Lucas Octane Booster
 

I’m currently running an OFT Stage 2+ tune with Tomei EL headers and a muffler delete. I want to try the Lucas Octane Booster but heard you need a tune for the ECU to be able to sense the octane level. Is this true or can I just add the octane booster?

Neither the car's ECU, nor OFT sense octane. They just adjust timing if the engine starts knocking because of low octane.

However, if you're running the tune for the octane gas you've got in it already, you won't see a difference. I could see this being useful when using a 93 tune, when you only have 91 available.

The gas I put in are 92s and the reason I want to try octane boosters is to improve my mpg. So from my understanding I can directly add the octane booster and it’ll adjust?

if the engine has any timing retard due to knock, additional octane numbers will net you hp and torque.

And for previous turbo cars I've owned and tuned on the Lucas stuff works very well

I moved from the United States to Spain, where gas turned out to have a tiny bit less octane rating. I tried all kinds of octane booster and none of them worked AT ALL. I also tried blending 10% ethanol into the mix and that worked some (still not great... but better than the octane boosters which did absolutely nothing).

So, in short, I'd advice you to not waste your money :iono:

That just means your tune doesn't have the timing to take advantage of more octane. More octane on it's own does pretty much nothing.

FYI to all, most octane boosters are hard on catalytic converters.

I always wondered if it's a good idea to use octane booster for a track session? Even if the car has a good conservative road race tune on pump gas, just to have an extra safety margin?

if the track has 100 just put a few gallons in with your 91.

Boostane is the best octane booster on the market.
When I was NA getting custom tuned and dialing in the timing, the final map 7 i got had consistent but minor IAM drop consistently in the .8-.9s so tuner said to use less aggressive map 6 or use octane booster. Used boostane and IAM was rock solid at 1 never dropping. Used only 1oz per 2gallons too. Didn’t take much.

I dont think you understood... My ECU mapping was optimized for the higher octane us gas, so when I moved to Spain I was getting lower octane gas and thus my IAM was dropping as low as 0.5 on hot track days. I tried octane boosters and they did nothing. Ethanol helped a bit.

Newer higher octane gas from Repsol available at just 3 gas stations in Spain allowed me to run the ECU map from the states.

So yeah, in short, octane boosters did absolutely nothing for me, with data proof

There is evidence to the contrary of what you say as well. Sounds like the fuel you were using wasn’t what it was rated, and I personally wouldn’t trust an oil/fuel product with the “lucas” name.

I understand that most off the shelf octane boosters are junk.
VP racing octanium works pretty well from little research I've done. I've heard redline octane booster works decently as well.

OP the only reason I would run a octane booster in your situation is if your IAM cannot reach 1 due to poor fuel quality.

octane boosters that work exists but they are expensive and need to be diluted like 1-3‰ in the tank... think of Bardhal BSF
It must contain MMT and possibly Toluene as well, and you need to increase timing and maybe also lean it a bit to take advance of it
Can also be used in small amount for your purpouse if you get shitty tank fuel, it will keep your AM at 1

Most of the Octane boosters are specious at best: "Raise octane 10 points!" That's converting 91 octane into 92... big whoop.

VP Octanium or Boostane are the droids you're looking for.

MMT is really effective at increasing octane but is not copacetic with emissions equipment over the long term if you have to use a lot. Example of effectiveness of MMT: 6.4oz of Boostane Premium will convert 5 gallons of 92 pump gas into 100 Octane.

I have dyno'd with boostane treated fuel (92 converted to 100) out of curiosity against straight 100 oct Race Fuel and we were able to advance the timing the same for each without detonation and made the same WHP (within 1/2 hp). The claims are real. Compared to regular 92 pump gas, 100 octane (either race gas or treated with boostane) was worth 12whp by being able to advance the timing on a naturally aspirated engine.

I have no catalytic converters because it's a race car. I do not advocate removing emissions equipment on street cars.

What you CAN do is map switching. You could treat your fuel and then create a map for that treated fuel. Then you drive around on normal pump gas but then when you do a track day, you can run treated fuel and switch maps for the extra power. That shouldn't damage your emission systems since it's only occasional use. They also have a lower concentration they claim is safe for emission equipment but that's up to you decide if those claims are true. I also think VP uses a formula with a lower concentration of mmt vs Boostane but I don't have confirmation of that.

MMT burns orange - so you exhaust tips and spark plugs will turn orange but it's not really hurting the plugs.