I want to go to take my '16 Z06 to the drag strip and 1/4 mile drag race my buddy who has a '11 ZR1. So what is the best octane booster I could pour into my Z, just before the race, to maybe give me a little edge? Or could I just put in some 100 LL Av gas before we drive over there 135 miles? Would the Av gas, with lead, hurt anything?

 

I am not an expert by any imagination, but to start:

1. If you don't have a tune for the octane level, anything above 93 octane will be useless to you (I forgot which Z06s have access to the factory racing fuel tune); and

2. The lead could kill your catalytic converters and probably not good for various sensors.

If you can use the octane, use racing gases without lead.

Scott

 

Klotz, Boostane or Race Gas in that order imo.

 

Toluene is much less expensive and will give you a bit of cushion if you can get 93 to start with. Anything much more in a stock car is not really helping. It also does not leave deposits like many of the boosters. If you can only get 91, tip the can a bit higher.

 

The lead will kill the o2s

 

BOOSTANE FUEL ADDITIVE IS OCTANE ENGINEERING

Want the advantages of high octane gasoline without the hassle of trying to find it locally? BOOSTane is an additive that can bring 93 octane pump gas up to a tested RON of 110 when used as directed. Originally developed for the offshore powerboat market, it is safe for oxygen sensors and catalytic converters, and contains no alcohol to damage sensitive fuel system components.

 

One 16oz can of Klotz before a tank fuel up.

 

Disagree with this. I have a '19 M7 Z that runs noticeably better (especially on the track) with the Sunoco GT lead free race gas in the tank. Car comes from the factory to very aggressively pull timing, better fuel octane mitigates that somewhat. Jim Mero ran 100 octane at the Ring for a reason. A Katech 174 degree thermostat does not hurt either. Yep, the gas is a little expensive, but for the time I have available to run the car, worth it to me - and no range deposits either... I also have some corroboration of this from a "GM friend."

 

That's what i'm going to do when the weather actually warms up lol.

It's almost july and we haven't seen 90s yet. Same time last year we were about to get our first heat wave.

 

the biggest boost you can give your car is make sure it has been shut off for an hour leading up to the race and is as cold as possible.

Then, Start it to move it forward and shut it off, if there is a line of cars to get to the start line.

A cold lt4 is a fast lt4. Anything over 180 or 190 degrees and it starts pulling more and more power. Keep in mind, if you start at 160 degrees, by the time you do a burnout and make it to the end of the strip, you will be at 200 degrees.

You can't hardly get the thing too cold if you drive it to the track prior.

Octane has no use on a cold engine, only a hot one. But the car pulls timing and/or runs richer AFR (COT) regardless, even if it does not see knock, so the octane booster is useless unless the car is seeing knock, then it pulls EVEN MORE power if the knock is detected.

But the octane booster is not going to keep your car at full power. With a stock tune, only a cold engine with cold fluids keeps your car at full power. That is the only solution.

 

My comment was in relation to octane boosters only, not unleaded race gas. Toluene or any other "mechanic in a can" is not a replacement for true racing fuels. I was commenting more towards the known issue of deposits from the additives and their high price. I guess I did not make this clear, sorry.

 

The only problem with Boostane is that it contains Methycycpentadiery Manganea Tricarbony which will leave an orange build up on your spark plugs, o2 sensors and other engine parts.

 

Don’t use leaded fuel it will destroy the cats and don’t race the zr1 and save yourself being embarrassed .

There is a 100 octane tune the dealer can flash into the ecm for a price. Not sure that will help.

My lt4 runs best Luke warm about 160 degrees after I have been running it a while and let it sit 60 to 90 minutes. once it gets to 180 degrees or above it has a degradation in power.

bbvette.com an emerging vendor mentions the tune in his post above. That is probably the best solution for an otherwise stock lt4 to perform to the standard of an ls9 or ls7.

 

Do you offer a tune that addresses the issue of the lt4 pulling timing even though it doesn’t detect knock when at full operating temperature? What is the downside of this and why does Gm do this?

 

I don't offer a tune, but its common knowledge amongst all decent tuners here that the stock tune takes these precautions.

It does this to avoid knock in addition to Cat Over Temp Protection. (COT)

If knock is detected still, then obviously it needs to take more severe actions, and pulls timing and TB angle further.

In the beginning, it is TB blade angle which the engine limits and small timing changes also, if I remember correctly... and the car also changes its AFR to become richer... these all begin to happen by 180 degrees or so. Again, it is a gray scale... it gets worse and worse as the car gets warmer and warmer.

Keep in mind, COT is not a real detected value from the Cat's actual temps... instead, it is a calculated value, from engine oil, water temp, WOT duration times, etc.

COT is the process of the vehicle running AFR's intentionally rich to protect the cats. This is not optimal for power production obviously.

Most tuners will tell you that by the end of a FIRST WOT pull, when the car was cold at the beginning, the car will be into COT protection by the end of that pull, if not, by the second pull for sure.

These cars enter COT very quickly. It robs a car of 10-30 HP in its first phase it seems, and only gets worse from there. The COT is also a grayscale, becoming more severe as more heat is detected. This is why all of those dyno charts for air filters can be gamed by the vendors, they know if the car is cold, it makes more power than if it hot. Not saying none of the dyno's are accurate, simply saying COT being "OFF" matters more than what air intake a person puts on their stock car.

Eventually, once our cooling kits are out, we should be the least expensive option on the market to keep a vehicle out of COT as much as possible, while still allowing the customer to retain their factory warranty by keeping their factory tune. This area we can help. We plan to do the same things for the c8. This is why we are taking our time and doing things right. Cooling these cars down is the key to making the most power over a stock car in an apples to apples severe driving scenario, while also maintaining the factory warranty.

But to answer your original question, if you are willing to forgo your warranty, any decent tuner should be able to tune your car and shut off COT and also keep your TB angle open 100%, and also tune your car to take advantage or higher octanes. E85 is superior to higher octanes at keeping the engine running cool and avoiding knock. a 50/50 blend of E85 does wonders for these engines. The downside of e85 is you need more fuel pumps sooner, as you make more and more power, as it requires more fuel to have flowed vs normal gasoline.

 

Regarding this statement "....The downside of e85 is you need more fuel pumps sooner, as you make more and more power, as it requires more fuel to have flowed vs normal gasoline."

I assume this is not a problem with an otherwise stock C7 Z06, correct? Meaning, the stock fuel pump can keep up at WOT. Reason being, I am considering a 160 T-Stat + E85 mod. I'm looking for 50 RWHP and more consistent power for a street machine.

I have HP Tuner mvpi3 to get the tune right for that set up. May also adjust COT as was mentioned here if the street temps are under control.

 

It's Methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl (C5H4CH3)Mn(CO)3 (abbreviated MMT or sometimes MCMT). "MMT" is an octane enhancing gasoline additive produced by the Afton Chemical Corporation which is the current name for the old Ethyl Corporation. At one time MMT was banned in the U.S., but in the mid-90s a court ruling compelled the EPA to lift the ban. MMT is currently legal to use in the U.S. as an additive in pump gas but only at a mix of 1/32-gram (0.031-gram) of manganese (Mn) or less per gallon of gasoline which is, in a practical sense a very small amount. Here's EPA's position on t MMT in pump gas at 1/32-g per gal or less, EPA also had some comments on the heath effects of MMT. Those that believe use of MMT in gasoline to boost octane is controversial often cite a 1977 test published by the Society of Automotive Engineers. MMT in gasoline at 0.125-g Mn per gallon of gas was tested for 50,000 miles using a test schedule that included 70 mph steady speed driving. In this type of operation, MMT caused: 1) plugging of monolithic converters located close to the exhaust manifold, 2) partial plugging of an underfloor bead converter 3) an increase of hydrocarbon emissions and 4) excessive spark plug deposits. This test suggested that use of MMT in pump gasoline caused problems with exhaust emission control systems in use at the time.

A more recent test was conducted by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (AAM) in the early 2000s. It was a 100,000-mi MMT test program using Ford Escorts and other light-duty vehicles. Ford completed a post-mortem analysis of the Escorts used in the AAM study. The AAM study found that MMT increased emissions of hydrocarbons (HC) over the entire 100,000 miles of testing, causing seven of the eight light-duty vehicles tested to exceed LEV certification standards. Nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions were initially lower for MMT-fueled vehicles, but increased over time, as did emissions of carbon monoxide (CO), to become much higher than vehicles fueled with gasoline having no MMT at 100,000 miles. MMT increased emissions of all three pollutants at the end of the study by an average of 31-37% and reduced fuel economy over the life of the program by 2% or 0.6 mpg. The emissions impact of MMT was especially dramatic in Ford Escorts designed to meet LEV standards. Unfortunately, I could not find other key information about this test such as how much MMT was in the gasoline used for the testing and what were the condition of the emissions and engine parts as far as "plugged cats" and fouled spark plugs.

I've been unable to find any recent MMT test data or recent durability testing of emission controls parts of engines running on gasoline treated with MMT based "pour-in" octane booster products in the concentrations typically used by performance enthusiasts wanting to increase the octane of premium unleaded pump gasoline.

My unscientific survey of the market is that the most popular pour-in octane boosters amongst Corvette folks are "Boostane" and "Race-Gas".

 

I noticed in hot weather and in track use, having around 95 equivalent mix reduced off idle bog, and allowed cleaner pulls to redline at the track. It's only a few mph difference on some straights, but I would think that 91 octane is causing some detectable detonation causing significant timing pull.

On street, when I'm lazy sometimes I think at low speed, being in a gear barely above idle, I can pull from idle and just go. I noticed when on pure 91, there was significant bog and struggle for the car to go where when I had my mixture in the tank for 95, I never noticed off idle bogging that bad.

As for mixture goes, if you have access to unleaded race gas, use that first to do a proper mixture. I have bottles of boostane as well, but only bring up the octane when I'm doing track days.

 

Have you noticed a difference in performance or track drivability between mixes of 91 pump gas and 100-unleaded racing gas and mixes of 91 pump gas and Boostane?

 

The only difference I notice is my wallet. I've datalogged it with hp tuners and as long as I guesstimate at least 95ish octane, I barely see any difference in the logs for timing pull. With 91, timing is pulled for almost all rpm ranges. We don't notice it at all because in most street situations we don't use all that power.