Octane booster: 91 to 93 or higher?
 

I live in Northern California, where we don't have E85, and we only have 91super gas.

Since most of the tunes are for 93, and any extra power is obtained with either 93 or E85, I'm wondering if one of the octane boosters available might work to bring the 91 gas up to 93?

It wouldn't be a big hassle to drop a bottle of booster in when filling up.

I live near Sears Point where I can get race gas, I could also buy some 110 or 114 race gas and add that but that would be a much bigger hassle.

Octane boosters like 104 or Blendzall, snake oil?

do meth injection be cheaper than getting race gas. unless you want to get like 55gal of it and maybe do flex fuel or something and just add some to the tank every time you top it off

@Frs300 hit the nail on the head. It's not a good idea to frequently add fuel additives especially considering most of that crap has not even been tested. @ptuning makes a very nice WMI kit that is what I would recommend.

Lucas oil octane booster is similar to torco and will make 15 gallons of 91 just about 93. Most other brands will only give you a couple tenths of an octane point. Even with the 93 readily available where I am I add half a bottle to a full tank a couple times a month and the difference is very noticeable.

alot of the additives do more harm than good. some videos on youtube of a few tests done not sure if they are 100% accurate but i wouldnt trust them at all.

EDIT: found video [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKxJfXfD6mg"]Fifth Gear: Fuel Boosters - Do They Work? - YouTube[/ame]


ones they tested caused a loss in power lol

@silverbullet here is another video of a dyno run with the lucas octane booster
maybe the lucas one does give 5hp or so but at what cost? how much does a bottle of it cost?
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2HzNElP8L4"]dyno test1.wmv - YouTube[/ame]

Thanks, I am probably going to just go with WMI when I get my turbo kit installed and just run with that. Add another grand to the total costs!

I'm planning on going FI around December, but if I just can't wait, I have a watch that I can sell that will finance the whole thing in one shot.
I'm just waiting and watching to see some more cars and tunes. I want to get it right the first time out.

I want to make my car a bit scary, so I have 350whp stuck in my head, but I want it to be also be daily drivable with no heat issues, and hopefully no drop in my air conditioning performance, which is already just barely OK.

what kit you getting?

I'm leaning towards the Full Blown kit with the "x" turbo upgrade. The P&L kit looks very similar as well as does the FA20 club kit.

I'm still trying to learn about the different parts offered by the different companies, and also what's involved after I install the kit. I have a local tuner that I will probably work with, but they are like everyone else and haven't tuned any of our cars. They do know about big HP subies though and seem like they know what they're doing.

From reading here it looks like all these companies have good customer service, I'm still confused about who does what after the kit is installed. Does my local tuner do everything, or do I or they work with the kit supplier's base tunes?

Will my tuner know how to tune with the WMI as well?

I feel like waiting a bit is best, at least take my time and learn more about everything as this will be a 10-12 thousand dollar adventure.

Torco Accelerator definitely works. Tested on the dyno by my tuner. He loves the stuff.

I use it at hot weather track events to add safety margin, but may have my tuner make a torco map for me.

I'd just buy barrels of 93 or e85 and a hand pump.

How easy is it to switch maps with ECUtech?

The chip I had on my BMW allowed me to switch maps using the cruise control lever.

Is the ECUtech like this, or do you need a laptop to switch maps.

This would make a big difference, because I live very close to Sears Point racetrack, and I can get race gas, but I definitely do not always want to have to go to the track for gas.

you use cruise control to switch maps

Cruise control stalk is how you would change maps, if the tuner is able to program that correctly. I spent a long time trying to make my 91 map work (mostly with Visconti e-tuning), but since the rest of the country is lucky to get 93 I didn't get anything that worked well after over a month of trying.

I know there's not much E85 available in SF region. It's readily available in peninsula/south bay.

I would stay away from all adatives. I have seen them scew o2 sensor readings and leave residue on spark plugs. They may increase octane but what other issues may arise do to it. With more modern o2 sensors and ecu's reling so heavily on there data I recommend other get the proper fuel to begin with, meth injection with a failsafe in place. Also stay away from leaded fuels. They lead to deterioration of your o2 sensor as well as clogging cats. Shell makes a 116 octane unleaded if you want to go the race fuel rout.