87GTHO

I was at Canadian Tire today and noticed the huge selection of fuel additives.
I bought the lucas fuel injection additive bottle, which treats about a tank of gas.
It ran about 6 $ canadian, they had all these racing formulas street and strip, that were about double the price.
Are these additives really worth it on a mostly stock 5.0?

Chopper

No.If the engine doesn't knock then it's running fine on what ever octane it was designed for.If it does knock then there is something different about it.This can be carbon build up in the combustion chamber,too much spark advance,a lean condition,spark plugs of the wrong heat range(too hot),an over boost of turbo or superchargers,and even clogged cats.Extra octane does nothing to increase power and can leave unnecessary deposits on spark plugs and valves.

JD1969

Plus most all of those octane boosters are snake oil, in other words they do not raise octane enough to off set the cost. If you need higher octane just buy it at the pump. On a 14 gallon tank it works out to be about $3.25 per tank to go from 87 to 93 octane.

87GTHO

No engine knock, and my timing is at 11, soo ill just stick with good old regular gas.
thanks for the help

Deannostang

Right, it is basically cheaper just to upgrade the octane of the gas you choose rather than pay for the extra cost of the additive. If you don't knock, additional octane will do nothing for you. If you do knock, you most likely have an engine tune issue. Other than Cobras, you should not have to use anythng other than 87. I have a few mild engine mods and run 89 perfectly all day with no knocking in my '98 GT. The best additives of all and very worthwhile are the ones that clean the carbon out of your entire fuel system, including valves, pistons, intake, etc. If you are knocking, using one of the better additives should probably cause your knocking to stop. Super-heated carbon will cause knocking. Changing to premium will stop this situation temporarily but ultimately add to the problem, ie: carbon, and then you're in the same boat again. Valvoline makes an excellent product: Valvoline Synth Power Fuel "System" Cleaner in a gold bottle. Works faster and maintains a cleaner engine longer than most out there today. Good luck!

dc_mann8

i know a guy who runs 93 octane plus 2 bottles of that stuff per tank, he says 103 octane he has or something. because of the 13:1 compression

JD1969

Well depending on what he uses it might be more like 95 or 96 octane at best. Trust me on this one I have the seen fuel tests done by Rocket Brand Race Fuel.

Magiarn71

Theres octane booster that says "raises 4 points" or something like that. Now if you add a bottle to 87, youre not getting 91..... its 4 POINTS as in .4, so youre running 87.4 - like was said, snake oil. That guy adding two to 93 is getting 93.8, not worth it.

JD1969

DING DING sombody else gets it.

99saleen351r

That lucas tune up ina bottle is awesome!!I cant believe the difference it makes.I use lucas additive in everything i own.Except for octane boost i just run race gas instead