home made octane booster

[mikeumkc]

My '70 L46 is running 11.00:1 compression from the factory, so I am learning that I need to ad something to 91 octane gas to make it work. I have read on a few places on the internet on how to make an inexpensive octane booster from Toluene mixed with mineral sprits and ATF.

Has anyone done this? Anyone have any other solutions? What works best and is relatively cheap?

 

[DRTH VTR]

My '70 L46 is running 11.00:1 compression from the factory, so I am learning that I need to ad something to 91 octane gas to make it work. I have read on a few places on the internet on how to make an inexpensive octane booster from Toluene mixed with mineral sprits and ATF.

Has anyone done this? Anyone have any other solutions? What works best and is relatively cheap?

I don't think I would want containers of toluene sitting in my garage. It just sounds dangerous to me.

 

[mikeumkc]

Not exactly what I was looking for.

 

[67HEAVEN]

Here's an old thread with lots of info......

http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46415&highlight=Toluene

 

[Jack]

Dunno how often you need to fill up? You can tank up at local airport w/ avgas ... or ... do same at local racetrack ... or buy 110 racefuel in 5gal or 55 gal drums ... add only what you need to pump prem. Dunno what toluene goes for $... but may not be so readily available anyway ... and a spurious purchase just might raise a flag/attract unwanted attention ... from either bigbrother or huffers/cookers ... it CAN be & IS used to cook illicit dope. The way things are these days ... you couldn't pay me to buy it.

 

[vett boy]

I have to agree with Jack.Toluene is nasty stuff. Avgas is a pretty good if you have it available near by. Trust Jack on this one.

 

[mikeumkc]

Dunno how often you need to fill up? You can tank up at local airport w/ avgas ... or ... do same at local racetrack ... or buy 110 racefuel in 5gal or 55 gal drums ... add only what you need to pump prem. Dunno what toluene goes for $... but may not be so readily available anyway ... and a spurious purchase just might raise a flag/attract unwanted attention ... from either bigbrother or huffers/cookers ... it CAN be & IS used to cook illicit dope. The way things are these days ... you couldn't pay me to buy it.

What octane is avgas? I have a smaller airport near here that might have that available. Can I just pull up and put it in the tank, or do you I have to fill up some gas cans with the stuff? Do I have to fill out any forms or anything?

91 octane is the highest pump fuel available around here, what ratio of avgas/pump gas do you recommend I start with for my car?

 

[GaryS]

Not exactly what I was looking for.

You may not be looking for it, but if you are handling toluene you really need to look at what it is. Here is a clip from a site:

Inhalation of toluene fumes can be intoxicating, but in larger doses nausea-inducing. Chronic or frequent inhalation of toluene over long time periods leads to irreversible brain damage. Toluene may enter the human system not only through vapour inhalation from the liquid evaporation, but also following soil contamination events, where human contact with soil, ingestion of contaminated groundwater or soil vapour off-gassing can occur.
The toxicity of toluene can be explained mostly by its metabolism. As toluene has very low water solubility, it cannot exit the body via the normal routes (urine, feces, or sweat). It must be metabolized in order to be excreted.

Unless you are a chemist, have access to the proper gear to avoid contamination and Dain Bramage I would stop trying to go the cheap route and BUY some commercial octane booster.

Good luck.
Gary

 

[motorman]

What octane is avgas? I have a smaller airport near here that might have that available. Can I just pull up and put it in the tank, or do you I have to fill up some gas cans with the stuff? Do I have to fill out any forms or anything?

91 octane is the highest pump fuel available around here, what ratio of avgas/pump gas do you recommend I start with for my car?

since there is no road tax on av gas putting it directly into a licenced car is a no,no. if they will do it depends on who runs the airport and if they do don't tell people because it will get them in trouble.

 

[DRTH VTR]

Is there lead in av gas?

 

[Rowdy1]

Question..............

What octane WERE you running? I have 12.5 to 1 with over 12,000 miles of total carnage, abuse and constant 7,000 RPM running on the same spark plugs I built the engine with and I can run 92 and NOT have a problem. I should mention, I don't have a timing mark, a mark on the damper, nothing, I have solid lifters and an ear. Ask anyone in here, they've heard it, they've seen it, they chose to name a smiley after it, not me

 

[mikeumkc]

since there is no road tax on av gas putting it directly into a licenced car is a no,no. if they will do it depends on who runs the airport and if they do don't tell people because it will get them in trouble.

Will they raise a stink if I go up there to fill up with a couple 5 gallon gas cans? Do I need to do anything else other than pump and pay?

Any ideas on a good starting ratio to mix it with 91 octane?

 

[Jack]

What octane is avgas? I have a smaller airport near here that might have that available. Can I just pull up and put it in the tank, or do you I have to fill up some gas cans with the stuff? Do I have to fill out any forms or anything?

91 octane is the highest pump fuel available around here, what ratio of avgas/pump gas do you recommend I start with for my car?

Most avgas is about 100 ... most is unleaded (you really don't need lead) ... most airstrips have phased out leaded ... they'll tell you/show you what theirs is ... go there with a 5 gal can ... once they know you're not there to bust them they may or may not let you fill directly ... 5gal 100 + 10 gal 91 = about 15 gal of 94 ... half & half'll be about 96.

I used to routinely get avgas ... but now I get race fuel locally ... when I need it in a street car I know the folks at local track & I fill directly.

Here's a good hi-test memory for me. About a year & half back ... I travelled to St Louis area to buy a car that'd been sitting ... I intended to drive it back to SC (& did w/ no problems) ... I did not know a soul around STL ... but I'd called around & prearranged a local shop to let me use a bay for my personal use for checkout of car (I paid them about $50 & used their rack & tools). While there, I asked if they knew where I could get race gas ... they pointed me to a local race shop that also held the fuel franchise at local circle track. I went to that nearby race shop, where I chewed the fat with the guys ... the owner then sent one of his guys to track & I followed ... unlocked track gate & 110 sunoco racegas pump ... his guy started pumping & I finished (scared he might scratch paint) ... filled that baby right up. Then we returned to shop where I paid going rate for racegas (BTW, theirs was cheaper than ours down here). We all knew what the score was, but nobody seemed too concerned.

No, the track/race shop guys shouldn't have done this ... it's illegal. Same goes for directly pumping avgas in car. But it probably has more to do with how you present yourself & how the gasman's day's been going ... more than what some archaic fed law reads. I would expect more success at small airfield than larger one ... and don't loosely blab around your area of any success. BTW, the above car we filled did not NEED that octane ... but because that car had been sitting so long, I wanted the car's fuel system to benefit from good cleaning/gum-cutting that racegas offers. The 110 racegas does make more power but not one bit more mileage than pump gas ... if I'd advanced the timing for racegas it'd probably made more mileage ... but I knew that'd be the only racegas during the 900+ mile trip home. FYI, avgas does a great cleaning/gum-cutting job too.

So ... go to the little airport with your hat in your hand ... and good attitude ... and a 5g can for backup ... don't act hurried. Maybe the first trip you pump into can ... maybe next time you do as you please ... it never hurts to ask. G'Luck!

*edit* PS ... I rode a greyhound bus to STL to get the car ... it was very inexpensive ... but I DO NOT recommend bus. Years ago, I rode buses when I was a young servicemember ... but things have changed & so has the bus culture. Other than in a emergency, I doubt I'd ride again.

 

[vett boy]

Inhalation of toluene fumes can be intoxicating, but in larger doses nausea-inducing. Chronic or frequent inhalation of toluene over long time periods leads to irreversible brain damage. Toluene may enter the human system not only through vapour inhalation from the liquid evaporation, but also following soil contamination events, where human contact with soil, ingestion of contaminated groundwater or soil vapour off-gassing can occur.
The toxicity of toluene can be explained mostly by its metabolism. As toluene has very low water solubility, it cannot exit the body via the normal routes (urine, feces, or sweat). It must be metabolized in order to be excreted.

Good luck.
Gary[/quote]I'd like to add Gary that it really isn't good for ya.And i'm not joking.Good post Gary!

 

[Bill75]

You may not be looking for it, but if you are handling toluene you really need to look at what it is. Here is a clip from a site:

Inhalation of toluene fumes can be intoxicating, but in larger doses nausea-inducing. Chronic or frequent inhalation of toluene over long time periods leads to irreversible brain damage. Toluene may enter the human system not only through vapour inhalation from the liquid evaporation, but also following soil contamination events, where human contact with soil, ingestion of contaminated groundwater or soil vapour off-gassing can occur.
The toxicity of toluene can be explained mostly by its metabolism. As toluene has very low water solubility, it cannot exit the body via the normal routes (urine, feces, or sweat). It must be metabolized in order to be excreted.

Unless you are a chemist, have access to the proper gear to avoid contamination and Dain Bramage I would stop trying to go the cheap route and BUY some commercial octane booster.

Good luck.
Gary

Let's not get too paranoid here, tolulene is used as a carrier in most cans of spray paint. Sure it's a nasty VOC but he's probably not going to drink the stuff. Read the warnings on the gas pump the next time you fill up.

 

[Vettefan87]

The 110 racegas does make more power but not one bit more mileage than pump gas ...

That is not always exactly the truth, in the right application it would make both more power and better mileage if the car was running better. In this application with his car having 11:1 compression ratio then yes his motor would benefit from 110. But the race gas here we have in Indiana is low lead, but still has lead in it. When I ran pure race fuel in my 87 for about a month or so I noticed it started getting a little sluggish and my fuel mileage went down a little...

Well It all makes sense to me now, my car has stock compression which I believe is right around 9.5:1. A few engine builders I have talked to said unless your running over 10:1 compression you can possibly hurt your performance, which makes sense since 110 is harder to burn then race gas. Not only that you have led getting all over your spark plugs and your O2 sensors if applicable.

Where I work we kind of just look away when people pump race fuel in their car...

 

[MoeJr]

I used to use Toluene as an octane booster for my 87 GN. I mixed it 3/4 93 octane gas to 25% toluene to give me 100 octane. I used to buy it by the 55 gal barrel and store it outside. U need mix nothing else but toluene in. Toluene and xylene are already in unleaded fuel anyhow. However some brands mix it different so that the brands with more toluene will not boost like the lower brands. BP is the best to mix with as they use the lowest concentration of Toluene. Do not go over 33% mix as it will make the car react lazy. I got the mix formulas from a friend who is an engineer for a gas company.

 

[Jack]

That is not always exactly the truth, in the right application it would make both more power and better mileage if the car was running better.

Context ... please ... context ... what I wrote was: The 110 racegas does make more power but not one bit more mileage than pump gas ... if I'd advanced the timing for racegas it'd probably made more mileage ... but I knew that'd be the only racegas during the 900+ mile trip home.

The car was running pretty good ... I tuned it while in the checkout bay ... but its fuel system was gummed up from sitting. Once again, I filled w/ racegas to CLEAN the system (it did/does) ... car didn't need much octane ... car had less than 9:1 CR ... but it did/does pull harder & run stronger w/racegas. Heck, it don't even need pump hi-test ... but it runs stronger with it.

 

[lucky76]

My '70 L46 is running 11.00:1 compression from the factory, so I am learning that I need to ad something to 91 octane gas to make it work. I have read on a few places on the internet on how to make an inexpensive octane booster from Toluene mixed with mineral sprits and ATF.

Has anyone done this? Anyone have any other solutions? What works best and is relatively cheap?

Something doesn't sound right, you live in KC and can't find some 93 octane. Better watch what you trying to buy in a 5 gallon can now days or making home brew gas. The FEDs may come to visit you if you haven't blown yourself up first.