"nos" Octane Booster? (1 Viewer)

[matthew_rm]

For $24.99 at Canadian Tire, you can buy something called Octane Boost. What is it? How do you use it? Is it good for your car? What does it do?
It says it can increase "octane effect" by as much of 7 points.
Thanks for replies!

 

[Jared_B]

Mostly worthless, unless you have a highly tuned, high-compression engine. For a stock car, it won't do you any good.

If you have modified your car, or if your car see lots of high speed, high temp driving, then it would help prevent pinging.

 

[Philip_G]

octane makes the fuel combust slower, so unless it's REALLY needed, will probably decrease your performance.

 

[David Susilo]

yep, didn't do anything to my car. Tried it, made my wallet thinner by it, but that's it.

 

[Todd Hochard]

It says it can increase "octane effect" by as much of 7 points.

If you don't have any knocking/pinging in the engine, it won't help anything. In fact, it will probably hurt. I'm experiencing this first hand right now-

I built an engine several years ago, intending to hit 10:1 compression. With aggressive timing, 93 octane would be mandatory for this engine. I used it. I was talking to a guy who put together an almost identical engine, and his compression ratio was over half a point lower. Que? I go back and check my math. DOH! I had miscalculated. So, I decide to try 87 instead (actually it's about 88.5, since I mix it).

I picked up 1 mph through the traps in the 1/4 (equates to roughly 10hp). I've rolled back the timing 4-6 degrees, the car idles smoother, and my gas mileage went UP 0.7mpg (calculated).

All these years on a math mistake...ARGHH!

Todd

 

[Brad_V]

It hasn't been mentioned yet, but those "points" on the can refer to tenths of a point. Octane boost in a can really is some worthless crap on pretty much any engine.

Todd, I have a 12-second Eagle Talon, so it's always nice to see drag racing talk on here. Was that engine in your Z28? What'd you do to that engine and what'd it do in the 1/4-mile? I suspect the 60-foots weren't that great if you used street tires.

 

[Todd Hochard]

Sorry to hijack the thread, but:

The car wasn't really built for drag racing. I wanted a nice GT/road car, so I built it around that idea. Since I retrofitted the factory 6-speed (meant for 1994 1LE Z28), I built the engine to have LOTS of low end torque, at the expense of some top end HP. But, I can cruise in 6th at 55 (1250rpm) with no lugging.
The engine is the factory 350, with a new top end (aluminum heads, roller cam, roller rockers, intake, etc). About 350-370HP (at the flywheel), or so. I haven't actually been to the track since I put the new roller cam. With the old cam, I ran a 14.0 at 102mph, with a 2.30 60' time. It is impossible to launch on the hard, crappy street tires I have, and I can't even go past 60% throttle in 1st, or the back breaks loose. Once I get new tires, I think I'll pick up at least a half a second (possibly more, with the new cam).
I'll be going once it gets out of the rainy season.

You can check out the car on my website. I'm in the process of adding more stuff.

Todd

 

[Steve Russell]

I will also chime in that bottled octane booster is generally a waste of money. If you need more than the readily available 93-94 octane premium gasoline you are better off buying racing fuel and mixing it with premium unleaded. I have a 362 cubic inch small block olds making in the vicinity of 450hp, 10.2 to one true compression ratio and I have to run a 2:1 mix of 94 octane premium and 110 octane Torco racing fuel. I actually did the math and it is cheaper to mix the $3.60 a gallon race fuel than to add 1-2 bottles of 104+ octane boost(the only stuff that really works) per tank,and I get higher octane fuel too.