallons of gasoline and raise octane.
That stuff would have to be 1000 octane to make any appreciable difference when diluted into a full tank.
True snake oil.
Xylene costs 12 bucks a gallon and I mix it with tc-w3 for my fuel.
I can honestly say I can feel the difference when I don't add it to my fuel. The car feels less lively.
Originally Posted By: rrguy
I read both that it actually raised it a point & some say tenths. A European review said it added 6 points on the RON scale? SO you could hit 100 Octane? so was like hmm?
There's blending octane and there's actual octane boosters that increase octane. This stuff probably has a combination of the two.
Prolong says that it contains MMT. It's currently legal, but past a certain point it probably doesn't help. If your fuel already contains MMT, then there might be diminishing returns from adding more.
Another issue is that while it's an octane booster, MMT apparently can poison catalytic converters and there's worry that burning it isn't that safe. It's been known to foul spark plugs and a lot of carmakers warn against fuel with MMT.
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=781023
I read both that it actually raised it a point & some say tenths. A European review said it added 6 points on the RON scale? SO you could hit 100 Octane? so was like hmm?
There's blending octane and there's actual octane boosters that increase octane. This stuff probably has a combination of the two.
Prolong says that it contains MMT. It's currently legal, but past a certain point it probably doesn't help. If your fuel already contains MMT, then there might be diminishing returns from adding more.
Another issue is that while it's an octane booster, MMT apparently can poison catalytic converters and there's worry that burning it isn't that safe. It's been known to foul spark plugs and a lot of carmakers warn against fuel with MMT.
http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=781023
Originally Posted By: Clevy
If you want to raise octane add a gallon of xylene,toluene or acetone. All if these products are in excess of 120 octane. A little bottle of octane booster doesn't boost anything but cash from consumers who don't know any better.
Absolutely. There are octane boosters that do work well, but those are from real oil companies and racing fuel companies, and you can expect to pay over $20 for one treatment.
If you want to raise octane add a gallon of xylene,toluene or acetone. All if these products are in excess of 120 octane. A little bottle of octane booster doesn't boost anything but cash from consumers who don't know any better.
Absolutely. There are octane boosters that do work well, but those are from real oil companies and racing fuel companies, and you can expect to pay over $20 for one treatment.
Fifth Gear did an investigation into some octane boosters on the market. Bottomline - majority don't really do anything.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKxJfXfD6mg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKxJfXfD6mg
Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: Clevy
If you want to raise octane add a gallon of xylene,toluene or acetone. All if these products are in excess of 120 octane. A little bottle of octane booster doesn't boost anything but cash from consumers who don't know any better.
Absolutely. There are octane boosters that do work well, but those are from real oil companies and racing fuel companies, and you can expect to pay over $20 for one treatment.
I'm guessing it probably does work, but whether or not it's a good idea is separate from whether or not it works.
Like I said before, Prolong says it contains MMT. MMT doesn't blend per se. It was considered at one time when TEL was phased out. However, some feel it's toxic to burn the stuff, and it causes fouling of spark plugs and catalytic converters.
Originally Posted By: Clevy
If you want to raise octane add a gallon of xylene,toluene or acetone. All if these products are in excess of 120 octane. A little bottle of octane booster doesn't boost anything but cash from consumers who don't know any better.
Absolutely. There are octane boosters that do work well, but those are from real oil companies and racing fuel companies, and you can expect to pay over $20 for one treatment.
I'm guessing it probably does work, but whether or not it's a good idea is separate from whether or not it works.
Like I said before, Prolong says it contains MMT. MMT doesn't blend per se. It was considered at one time when TEL was phased out. However, some feel it's toxic to burn the stuff, and it causes fouling of spark plugs and catalytic converters.
I think that's important, and a lot of people miss that. Plenty of the "reputable" octane boost packages note that it's really not for new vehicles' emissions systems. The guy driving the classic muscle car who wants a higher octane rating might not mind spending the extra amount of money and won't worry about the cat he doesn't have.
But, there likely is a significant number of people using such products who don't know any better and really shouldn't be wasting their money in such a fashion. I wouldn't have an issue using such a product in my old snowmobile (whether or not the product would be worth the money spent is another issue). But, I wouldn't want to be using such a thing in my G, and if my daily driver can't operate on pump gas, I've got bigger problems.
But, there likely is a significant number of people using such products who don't know any better and really shouldn't be wasting their money in such a fashion. I wouldn't have an issue using such a product in my old snowmobile (whether or not the product would be worth the money spent is another issue). But, I wouldn't want to be using such a thing in my G, and if my daily driver can't operate on pump gas, I've got bigger problems.
Originally Posted By: Garak
I think that's important, and a lot of people miss that. Plenty of the "reputable" octane boost packages note that it's really not for new vehicles' emissions systems. The guy driving the classic muscle car who wants a higher octane rating might not mind spending the extra amount of money and won't worry about the cat he doesn't have.
It's gotten to the point where I don't even have to see a classic car since I can smell its exhaust. As a kid when cats were introduced by most cars didn't have them yet, I wasn't sensitive to the smell. These days I can be 5 cars behind and I can tell if it's an old car because all modern cars have essentially odorless exhaust.
I mentioned MMT, which seems to be the big replacement for lead. MMT fouls up spark plugs. I saw some photos and it looked like rust (at least the same color) on the ceramic and electrodes. Lead fouled up spark plugs too. I thought that years ago people would have "tune ups" every other oil change, which typically included new plugs.
I think that's important, and a lot of people miss that. Plenty of the "reputable" octane boost packages note that it's really not for new vehicles' emissions systems. The guy driving the classic muscle car who wants a higher octane rating might not mind spending the extra amount of money and won't worry about the cat he doesn't have.
It's gotten to the point where I don't even have to see a classic car since I can smell its exhaust. As a kid when cats were introduced by most cars didn't have them yet, I wasn't sensitive to the smell. These days I can be 5 cars behind and I can tell if it's an old car because all modern cars have essentially odorless exhaust.
I mentioned MMT, which seems to be the big replacement for lead. MMT fouls up spark plugs. I saw some photos and it looked like rust (at least the same color) on the ceramic and electrodes. Lead fouled up spark plugs too. I thought that years ago people would have "tune ups" every other oil change, which typically included new plugs.
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