? about raising 87 Octane levels to 93

Jinx · Sep 7, 2005

I normally buy 93 Octane or better because of my custom tune. However, due to Katrina, I can't always get 93 or better. In a tight situation can I fill up with 87 and add an Octane booster?? If so, which one?

I looked at GoldEagle +104 (common in the stores) and this is what their web site says:

Q. Can I use a lower grade of fuel then recommended by the manufacturer and add 104+ Performance additives to make it a higher grade?
A. No, we recommend that you follow the fuel grade suggestion in your vehicle’s owner’s manual.

Is there a product available that can do this??

mogs01gt · Sep 7, 2005

well your car isnt modded very much so Im not sure why you would need 93 octane unless your timing is above 15 degrees.

you should be fine with 87

300bhp/ton · Sep 7, 2005

Jinx102672 said:
I normally buy 93 Octane or better because of my custom tune. However, due to Katrina, I can't always get 93 or better. In a tight situation can I fill up with 87 and add an Octane booster?? If so, which one?

I looked at GoldEagle +104 (common in the stores) and this is what their web site says:

Q. Can I use a lower grade of fuel then recommended by the manufacturer and add 104+ Performance additives to make it a higher grade?
A. No, we recommend that you follow the fuel grade suggestion in your vehicle’s owner’s manual.

Is there a product available that can do this??

watch out for some of these octane boosters. The claims are valid but usually very confusing.

I've read (probably got somewhere will try and find it) an article about them. Basically they claim to increase octane by x points. But its not the numbers we look at.

This isn't exactly how it works, but for the lack of real data at hand I'll make it up. However you'll get the jist of the meaning.

87 Octane fuel with octane booster of 4

Means 87.4 octane NOT 91 octane.

As I said these numbers are not real ones but the prinicle is I believe correct.

Give Me TP · Sep 7, 2005

Re-install the stock tune with your Predator until 93 octane becomes available.

Jinx · Sep 7, 2005

Give Me TP said:
Re-install the stock tune with your Predator until 93 octane becomes available.

I may just have to do that, if 300bhp/ton is correct in his info. And as for the timing mogs01gt, mine is set at about 21 degrees max in the upper RPMs.

mogs01gt · Sep 7, 2005

sorry i was referring to base timing

300bhp/ton · Sep 7, 2005

Jinx102672 said:
I may just have to do that, if 300bhp/ton is correct in his info. And as for the timing mogs01gt, mine is set at about 21 degrees max in the upper RPMs.

can't find the article I mean. But I was slightly wrong, although still on the correct theam.

Most of the octane boosters offer a boost of x octane over a particular grade. So the higher octane fuel you add the booster too the less effect it will. And potentially for high octane fuel it will have zero affect.

This does mean that adding octane booster to 87 octane fuel should yeild an increase. But what you need to check is how much of an increase and to what grade of fuel.

Sadly it may get more confusing as there are 3 different standards for octane rating:

PON
RON
MON

RON and MON are the only real readings and PON is a calculation between the two. (if you want to read more info about octane rating click here).

Basically most petrol, sorry gas stations in America quote PON octane ratings. Where as here in the UK petrol is rated on the RON rating system, thus we have 95 RON unleaded (same as 91 PON) and 97 RON super unleaded (same as 93 PON). We don't have a low grade alternative to your 87 PON.

Jinx · Sep 7, 2005

Doing some research, I found this so far.

According to Mark Borosky, Vehicle Test Engineer for Sunoco, "Of
the nine octane boosters tested, none showed a significant increase, and
one actually lowered the octane number of the test gasolines." Testing
repeatedly showed a maximum increase in octane of 3.5 points by only two
of the six street legal octane boosters when the recommended treatment
rate was blended with lower base 87 octane gasoline. The best the
remaining four products could muster was less than a one point increase.
"While clearly no one would actually use an octane booster in a low base
octane fuel, we wanted to give the manufacturers the benefit of the
doubt relative to their claims of five-to-seven point increases,"
explained Borosky.

When tests were performed using 93 and 94 octane fuel, even the
two best products from the previous tests produced a disappointing 1.5
to 2 point maximum increase. The remaining four street-legal octane
boosters showed less than a .5 point increase. Those products
designated for offroad use only didn't fare any better than the
street-legal products. Subsequent tests where the dosage of octane
booster was doubled, tripled, and even quadrupled produced only minimal
improvements in octane, regardless of the base octane number of the test
gas. In fact, quadrupling the treatment rate of the most powerful
additive produced only a 3.5 point increase in octane when added to 93
premium, resulting in a cost of $3.25 a gallon.

Sorry but the article never listed which ones they tested.

propellerhead · Sep 7, 2005

Perfect timing! I was wondering about this myself. I seem to ping more now with the last few tanks of gas. I thought it was the heat but we've had a few cooler days here lately and I'm still pinging like crazy. It seems the rumors of gas stations filling their 93 octane tanks with lesser octane gas may be true. So I was thinking of getting those octane boosters for track use. I guess I won't now.

40th GT · Sep 7, 2005

Yeah, my car has never pinged before (just like it's not supposed to w/ stock tune) but after Katrina, it started pinging after 1/2 throttle at any RPM...It definitely sounded very bad. The damn gas stations are scamming us with water in their products! I noticed that even others cars that are driving by are pining like crazy.

So as of now, it'll be useless to switch to a higher grade, since it's not truely a higher grade that I'll be paying for?

propellerhead · Sep 7, 2005

Damn! You too, huh? And FFW is coming up here in like two weekends. Ugh!

40th GT · Sep 7, 2005

So apparently the EEC in our GTs don't pull timing under detonation?

Looks like no more racing for me until we get half decent gasoline..

Kilgore Trout · Sep 7, 2005

40th GT said:
So apparently the EEC in our GTs don't pull timing under detonation?

Looks like no more racing for me until we get half decent gasoline..

GT does not have a knock sensor so it does not know when to pull timing. Cobras do though... Cobras have two knock sensors... Cobras are touched by the hand of God

propellerhead · Sep 7, 2005

From what I read, only the 4v engines have the knock sensors. *shrug*

Jinx · Sep 8, 2005

propellerhead said:
From what I read, only the 4v engines have the knock sensors. *shrug*

Not true. My 2v GT has 2 knock sensors. One is located on the left side of my head and the other is located on the right side. However, they only work when the pinging reaches audible levels.

forpit2000gt · Sep 8, 2005

some stations deff. have crapy fuel. I have had some gas cause pinging in my truck that will normally run great on 87. I would be careful driving hard, especially racing until all this stuff gets back to normal.
BTW if you have a tuner, put the stock tune back in.

96ninjaman · Sep 8, 2005

I started hearing a little pinging while driving around this weekend. I drove to NC and topped off several times. I wondered if I was getting watered down fuel. I guess I probably was. That's really screwed up; we now pay double for a subpar product. :damnit:

? about raising 87 Octane levels to 93

Jinx

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