On a boosted application. Has anyone ever used this from VP Racing Fuels? They claim it's safe for 02s and Cats.

"If using Octanium Unleaded in vehicles with Emission Control Devices (ECD), dosage should be limited to 11 oz per 10 gallons of gasoline. Non-ECD vehicles can utilize up to 23 oz per 10 gallons of gasoline for long-term use or 32 oz per 10 gallons for short-term use but will require more frequent maintenance to prevent harmful damage or coating to engine parts."

 

I used it decently frequently in my GT500, no cats, but I had 02 sensors and no issues.

I used to use this in a pinch on my “race gas” tune and just as well as it did mixed with 93 as it did on 100ll

 

I tried it in my stock LS2 car this week. It only gets you .5 octane increase. So my 93 became 93.5. I still got some knock retard when the motor got up to 190 degrees. Not worth it in my opinion. I am thinking seriously about going E85.

 

Why would you expect any difference in a stock car? Stock meaning stock tune?
Why would you waste time with e85 on a stock car? Or are we talking “Texas stock?”
I am pretty sure this and Boostane have been proven by several tuning resources to bump 10 octane points

 

The car has a mild tune. The can says one can increases the octane of 10 gallons of gas by .5. I dont expect it to go faster. I expect it to be consistent. When the motor gets warm the datalog shows knock retard in high gear. E85 will fix the knock retard.

 

Pull the msds sheet on it, and will see that your getting gouges for what is really is, for about 400%. Hence note only the mark up, but the added hazmat costs to ship it.

For that price, you can pick up a gallon of toluene, which will do about the same.

As for additives, if you running boost, then either e85 for the added octane level (that your going to be burning 30% more if it, even when cruising,
or Just add meth kit, that will also increase the octane level, but only using it under boost/still getting the 30% better gas mileage on the standard petrol, and the 50 water in the meth mix, not only helping to cool the air pressurized heat, but gaining more power from the water turning to steam on the done stroke.

And just a FYI on E85, what you think that it is from the pump, is often much lower instead, so may not get full power of the tune, when it has to resort back to low octane tables, to deal with engine knock.

Simply put, figure out what Octane level the motor really needs to be for the engine in the first place to run its best, make sure your running at least that octane, and let your tuner dail in the motor on that fuel. If you are going with more octane that engine needs, then not gaining a thing, and in some cases if octane level is way to high, losing power instead.

 

I ran E85 in my C4 for 3 years. I like it. I like that it burns very clean. It smells real good and the price difference pretty much equals out to the premium after the reduced mileage is figured in. Total win for me.

 

You are wasting your money using these octane boost products on a stock or nearly stock engine

 

OP said his car is boosted. I agree that the second guy is pissing in the wind.

I also ran meth and agree with his comments as it cord a lot less with all the great benefits of octane bump plus the cooling factor if he runs a water/meth mix
I picked up 85whp without touching the tune by adding meth. Added another 15whp on top of that by leaning out the mixture a little

 

Octanium is legit but I prefer Boostane (more concentrated.) One bottle of Boostane added to 15 gallons takes 93 up to 102 if memory serves.

 

There are only two known classes of compounds (three if you count illegal lead compounds) that can increase octane by several numbers by adding a small amount of the material. Those are various anilines (organic compounds related to ammonia) and MMT (an organic manganese compound). While neither will destroy your powertrain after using only a few cans, both are harmful with routine, medium to long term use. Anilines are corrosive to fuel system components such as fuel pump and injectors, and since MMT contains manganese (which does not burn or evaporate), it leaves manganese deposits on plugs, exhaust valves, and worst of all, cats, which kills them with a bit of time. Both anilines and MMT will void any type of warranty and are easy as pie for a mechanic to see have been used (anilines from the pitting and corrosion in the fuel system and MMT from orange deposits on cats and plugs).

According to VP Racing’s safety data sheets, both of their Octanium products (off road and unleaded) contain both MMT and anilines, the only difference being Octanium Unleaded has those compounds in lower concentration. Even VP Racing’s ads stress that as you go higher in dosage to get more octane boost, you should expect your powertrain’s maintenance costs to rise. Seems like a really bad idea to me, especially if you are planning to keep the car for a while. You might well be initially happy with them, but you will probably pay the piper a ways on down the road via maintenance problems.

Finally, note that simply using a different brand of booster will not change the above comments. They all contain some combo of anilines and MMT. Actually, I would commend VP Racing for at least admitting that there are potential maintenance issues. Most of the brands simply say they are “safe for use”. Anyway, my message is buyer beware. Safe is a relative term.

 

Appreciate the info! I will NOT use the product, as I don't want any issues. The supercharger was installed & tuned by A&A in California and they said they only have 91 octane out there so they will tune to 91. I just wanted a little extra octane (93) to use on warmer days. They don't sell 93 in Arizona, only 91.

 

Make your life easy….. run meth!

 

Glad you found the info helpful. For whatever it’s worth to you, some history on 91 for the western states. All of the west follows California since the California refineries are where they get their supplies. Two CARB (California air resources board) regulations caused the drop from 93 to 91.

One is a limit on olefins content of gas. That one has at least some merit, though you can argue about the degree as of today. While olefins don’t affect exhaust gas emissions, they do heavily influence evaporative emissions, meaning unburned gas that gets vented or spilled to the atmosphere. Olefins in the air are in fact very harmful to smog formation. At the time the CARB olefins regulation was written, it mattered, because neither evaporative emissions from car fuel tanks nor vented emissions from the vapor emitted when you get gas at gas stations was well controlled. The reason for my “as of today” comment is that both car fuel tank and gas station refueling emissions are today very well controlled. As such, the olefins content of gas today has essentially zero impact on the environment, and the regulation should have been repealed long ago. The reason it matters to octane is that if you convert an olefin into a saturate in a refinery, you lose a lot of octane.

The other issue is end point (meaning final boiling point, or “heaviness” of gas). Early testing indicated that heavier gasoline cause more emissions. But there were serious flaws in the initial phase of the so called “auto/oil” test series that looked at those issues. Those flaws were pointed out, and the other 49 states agreed to wait for another round to look just at the heaviness issue. But California would not wait, and forced gasoline out there to be lighter. That matters to octane because heavier gas tends to be higher octane than lighter. The added testing showed that there was essentially zero effect of heaviness on emissions, so for most areas, there are no heaviness limits. But of course regulators will never admit that they made mistake, so California gas is still required to be lighter than the rest of the world.

Note that I strongly support clean air and environmental responsibility. So I absolutely do not criticize California in any way for initially adopting their regulations. What I will criticize is their failure to adjust the regulations as more is learned. There is no current need for the olefins regulation, and once the corrected data came in, it became obvious that there never was a need for the heaviness regulation, but both are still in place out west. And the combination of those two are why western premium is 91 rather than 93 in the rest of the country.

 

Does one have to get a retune if they run water meth?

How do the Alky Systems turn on? Is it based on boost pressure?

 

technically no, is it will just enrichen to an extent. I ran for several months untuned with adding meth.
It will just add back and timing that is being pulled from IAT’s and richer the mixture depending on how large a nozzle you go.

Yes, you will want to boost activate. Mine ran a hobs switch, but some vendors have digital controllers

 

​​​​ Did you run the 50/50 mix and was it the Alky control?

 

Not sure what part of Az you're in but I've had good luck running Torco 100 and 91 Chevron 50/50 in my track C5Z. $11/gal if you bring your own container.
https://torcoracefuel.net/products/t...pIEKJr5X3U9Lyd

 

yes 50/50 and no on alchy control. I ran a Devil’s own kit with a snow failsafe controller and ran snow boost juice.

 

I see. Did you eventually "tune" for the water meth? If so, what HP gain did you see with it activated vs not activated?