Anyway, after reading Hacks thread on his 100 octane fuel, just curious if anyones had any experiences with Octane boosters.
1) Boeing aircraft and F-16 burn Jet Fuel, which is basically diesel fuel. NOT good for your engine. Octane rating about 40.
2) Avgas is 100 octane, not 110 octane. And the ratings are different due to different operating conditions. Actually you can buy two grades of avgas in the US today. 80/87 octane and 100 LL (Low Lead). In the old days there was 91/96 and 100/130 both replaced by 100LL and the 115/145. Aviation gasoline has two octane numbers kind of like RON and MON for car gas.
3) All currently available avgas is LEADED. Use this and plan on replacing the O2 sensors and the cats. NOT cheap. OH, and you will have to drain and flush the entire fuel system to keep from destroying another set of sensors and cats. Unleaded avgas is coming.
Higher octane fuel does not clog injectors, not even avgas. If it did, there would be a lot of planes falling out of the sky, many aircraft are fuel injected.
Higher octane fuel is not harder to ignite, does not burn cooler, does not burn slower. It resists detonation. That's it. In another post I go into more detail about how it does this from a chemical point of view.
Running higher octane fuel allows your engine to produce the full rated HP at a much greater range of conditions. It doesn't mean you will get more HP, but you certainly won't get less. And int he right conditions you will get more than running lower octane fuel.
Now, as to octane boosters. They sort of work. But how well they work depends on the particular one and the particular gas you add it to. And the same brand and grade of gas is different in different parts of the country and different times of the year, even trying to test all the combos is almost impossible.
The concern with some octane boosters is not the injectors, but the O2 sensors. Some of the octane boosters over the years have used methanol as the primary ingredient. Methanol KILLS O2 sensors. And when your O2 sensor fails, the ECU goes to full rich running. This leads to excessive fuel consumption, excessive emissions, and poor performance.
2) Avgas is 100 octane, not 110 octane. And the ratings are different due to different operating conditions. Actually you can buy two grades of avgas in the US today. 80/87 octane and 100 LL (Low Lead). In the old days there was 91/96 and 100/130 both replaced by 100LL and the 115/145. Aviation gasoline has two octane numbers kind of like RON and MON for car gas.
3) All currently available avgas is LEADED. Use this and plan on replacing the O2 sensors and the cats. NOT cheap. OH, and you will have to drain and flush the entire fuel system to keep from destroying another set of sensors and cats. Unleaded avgas is coming.
Higher octane fuel does not clog injectors, not even avgas. If it did, there would be a lot of planes falling out of the sky, many aircraft are fuel injected.
Higher octane fuel is not harder to ignite, does not burn cooler, does not burn slower. It resists detonation. That's it. In another post I go into more detail about how it does this from a chemical point of view.
Running higher octane fuel allows your engine to produce the full rated HP at a much greater range of conditions. It doesn't mean you will get more HP, but you certainly won't get less. And int he right conditions you will get more than running lower octane fuel.
Now, as to octane boosters. They sort of work. But how well they work depends on the particular one and the particular gas you add it to. And the same brand and grade of gas is different in different parts of the country and different times of the year, even trying to test all the combos is almost impossible.
The concern with some octane boosters is not the injectors, but the O2 sensors. Some of the octane boosters over the years have used methanol as the primary ingredient. Methanol KILLS O2 sensors. And when your O2 sensor fails, the ECU goes to full rich running. This leads to excessive fuel consumption, excessive emissions, and poor performance.
