Lucas Oil Octane Boost

[Scatman 340]

...anybody tried any of this stuff. I`ve always been skeptical about pour-in performance enhancers especially octane boosters. However I do put trust in recognized brands such as Lucas Oil Products. The container has a note stating that use is not street leagal. Why would this be? Kind of expensive at $9.00 per 15 oz. bottle.

Thanks,
Rock`

[moparmarc]

The "not street legal" is probably because, emission-wise, it's untested. So they can't guarantee it won't hurt your catalytic converter or other emission parts.

Typical of many aftermarket products.

[dgc333]

I read an article about this stuff in general and most companies claim about a 4 point increase in octane. What they neglect to say is that " points" is really 0.4. So, a bottle will raise the octane from say 93 to 93.4 that may be enough to make a difference but seems unlikely to most. The other thing stated was that adding more than specified has a very sharp line of diminishing returns. Meaning 1 bottle raises the octane by .4 and second bottle may only raise it .2 and a third only .1.

[Cudadrag]

First off raising octane is not going to add any power. If anything it will take away power. Octane boost is used if you increase cylinder pressure. (Higher compression, More turbo/supercharger or nitrous) When boost is increased pump gas will begin to auto detonate. (First clue is run-on when turning ignition off.) Auto detonation will damage your engine over time. Can even damage hard parts like pistons in more extreme cases. Increasing octane will fix this. However higher octane fuels actually burn cooler thus less power. (Alcohol is a very good example.) When alcohol is used engines actually perform less (thus the drop in fuel mileage when using lets say E-85) But because alcohol can be compressed much higher then gasoline before auto detonation. The drop in performance can be more then made up with increased cylinder pressures (Thus it's why Indy to Dragsters run Methanol.

I guess what I am saying is run the lowest octane you can. If you begin seeing auto detonation (run-on when ignition is turned off) increase octane by using higher octane fuel. (If running a stock motor certainly follow manufacture recommended fuel.) If you are running high enough compression or have higher boost levels from a power adder so that even 92 octane has troubles then you look to octane boost products or race fuels. There are some other tricks like retarding your ignition timing or coating engine parts. But ultimately The rule holds true.

[Scatman 340]

I found this article on fuel and octane boost. Some of you already know all of this. But it was informative to uneducated people such as myself.

Rock


http://www.idavette.net/hib/fuel/index.htm