octane booster?
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Mountain Pass
Joined: May 2003
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octane booster?
does anybody use octane booster? do you know what it does? i obviously know it increases the octane, but i mean, what does it do in terms of compression and increased torque?
-jason
-jason
Posting Guru
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 1,978
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From: Alvin, Texas.
Nothing.
Octane is just a measure of how quickly the fuel burns inthe combustion chamber. Running too high of an octane can lead to carboning inside the engine.
Unless you build the engine for more power--flat top pistons, larger valves, port/polish head, cam, etc....you won't get the extra fuel/air mix that gets more power.
Octane is just a measure of how quickly the fuel burns inthe combustion chamber. Running too high of an octane can lead to carboning inside the engine.
Unless you build the engine for more power--flat top pistons, larger valves, port/polish head, cam, etc....you won't get the extra fuel/air mix that gets more power.
Lead Driver
Joined: Nov 2002
Posts: 9,557
Likes: 44
From: Concord, NC
No because the mixture is getting compressed the same amount. Besides, octane boosters don't work anyway. I saw some test a while back where they used all different brands, and nearly none of them gave the advertised increase in octane rating. Higher octane means the fuel has a higher resistance to pre-detonate. If you are having no trouble with pinging now on regular gas, you don't need anything more.
Elder User
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 648
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As stated above, octane is a measure of the fuel's resistance to ignition. It has no bearing on how much energy is contained in the fuel.
For all practical purposes a gallon of 92 octane gasoline and a gallon of 87 octane gasoline contain exactly the same amount of energy.
The difference between the two is that the higher octane fuel can be utilized much more efficiently and more of the energy can be extracted and turned into motion. Unfortunately, fuels refined (or blended with additives) to a higher octane rating also cost more.
Most mfg of passenger vehicles tune their engines to work with fuels in the 86-88 octane range (at sea level). Using a fuel with a higher-than-required octane rating does not "make more power".
Some engines are tuned for premium fuels, and will only produce power to their full potential when those fuel requirements are met. Also, changing operational parameters with chips or tuning systems (like Hypertech) may require you to switch to a higher octane rating in order to minimize pre-ignition (also known as detonation or ping). The more aggressive tuning parameters will allow your engine to extract more of the potential energy from the fuel, but the trade-off is the required use of a more expensive fuel.
The bottom line? If your engine is designed to run 87 octane, then 92 will not help you. In fact, higher-than-required octane fuels can actually cost you HP, sometimes significantly so. Run the fuel recommended by the mfg unless you have made mods that require better fuels.
Brad
For all practical purposes a gallon of 92 octane gasoline and a gallon of 87 octane gasoline contain exactly the same amount of energy.
The difference between the two is that the higher octane fuel can be utilized much more efficiently and more of the energy can be extracted and turned into motion. Unfortunately, fuels refined (or blended with additives) to a higher octane rating also cost more.
Most mfg of passenger vehicles tune their engines to work with fuels in the 86-88 octane range (at sea level). Using a fuel with a higher-than-required octane rating does not "make more power".
Some engines are tuned for premium fuels, and will only produce power to their full potential when those fuel requirements are met. Also, changing operational parameters with chips or tuning systems (like Hypertech) may require you to switch to a higher octane rating in order to minimize pre-ignition (also known as detonation or ping). The more aggressive tuning parameters will allow your engine to extract more of the potential energy from the fuel, but the trade-off is the required use of a more expensive fuel.
The bottom line? If your engine is designed to run 87 octane, then 92 will not help you. In fact, higher-than-required octane fuels can actually cost you HP, sometimes significantly so. Run the fuel recommended by the mfg unless you have made mods that require better fuels.
Brad
