O'Reilly Auto Octane booster

[rdillon]

O'Reilly is selling their octane booster for 3 for a 3 bucks. I used it and the performance has improved on my motor. $1.00/22gallons. Thats less than $.05 a gallon. well worth the buy. At least for my truck. They also use oxygenated gas here in Houston when it turns winter. That causes alot of the fuel mileage problems.

[75K30]

I do not wish to be critical about octane boosters, or your percieved increase in performance, but I have to question your baseline.
I have done quite a bit of Dyno testing with different additives with suprising results. Most of my data indicates that these additives are of little value, and in many cases can cause a decrease in power.
If higher octane could cause better performance, then maybe adding a tank of VP C14 would make a considerable amount of power???? Not the case either.
If it is not pinging, or working the snot out of the knock sensor, then the capabilities of the engine have been already met, and the engine will perform the same. If certain parameters do not fall within the range of the ECM, then the engine could really produce less power.
I am not the only to experience this.
YouTube - Myth about fuel additives, 5th Gear
If you have found a "magic potion", then congratulations on your find.

[crabtruck]

Long as you're on Youtube might as well check out this one...
YouTube - Secret of Fuel additives by elf,carmate

You probably won't understand it but guy says "Super Gas Treatment" like it's a Godzilla movie.
The pitch man is a girl who actually pitches the product, maybe you should too.
Has very interesting eyes though, think she may be drinking the stuff.

[75K30]

Believe it or not Crab, I sat through the whole thing. I found it a little interesting that they made a claim to the stabilization of water and gas, and that thier product produced fewer levels of carbon thus providing a cleaner engine. The little experiment was also interesting.
Thought it would be neat to do the same experiment with rubbing alcohol. The results for the experiment would be the same, only the alcohol would do little for any engine performance or helping it run better.
Not a single mention of additional Octane from the Elf product, but hey, maybe it tastes good, Lol.
Was thinking this would have recieved a little more response up to this point. Kinda wanted to get some science involved.
Oh well.

[longcut13]

Compression. The higher the compression the higher the ON needs to be to prevent pre-detonation. If you have a engine that has uneven compression ratio it will not always knock unless it is under a hard pull.

As far as it helping the performance there are way too many variables to consider, Air charge temp, fuel density, computer delay, etc, etc. But the one thing that it does do is raise the octane level by a few points.

Octane Boosters Testing - Tech Review - European Car Magazine

But so does getting high grade fuel at the pump.

YouTube - Facts about high octane petrol

Ethanol and Methanol are a forms of Alcohol, which have higher octane numbers than ordinary gasoline. When you combine 10% Ethanol with 90% ordinary gasoline you get Gasohol or E10. You actually get higher octane this way so in-turn you do get something out of adding alcohol to gasoline. If you had a higher compression engine you would get better performance from a gasoline with 10% Ethanol added than just using ordinary gas.

As far as a "Magic Potion", when you can mist water in a carb to clean carbon off of pistons and slowly pour ATF in the carb to free stuck valves anything is possible!

[75K30]

While a higher octane rating is achieved, we know that Alcohol based fuels contain less energy than a conventianal fossil fuel, so what are alcohol based additives really helping out?
A full on race engine with compression through the roof could expect higher horsepower numbers, but at the sacrifice of consumption. Not exacty what we are after.
I believe the "Gasohol" craze is simply something that is required by the 2005 energy bill, and the ban of MTBE in some areas.

Anyway, like the example engine described in the OP, and engine that is not knocking, and running at full spark advance will never realize a greater potential by simply changing the octane rating.
Now if the compression could be raised (just as you stated, but we could what if all day) to the point the pre-ignition resulted, the the change in octane would allow the engine to achieve maximum spark advance, and a higher output could be achieved.
Thats why we can't get a 5 hp briggs and stratton to produce 10 hp by adding fuel additives. Heak if this were the case, maybe instead of one magic bottle, we could add two. Or in the case of the added alcohol to the gas, we could add more alcohol, and obtain greater power potentials. Does not seem likely, given the negative effects that come along with this theory.

[rdillon]

I should of explained the fuel I was running. I generally buy 87 regular from chevron. When I bought the truck I specifically asked, Can I run regular? Everyone from the sales to the shop said 'Yes. During my spark plug experiment previously blogged I added the booster with the 87. While changing the old plugs I cleaned them. As you may read I had to reinstall them no other choice. I also have this motor at 12000 miles. I have noticed a increase in power output. The motor has been running very well for 500 miles. My theory is either a higher octane fuel and/or clean spark plugs will help produce more power. The product I bought Was a inexpensive way to get the octane numbers up. I can from now on get the 93 and maintain this higher level of performance. Yes higher octane fuel burns faster.

I am also thinking of changing the AT tires to radials. That will help rolling friction as well.

[rdillon]

YouTube - Facts about high octane petrol

This will help explain my position. I am not saying this 5.3L is putting out more than the 295 posted horse power on the window sticker. It does help it get there though.

[scottie]

the literal definition of octane is "the resistance to detonation." Detonation, of course, being unwanted, uncontrolled combustion of gas/air mixture. So the higher ocatne gas it is, the more difficult it is to burn. on a low compression application, high octane fuel will not burn as well because the compression isnt there to promote a complete burn. on a high compression application(about 10:1 and above), high octane fuel is required because the the low octane fuel would have a "deisel" effect because the compression would cause the volitile, low octane fuel to combust prematurely. high octane was designed for race engines to prevent them from detonating on the track.

as far as the octane boosters... i would not recommend them. no telling really whats in them. in theory i beleive its one quart of auto tranny fluid to 20 gallons of 87 octane, would raise the octane lel to like 115, although i dont recommend doing that. as far as your truck, the engine was designed to run off 87 octane, if you go with a higher octane, your engine doesnt have the compression required for a complete burn, giving you slightly poor gas milage and overall performance. a lot of stuff here, i hope i helped you out a bit....

[75K30]

If you noticed the last line in the little video, they claimed that using higher octane fuels was only a benifit if the engine was capable of making greater hp's.
In many cases, the smaller higher revving higher compression engines can benifit from a higher octane fuels. Since the fuel contains less heptane, it is less likely to pre-detonate and casue the engine to lose timing. Keep in mind those vehicles were being tested with a fuel that is close to 98% (overseas fuel) octane. That would allow very high amounts of timing, and would require an engine that could extend timing parameters that high (such as the turbo charged Subaru). Notice the smaller non performance engine encountered zero change.
The zero change would be very typical fro results that we would find in a typical American V8 with stock ECM parameters.
The current compression ratio in the 5.3 is low enough that it will accomodate a fair amount of nitrous on pump gas with no detonation. (Will require more fuel, but nothing short of pump gas with no additives.)

What would be an interesting excersize would be track results instead of a "seat of the pants" experiment. I would be willing to bet that a simple increase in tire pressure would net better results (lower ET's) than a bottle of additive. Bet mileage would increase too.
Little things like this are often overlooked, and some of the little things are free.