Really, I have two questions:

I heard from an old-school mechanic that running octane booster is not good unless you have steel braided fuel lines. He said that it has an ingredient that slowly melts away the rubber fuel lines until eventually they will wear down and go bad. Has anyone ever heard of this? It is completely new to me.......

The other question is: Does anyone know if it really works? I have always been skeptical about octane boosters, but I find myself using it every now and then. I've never felt a difference in any car I've ran it in.

Any feedback?

 

They really dont do anything... at most they add fractions of a point. I dont see why they would rot your fuel lines any faster than gas would

 

The reason you boost octane is to prevent detonation. Gas with a higher octane rating has less energy than gas with a lower rating, so you actually get more power out of lower octane gas. The only reason you raise the octane is if you have to.

So, if you're just adding octane booster to your car, then you wouldn't notice any difference (if anything, you'll notice decreased performance). If you're tuning your car for the added octane, I suppose you may see some benefit, but not a lot.

Someone did an online test with a multi-thousand dollar tester and tested all the popular octane boosters. Apparently they're all complete garbage except for one, which is just mostly garbage.

Here's the test page:

I have no idea about the the fuel lines thing.

 

Thanks, guys. That does clear up some of my questions.

I'm still curious about it rotting the fuel lines. It's the second person I hear that from, but I'm thinking stupidity may be contagious. It really does not make much sense to me, either.

 

Again, I'm not sure, but it sounds suspect.

Octane boosters don't usually add pure octane; they just raise the equivalent octane level, so that the fuel burns at the same rate as fuel with that percentage octane would burn. So, if you had fuel that has an 86 octane rating (normal pump gas), that means it burns at 100/.86% (or ~116%) as fast as a pure octane mixture would. The higher the "octane" rating, the slower the burn, meaning more resistance to detonation.

Since pure octane isn't used, the manufacturers can put any one of a cocktail of substances that change the equivalent octane rating. So, if it did indeed rot out rubber hoses it would be completely their fault. It seems like they would have to be doing it on purpose.

Lol, it could be a conspiracy to make you buy more expensive fuel lines, but I doubt it.

 

That test about summed it up

 

Don't use it in your S197 (05-08 stangs) They do not like it and it fouls out the plugs!

Just FYI, our newer cars do not have any rubber fuel lines, steel and "high tech" plastic lines.

Just run 87' if you are basically stock or if custom tune, run according.....octane level.

Casey

 

Total scam...save your money.