Octane

[hqduong]

Out of curiosity, does anyone know why in California the fuels are such crap?

Everywhere I went they have octanes as high as 98. In California the highest you can get is 91. What's the reason behind that?

Also Does anyone know what's a good octane booster? I'm always paranoid I might go somewhere without premium.

[Brucelee]

Originally Posted by hqduong

Out of curiosity, does anyone know why in California the fuels are such crap?

Everywhere I went they have octanes as high as 98. In California the highest you can get is 91. What's the reason behind that?

Also Does anyone know what's a good octane booster? I'm always paranoid I might go somewhere without premium.

CA can't resist mucking with the fuel formulas ala the clean air route. We have our own SPECIAL gas in the summer too!

The price of being virtuous I guess.

I doubt you need booster. The car will adjust if you have to use regular. No harm done.

[rick3000]

Using 98 octane fuel is not going to affect your engine or mileage, and if you could buy it, it would be a waste of money.
93 is slightly better than 91, but I wouldn't worry about it. I've been using 91 for the last year and it has not affected my car in anyway. I still have plenty of power, and no problems.

93 or 100 octane

[70Sixter]

Originally Posted by Brucelee

The price of being virtuous I guess.

Price is right. You also get to pay more for it!

[Tomkreiner]

In reply to the thread about Octane "boosters."

So that everyone on the forum is on the same page, octane wise - at least, there is no basis for numerical determination of octane numbers, or octane ratings. The octane meter was developed by Shell Oil during the early 1940's, and is known as a contrivance. It registers a noise based upon a sound pickup placed in the cylinder head of a Cooperative Fuels Research Engine (CFR). By definition, pure IsoOctane (or 2,2,4-trimethylpentane as it's known by Chemists) has an octane rating of 100. It tends to be quite a bit more expensive than the other principal component of pump gas, which is called Normal Heptane, or n-heptane in the industry. N-Heptane by definition, has an octane rating of 0. There is an ASTM Test Method that spells out how to run both the Motor and the Research methods of octane determination, and they use several other items, such as Toluene to calibrate the octane meter. This test is run hourly at every refinery in the world, to provide continuous certification of the fuels being blended and sold.

When the two HC's are blended in the correct proportions, the fuel achieved will have two different octane ratings, one of which is determined by the Motor Method, and the other by the Research Method. Pump gas has its own rating, which is a combination of the two, and is expressed as: (R+M)/2.

Now, when additives are blended into a fuel, like tetraethyl lead (TEL), the octane rating of the fuel is raised considerably. Pure IsoOctane can be boosted to around 108, maybe higher, I'm not sure, as its been 25 years since I ran an octane test. The use of TEL was rampant from the 1940's thru 1970's and it was used to take a fuel of 80 octane and boost it to an 87 level so it could be used in cars. (Of all of the additives, TEL was the very best, and actually made a huge fortune for Ethyl Corporation - its manufacturer, but that's for someone else to comment on.)

Today, we get a smaller boost from ethanol, or even methanol, but not nearly like we did from TEL. I know of no other HC additive that even comes close to the effect of TEL, and without testing and a CFR engine report, I would seriously question the claims of octane boost - and so should you. (As my Thesis Prof used to say: "fellas, without data, you're just another swinging dick with an opinion.")

More may be learned about octane ratings from Wikipedia if you're interested.

[hqduong]

Originally Posted by rick3000

Using 98 octane fuel is not going to affect your engine or mileage, and if you could buy it, it would be a waste of money.
93 is slightly better than 91, but I wouldn't worry about it. I've been using 91 for the last year and it has not affected my car in anyway. I still have plenty of power, and no problems.

93 or 100 octane

Rick,
I'm not concerned between 91 and 93. What I'm worried about is because I drive to middle of no where hill billy sometimes and they only have regular old 87. So I would like to carry a few bottles of octane boosters to bring it up to at least 91 if I do fill up with regular.

[rick3000]

I misunderstood your question.
If your in the middle of no where, and there is only 87 octane you will be fine. It is not advisable to use everyday but it won't harm your car if it is the only thing avaliable.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about carrying octane booster. Unless you plan on getting stranded in the middle of no where often.

[hqduong]

Originally Posted by rick3000

I misunderstood your question.
If your in the middle of no where, and there is only 87 octane you will be fine. It is not advisable to use everyday but it won't harm your car if it is the only thing avaliable.

Personally, I wouldn't worry about carrying octane booster. Unless you plan on getting stranded in the middle of no where often.

haha ya... I enjoy those trips to middle of no where. Frees the mind :-)

You should try a trip up the Oregon Coast . Fantastic views especially in a boxster with the top down.

Thanks for the reply though.

[vipola]

putting a higher octan gas that your engine require won't be better, and could be worst.. on my motorcycle I tryed a summer to put 94oct instead of 91.. and it run better and smooter with 91

[insite]

i agree w/ tom that octane boosters won't do much for the total octane rating of the gas in your tank. most cans of octane booster are like 12 - 16 oz. to boost your entire fuel tank by one R+M/2 number takes over a gallon of commercially available lead free additives.

another trivia note: octane converts to heptane if it sits for a long time, so if you buy 93 octane from a station that sells very little premium fuel, it's probably 90 or 91.

[pk2]

Originally Posted by hqduong

Out of curiosity, does anyone know why in California the fuels are such crap?..the highest you can get is 91. What's the reason behind that?...good octane booster?

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Who knows why California only sells 91 oct. Who know why you want more. Octane boosters are a joke. You can get 100oct here and dilute it down to your hearts delight with 91oct. My understanding though is anything over the recommended (93 in this case ) is a futile pursuit.

Before I supercharged my car, 91 was fine for me (along with hundres of thousand P-car people here). But, with the added heat produced by act of compressing the air and the mechanical heat from the blower, it's not hard to burn holes in the pistons with a blowers on 91oct.

I've also run my car with strait 100oct and I can't say I noticed a difference at all. I Now mix 100 oct. with 91 (about 2:8) to get 93. I also have experimented using toluene (118oct supposedly, a regular additive to pump gas) to bump up my octane. My EGT's (exhaust gas temps.) remain sane either way. Both come out to be about $7.00/gallon..

If you really want to spend the money, Google “race fuel California” and you'll find places near you to get 100oct (Usually 76 stations).

Regards, PK

[Benny986]

i agree with most octane boosters, not being worth a whole lot.

I use torco race fuel concentrate. I use this in a turbo car, and we bump the timing and boost. without the torco, we get pinging and timing gets retarded. so we know it works.

in the boxster, I fill up the car with about 10 gallons, and use a full can of torco (32oz) and that brings it to just about 100oct. i have a 100oct program on my chip, so for me it makes a difference.

if you are on stock programming, just stick with 91. if all you can find is 87, then just don't drive the car hard. baby it, don't rev it out, and when you find 91 again, use it. by the 2nd or 3rd full tank of 91, feel free to drive the car as it was designed : )

FWIW, my buddy runs about 1/3-1/2 bottle of torco in his C32 with safeway 91oct. and it went from getting 23.5mpg to 27mpg. YMMV hahah

[pk2]

Originally Posted by Benny986

i agree with most octane boosters, not being worth a whole lot...I use torco race fuel concentrate. I use this in a turbo car, and we bump the timing and boost. ...FWIW, my buddy runs about 1/3-1/2 bottle of torco in his C32 with safeway 91oct. and it went from getting 23.5mpg to 27mpg. YMMV hahah

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Benny

What does a bottle of torco cost? My problem with octane boost additives is they never really tell you exactly what octane boost your going to get with it or they say “up to xxx !!” I say; how, when, where and in what? A lawn mower in Duluth in October?

I've read several articles on octane...my take away is it's pretty fuzzy science (to me). One article praised toluene as a wonder elixir, another chided it because of it burn characteristics (over my little head). I don't recall all the ins and outs but it seemed the “octane boosters” never even made it to the table.

I guess to me it just boils down to is how it compares price wise to a home brew of brand name 100 oct racing fuel and regular name bran pump gas. Both are known entities and the real thing octane wise.

I'm set to up my boost with H2O/methanol injection. For whatever reason this works out to be the equivalent of upping the octane in a round about way. Lot cheaper then 10 bucks a gallon for race fuel.

Regards, PK

[hqduong]

Just thought everyone might be interested since we're on the same topic.

http://personal.linkline.com/dbarton/Unleaded_Racing_Fuel_in_SoCal.html

[Benny986]

you should be able to find it for about 15-20/32oz bottle.

it says right on the bottle. mix with X gallons, use Y oz. and you get Z octane

water/meth injection, nice! : )

[cas951]

We have 3 station in the South Bay that sells 100 octane.

1. There's a Unocal 76 off Almaden Expressway in SJ
2. Vp station in Los Altos. Corner of Magdalena and Foothill Expressway. They sell 93 and 100 Octane
3. There's another station in Woodside off woodside rd.

I've read a few articles in Excellence magazine stating Porsche rate their HP numbers based on 98 Octane in Germany. There's an article on the latest issue by GMG racing. In short they state that California cars who has only 91 octane readily available is not geting the HP ratings advertised by Porsche due to poor Octane rating on the fuel we buy.

I also own a 88 944 turbo S which is slightl modified. Due to the boost increase I will not run below 93 Octane in that car. I do it for detonation insurance. With the higher Octane I am able to run on higher boost which gives me more power.