MountainMan
Supercharged
Speedy, thanks for pointing out I don't read worth a crap anymore. I stand corrected and humbled. Please understand I'm not trying to contradict or do anything other than try and figure out if, by adding an octane booster, I will do any damage on top of that which I'm sure I've already done by driving a pinging bike 5K miles. I want to know if it can be a decent stop gap until I can get 700+ miles to a dyno tuner who knows his stuff. My curiouser former-chemist self simply wants to know why, but I can't see it as being really important to the task at hand.
It''s not about economy as much as it is about getting rid of the pinging. On the home brew thing. As I look at the shelf of my local auto parts store, I see eight versions of booster ranging in price from $2.59 to $14. I picked one in the middle. I have no idea which brand has what in it or in what ratios. According to the link above, formulations have major components ranging from kerosene/Jet A to what I assume is toluene or xylenes with a little naptha thrown in. The one I picked had a strong diesel/kerosene smell and looked like diluted diesel. I figured that in a homebrew mix I would at least have an idea of what it actually is. The homebrew recipe calls for what calculates to be an insignificant amount of diesel/Jet A (0.25oz in 100 oz, then diluted into 16 gallons). Picking it off the shelf seems like a crap shoot. What I do know is that an addition of approximately 1 oz/gal of 91 octane gasoline, of the brand I chose, got rid of a bunch of pinging.I wonder if I add enough to get rid of all the pinging am I asking for serious trouble. I'm wondering if I'm out to lunch on this and if anyone here has experience with this sort of thing or any particular brand of booster.
You're right about toluene eating some stuff. The articles warn about it eating paint and I have used it as a glue remover for patching inflatable boats made of neoprene/hypalon (it softens the rubber so the glue sticks better). I figured that since toluene is already in gasoline, adding a little more - enough to raise the octane of pump premium a couple of points - wouldn't hurt. Still, it makes me wonder how it affects fuel system parts. From what I understand, ethanol is the major cause of the damage we see. Makes me scratch my head.
It''s not about economy as much as it is about getting rid of the pinging. On the home brew thing. As I look at the shelf of my local auto parts store, I see eight versions of booster ranging in price from $2.59 to $14. I picked one in the middle. I have no idea which brand has what in it or in what ratios. According to the link above, formulations have major components ranging from kerosene/Jet A to what I assume is toluene or xylenes with a little naptha thrown in. The one I picked had a strong diesel/kerosene smell and looked like diluted diesel. I figured that in a homebrew mix I would at least have an idea of what it actually is. The homebrew recipe calls for what calculates to be an insignificant amount of diesel/Jet A (0.25oz in 100 oz, then diluted into 16 gallons). Picking it off the shelf seems like a crap shoot. What I do know is that an addition of approximately 1 oz/gal of 91 octane gasoline, of the brand I chose, got rid of a bunch of pinging.I wonder if I add enough to get rid of all the pinging am I asking for serious trouble. I'm wondering if I'm out to lunch on this and if anyone here has experience with this sort of thing or any particular brand of booster.
You're right about toluene eating some stuff. The articles warn about it eating paint and I have used it as a glue remover for patching inflatable boats made of neoprene/hypalon (it softens the rubber so the glue sticks better). I figured that since toluene is already in gasoline, adding a little more - enough to raise the octane of pump premium a couple of points - wouldn't hurt. Still, it makes me wonder how it affects fuel system parts. From what I understand, ethanol is the major cause of the damage we see. Makes me scratch my head.