Kenabinkport

I have been doing a lot of research on octane boosters and I have found that using racing fuel concentrate works best.
Earlier today I went to my local auto store to find some places that sell racing fuel, and the guy working there said that he used denatured alcohol
in his car for some extra boost. I looked online and I couldn't find anything about using alcohol for performance, just for smog tests. Is this guy correct in saying that alcohol will work as booster, and if so, how much alcohol should I use per gallon of gas.
Thank you.


1993 C4 LT1 Standard

Tom400CFI

You should use zero per gallon.
First: Your car is quite capable of running beautifully on 91 octane.
Second: You are not a chemical or a petroleum engineer. I am not either, and no one on this forum is....so why are we talking about haphazardly mixing our own "brews" and "potions" to make our cars run...better(?) when they run quite fantastic already?
Third: Hasn't alcohol been deemed "evil" to fuel systems, rubber and plastic parts and injectors already? And now we are talking about adding to our fuel?

Kenabinkport

I was just wandering if it did work. I have read that alcohol didn't damage fuel lines of cars post 80's. Either way, I'm not trying anything until I am sure it wont hurt my baby.

Tom400CFI

Some types of alcohol raise the octane, at the expense of power (takes more volume of alcohol to produce the same power as gasoline).

However, as stated above, your car doesn't need higher octane and anything thing you do to increase the octane won't reap any meaningful benefits what so ever. Anything that you do to raise the octane is a complete waste of money and effort. If you don't want to hurt your baby, run good quality brand name gasoline, used good quality brand name oils and follow a good PM schedule. Your car will last hundreds of thousands of miles.

Churchkey

http://www.vpracingfuels.com/vp-racing-dealers.html

ccrazor

From Churchkey's link..

Can you overoctane an engine? If so, what happens?

Yes you can over octane an engine. Generally you will get sluggish throttle response. Also you may get fouled plugs and deposits in the exhaust ports and headers. When an engine is trying to burn a fuel that has too much octane, the burn rate is incorrect and all of the fuel won't be used up. This excess usually gets left as a deposit or gets pushed out the exhaust. It is important to match your engine's needs with the correct fuel.

Cliff Harris

Another thing to consider is that adding alcohol will change your air-fuel ratio required for perfect combustion. The ECM will try to compensate for that, but it may not be able to. Usually the AFR will go down, which will require larger injectors. Look at E85 to find out what happens when you go down this path.

Lloyd Smale

alcohol injection is used on turbo and supercharged cars because forced induction increases static compression and tends to cause detonation. Alcohol allows you to use more boost without the detonation. Alcohol alone does nothing but make you loose power. IF you increase compression mechanicaly or by advancing timing or boost it can be useful. I ran a grand national for a while with methonal injection. It allowed me to run 22 lbs of boost on a stock motor when without it 17 was about max. It and an ajustable waste gate was a cheap way to add 75hp. Now the easy way to do it is to just tune for e85.

RollaMo-LT4

But I believe the OP is talking about just adding alcohol to his fuel, as an additive.

Alcohol injection (as described above) is not the same.

hooked073

I used it mixed with my water injection in the 70 to help with detination.

Lloyd Smale

sorry missed that part. Id never add it to my fuel. Your asking for trouble doing it that way. Like was said your fuel system wasnt designed for it and raising octain on a motor that doesnt need it is going to cost you hp and fuel economy.

WW7

..With this 100%... Your just asking for trouble...Why would you believe a guy working at a parts store anyway??? Most of the time they can't even sell you the right parts......WW

leesvet

lol...THATS BS my friend ! ! !

My 300z was recalled to have every rubber fuel system component including injectors,replaced due to alcohol blended fuels...in the late 80's. Nissan ate that one along with 1.7 million other cars in the U.S.

Truth is, YES. You CAN bump octane with a dose of ethanol and xylene and/or toluene. All available at Homeboy Depot or Lowes.

BUT..........
BIG BUTT.....

There IS a price to pay for this !

Most of these solvents are hell on rubber and plastics. They can turn your fuel pump into jelly and well as melt the inside lining of fuel hose, even injection hose. Other things turn hard and brittle. Making for a potential Car-B-Que.

I've played with this stuff and it DOES offer up to 6 pts of octane when blended right. Thing is, the COST of any of these additives farrrr offsets any savings by simply buying brand racing fuel. In other words, its not worth it and thats not even considering the damage that can come from solvents in the fuel.
Racing fuel has non-destructive additives to make the same gasoline thats for sale at a 87 oct rating, burn slower thus creating a longer burn that applies pressure to the piston dome throughout its travel in the cylinder....making less knock and more power. Solvents will also do that BUT there is the cost AND the consequence.

There is a lot of info on this if you google "home-brew fuel" or similar search.

Tapio@FTTRacing

Why is the OP trying to boost octane in the first place?

MavsAK

E10 is destructive enough as it is to our cars.

Why on gods gray earth, would you add MORE alcohol?

If you aren't satisfied with how the car runs right now, look up who sells Real Gasoline in your area.


Switching away from E10 to Real Gasoline was like a free 20 horses for my baby with how much better it runs. (even picked up a little over a tenth to 60 mph according to vbox)

leesvet

anyone know what Trick or any of the other racing fuels are selling for these days?

Its been almost 10yrs since I bought hi-oct fuel for my engine that was built for 101+ fuels...but that was pre-9/11 when I could buy all the av-gas I wanted at the private airport by my house in Ventura....after 9/11 the rules changed and you could not get a car even close to the fuel supply at an airport anymore much less drive up and fill up. The good ol days...

IIRC, it was about $5.75 a gallon for 108...I think. I don;t even know who or where to go now to buy 5 or 10 gallons. I'd bet that the cost is near $7.50 a gal now.
Yrs ago we used to pump it (Trick Fuel) straight off the 55 gal barrel....now?
I dunno....getting old.
The bump in octane is very desirable because:
you can advance timing wayyyyy past what you would normally be able to do and get away with it because the "good stuff" wouldn't knock. And....if you had an alcohol/water spray you could turn the dizzy 90* and not get any knock. (maybe not 90* but you could turn the thing a bunch...) LOTS of performance to be had there.
Another benefit was the smooth power and across the board. Good fuel just makes the whole rpm range much smoother. The only real downside was temps...you could get quite hot due to the now increased combustion cycle time. The good fuel burned thru the entire stroke of the piston generating a LOT more heat, where the cheapo fuels <93 oct were quick, brief explosions that had limited heat yield.This is where the extra $$ for an all forged bottom end paid off. The good fuels burned so slowly that you often saw the flame in the exhaust pipe since the fuels were still quite actively decomposing even after being evacuated from the combustion chamber. Anytime you saw the "fire" in the exhaust, that was usually because of the high grade of fuel that continued to burn past the exhaust valve...quite fun to see at night.
The "fart-can" cars try to duplicate this cool effect with a propane spray in the tail-pipe that causes it to blow a blue flame out the exhaust...
They really do try to be as cool as real American muscle cars....

Did a giggle search after my post and found this....boy was I being optimistic ! This **** ain;t cheap ! ! ! !

http://www.us131msp.com/racer-info/race-fuel-prices