BadCon

That is a good question, but considering most of the carrier is going to be hydrocarbons similar to gasoline, I'd bet it mixes rather well.

TX-Ripper

I remember talking with the guys from VMp along time ago and they told me they found torcco to separate and concentrate at the bottom of the tank until mixed up again.

Keep in mind I don’t think as highly of Vmp.

In any situation I try to see both sides of the coin and I always enjoy when someone actually tests “it” like you’re doing.

BadCon

I plan on testing LOB a second time at half strength using this current take of fuel, running it to 1/2 and filling back up. Before I fill it back up, I’ll record some logs with the half tank on my way into town to test the old fuel before I mix it with fresh.

That be next week, so if LOB has stopped working in that time hopefully the next test will show it.

BadCon

Time for another update, and this time we have STP Octane Booster. This is the 5oz orange bottle sold for $3.75, and is marketed as treating up to 21 gallons. I did some maths and looked at my fuel level sensor PID and ended up with about 19 gallons in the tank after topping off. I was never good at math anyways lol.
This test was plagued with issues, first my SCT device breaks requiring me to MacGyver it with JB Weld, then for reasons I don't know, everyone and their mother was out driving around on my testing grounds at 1am, making it difficult to acquire my data. Lastly the baseline tank of fuel was ungodly good, in fact the best 93 pump gas I've tested, so the results are not as dramatic. However we still obtained some results and the STP had a positive effect on overall knock levels and seemed to smooth out the spark advance in a few areas. For $3.75, I was not expecting much, and surprisingly it seemed to work, so it gets a thumbs up from me. It does contain MMT per the MSDS, so some level of efficacy was expected. Interestingly it also contains a whole slew of other additives which should offer benefits in other areas, such as injector cleanliness, with PEA being the other big name that stuck out on the MSDS. For the price, it certainly is not a bad product.

I had intended to post another test with the LOB at half strength, but due to the time it takes to get all this done and my SCT GTX breaking, I wanted to go on to another product once my GTX was back up and running. However I still plant on testing the LOB again, when I try to determine the octane to dollar king for daily driving. That might actually be next, depending on what OTC products I can get my hands on. I still have Gumout at my house, but that stuff is basically Xylene or Toluene and does not really fit in with any of the other products I've tested so far that contain MMT....which means I may not even waste my time. I also have my cans of Boostane and Torco sitting on my shelf rearing to go.

Here we have the base pulls...this is with nothing but 93 octane in the tank. Ambient was about 85 degrees, and as always I drove 25 miles into town making 3 pulls, from 2500rpm to 7000rpm in 3rd gear, along the way. Once in town I add the octane booster, top off with the necessary amount of fuel, download the data logs, then driver 25 miles back to my house again making three pulls along the way. On a couple of the baseline pulls I hit around 7400rpm, and on the last octane test pull I only got up to 6500rpm due to traffic interference. As always, peak spark is 18.5 degrees at WOT.

Base 93 octane pull #1. First image is spark, second image is knock.



Base 93 octane pull #2.



Base pull #3.




Now lets get into the pulls after adding STP Octane Booster.

STP Pull #1.



STP Pull #2.



STP Pull #3 (this one stops at 6500rpm)




Here we have an apples to apples comparison. This is the spark graph from the STP pull #2 overlaid on top of the spark graph from base pull #2. STP is in red, base graph in blue. As mentioned, this base fuel was crazy good out of the pump but the STP did smooth out the line a bit.


Bottom line....it works as advertised.

BadCon

If you ever wondered what $60 worth of octane booster gets you on pump gas, you've come to the right place.

I went to Alamo City Motorplex yesterday and made 7 good passes on two tunes (street and strip). Prior to racing I'd added a 32oz bottle of Boostane Professional AND a 32oz bottle of Torco Accelerator to about 8 or 9 gallons of pumg gas (93). I had intended to only add the Boostane to 1/4th tank, but I got nervous about starvation issues and added more fuel, which required the Torco to bring the octane back up. I estimated my final mix was somewhere around 104-105 octane.

Lets jump right in. this is my track tune from Palm Beach Dyno. Rob never told me what the timing upper limit was, but looking at the log I'm gonna say somewhere around 25 degrees. This tune is very "adaptive," and despite the presence of no knock it really needs to see those negative knock values before it ramps up the timing, and the majority of my run I was seeing 23.75 degrees. But to answer the question of how much timing you can add with nothing but pump gas and octane booster, here you go. My truck is a 2016 with stock internals (10.5 to 1 compression); so don't expect to see 25 degrees of timing on a 18+ with 12 to 1. Also my IAT2 temps reached 136 degrees by the end of the run, which is not too bad considering the ambient conditions, and the brown line is boost with a peak of 12.03. There are some other issues with this tune, namely shift RPM and shift quality, and hopefully I can get those ironed out. I'd like to be seeing 7500rpm across the board on all the shifts, but on this run we were at 7000, 7300, 7200, and the 3-4 shift takes forever. Otherwise I'm happy, and the truck ran great and was super consistent even heat soaked.

BadCon

I figured some people would like to know the possible downsides of running octane boosters, at least those which use MMT (Methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl) as the main ingredient, which is any product that actually works.

The History:
MMT does not improve fuel quality, it is just a knock suppressant, and came about in the 60's and 70's to work along side Tetraethyllead, then eventually replace it in "unleaded" gas. Lead, MMT, and in modern days ethanol, can be used to raise the octane of fuel without the expense of further refining of the fuel to raise its octane naturally. Back in the 70's when emissions were becoming a thing, lead needed to be removed from gasoline due to its tendency to poison emissions control equipment and its health effects. MMT was believed to be cleaner, greener, and safer then leaded gas, but it turns out it really is none of those things, and eventually it too was mostly removed from gasoline in the united states and parts of the world with bans and various restrictions.

The Problem:
The issue lies with what happens when manganese burns in the combustion chamber, it creates manganese oxide (think rust), which then coats everything in a orange hue. This coating can actually build up to the degree where it will foul spark plugs, catalysts, and 02 sensors. In low dosage rates, like what would have been found in pump gas, this poisoning takes many thousands of miles, if it occurs at all. In high treatment rates, like what would be found in race gas or concentrated octane boosters, this damage can occur much faster.

Manganese is also a vital nutrient to the human body, and your digestive tract is perfectly equipped to extract all the required manganese out of food and bypass the rest. However your lungs are not such equipped, and when manganese is inhaled it goes right to your brain, and can cause all sorts of badness, which is why exhaust fumes containing MMT are rather bad for you.

It does indeed work:
All the negatives aside, MMT works very well as a knock suppressant and is used extensively in race fuels and octane boosters. When used properly, it actually works and works well and WILL allow a power increase while keeping knock at bay. However when using these products one should understand the negatives.

My car:
Here is my #1 spark plug after about 4,000 miles of intermittent octane boosters. This orange hue is from the over the counter product testing I've been conducting in this thread, which shows the buildup that can occur with relatively low dosage rate products, even when used sporadically. During the last 4,000 miles maybe 4 tanks of fuel have been dosed with octane boosters.
This level of buildup is normal and not dangerous, and I've had no misfires or other indications of fouling. I recently ran a mega concentrated slug of MMT dosed fuel at the track and have since burned through that tank of gas without issue. I'll pull the plugs again to see if the buildup has increased.





Solutions:
Can anything be done to combat these effects? Yes, allegedly PEA based fuel cleaners can remove these manganese oxide deposits, so anyone sporadically hitting the track with MMT dosed fuel should probably run some fuel cleaners in subsequent tanks to help clean off the orange crap that coats everything. PEA is the most common fuel detergent in pump gas (think Chevron's Techron), but can also be bought in high concentrations within various over the counter products.
Some octane booster products actually have PEA in their formulations, to help combat the buildup right from the start. VP Racing's Octanium (unleaded version) has PEA in it, so does STP Octane Booster. Boostane likely does as part of their proprietary additive package and based on their advertising, but the MSDS doesn't give anything away.

But when running MMT based products, here are some rules to live by.
#1. Check your plugs frequently and replace more often to avoid misfires and fouling
#2. Do not over do the octane boosters if you are running catalytic converters
#3. If possible, try to run some "rinse" tanks between boosted tanks of fuel to clean the MMT deposits naturally

UNBROKEN

iTrader: (1)

No Boostane at the shop today...I grabbed a bottle of the Lucas since you seem to like it. I’ll play tomorrow and see if the truck likes it.

malloy

Truck made over 700rwhp on 93 and boostane today with only a 3.750 pulley..

engineermike

Which truck?

malloy

Sorry, my truck. 2018 F150 stage 2 whipple 3.750 pulley..

I have been quietly working with Rob@ PBD for the past few months with my vehicle. My work is less than 5 miles from their shop and they have been using my truck as a test mule. They usually borrow it for a few days at a time tweaking tunes, revisions, updates, etc.. In exchange I get free dyno time and the latest hotness. I can tell you right now the tune I have is bat **** insane badass...They are currently tuning the transmission as we speak. but anyway not to go off topic, E85 is not readily available down here so everything has been done on good old 93 and boostane.