octan boost/avgas

[AlexF]

ANyone on here know anything about boosting octan rating?

Or about blending avgas and UL for example?

Cheers

Alex

[AlexF]

ok... just found out you can only edit messages for 10 mins after posting... I was going to add the following:

I read in several websites that Tolulene can be use to up the octan rating of fuels:

http://www.elektro.com/~audi/audi/toluene/

Has someone on here tired or know anything about this?

Wheres a fuel chemist when you need one???

Alex

[zefarelly]

Av gas has a high octane rating, but is slow burn

get hold of some NASCAR fuel . . . .that'll pep you up a bit

[JustinDawkins]

What will you run it in alex?

Off the shelf octane booster is good, or sheel optimax.

It is difficult to run avgas, requires different jets etc, a goos solution is 50/50 avgas and super unleaded. expest 105 octane or thereabouts.

Methanol is also good, makes the engine run very cool, you need huge jets though, like drill the biggest you can get out so you can get more in, no limits with Methanol - you can seldom have too much.

[Langers]

Originally posted by JustinDawkins
What will you run it in alex?

Off the shelf octane booster is good, or sheel optimax.

Be careful of the off-the-shelf octane boosters. When they state they will raise the octane level by 2 points, they mean 0.2 octane. So they are effectively useless. Go over to http://forums.pelicanparts.com and do a search on octane boosters.

[martinparsons]

deleted

[Chris Griffin]

AlexF... Do a search on 10/10ths for "octane". There have been several detailed discussions about this in the past.

[goforit500]

Toluene is good...But needs some accurate maths to get the mix right !!

Speak to Anders Hildebrand at 76 and R Fuels...01929 551557

He'll sell you any brew you want !!

Alternatively, Millers in Yorkshire will custom build an octane booster to your specification if you ask them nicely !!

[KC]

The reason to add octane to fuel is to slow down its burn and allow the tuner to add in more timing advance without getting detonation and bending a rod. Just adding octane or octane booster does not increase power, it allows the engine to be tuned for more power.

[Rubinho]

What KC says is absolutely correct. Also let's not forget that higher octane means you can run higher compression ratios without pre-ignition.

Simplest way to get the octane up is just to put the lead back in! Adding 0.5g lead per 1l petrol will increase it's RON by around 5 points... Of course, running leaded petrol may mess things up in other ways

[Rubinho]

Forgot to mention, aviation fuels still have quite a high lead content which explains their somewhat higher octane rating than pump petrol...

[Onlooker]

Originally posted by zefarelly
Av gas has a high octane rating, but is slow burn

get hold of some NASCAR fuel . . . .that'll pep you up a bit

A mate of mine ran some in a 70's Ford Pick up and melted all the gaskets in the carby so beware of the level of "pepping up" that you require. I think it was Trick Racing Fuels from memory and the carby kit cost more than the fuel would have cost had he bought it at the gas station for retail.

[boyracer]

Fuel questions spark a lot of interest in Oz at the moment.
They have banned Avgas from all road going events (even rallies) though the EPA (Enviromental Protection Authority) had no problem with it, so this caused a lot of thinking and experimentation from everyone.
Personally our team got hold of some Elf racing fuel (turbo max I think ?? ) and mixed 5 litres of Elf to 15 of Premium unleaded. Even though the car was tuned for Premium, you notice a big difference. Most of the Elf fuels are oxygenated (contain additional oxygen) so the car goes that much harder, besides Elf has a whole punch of "anti-pinging" additives. But then the Powers that be decided that wasn't sporting. So you can use Elf, that's fine, you can use Premium, that's fine.....but you can't mix the two in a blend as we were. Their justification was this created a fuel not covered in the schedule and it's content couldn't be enforced.....stoopid but there you go.
Avgas is still the best and by far the cheapest (Elf is damn expensive and additives aren't cheap either, when you consider how little some of them add).
In another team I have ran Toluelene, it does help, we proved that, although it can melt pistons down if you use too much. It's damn good stuff yes, but it burns a lot hotter as well, so be careful with the mix. But I'm suggesting that if Australian rules are similar to yours the blending of fuels or even the addition of additives is expressly forbidden and if they do a fuel test and you're caught, the stewards will jump on you. Think fine, think loss of championship points think maybe loss of licence for a couple of meetings. Check the rule book

[zefarelly]

VP racing fuels have a list of fuels and applications.

I wonder what I can get away with in an old Cortina !