Do 'gas boosts' really do anything?

[shenmue]

You can buy bottles of them for a few bucks. They say if you add them to a tank, you'll get more pep or something. I've tried them a couple of times, and they didn't make anything worse, but I can't tell if I really got better mileage or anything. Does anyone else have experience with these things? Are they useless?

:shrug:

Thanks.

[DainBramaged]

1. If you buy your gas all over the place or from no-name stations

It's best to run a bottle of Gumout or one of the Lucas brands of gas line & injector cleaners once every 3 months. Keeps the residue from building in the injectors. Regarding octane boosters, if the engine has "knock" go up to the next grade of gas.

Octane boosters ONLY fake out the engine computer to enable it to run a bit more timing hence waste more gas without noticible performance gains. A good way to actually clean your combustion chambers of excess carbon (which creates hot spots and knock) is Chevron Techtron. I have successfully used it for over 20 years in all types of vehicles and it works. One $9 bottle twice a year in a full tank of gas works miracles.

[jimmil]

2. Just use a good cleaner and you will be good to go..

I'm new so you can take my experience or not. I've built a few cars in my life and even worked on one or two. I worked for TWR on the engine management for the Jaguar XJ220 and the Arrows F1. I've worked on a few engine management systems here also. I did build some street cars for some rather wealthy people and they all were 200++ mph cars (my new life is something totally different however). Techron is great stuff. It is a detergent based cleaner and that is the key. Red Line is the only other injector cleaner that I know of that is detergent based. The rest are solvent based and can damage the windings on some of the lucus type injectors. As for the gas additives, those are usually tolulene based and are not very good for anything and are especially bad for O2 sensors. It is much cheaper to go to Home Depot and buy it by the gallon if you are just crazy to get some. It acts as an octane booster. An octane booster does NOT add more BTUs to the fuel, rather it retards the combustion allowing for a higher compression and more advance on the spark. With the new computers I have worked on there is a limit to the advance that is dialed in using algorithms based on load, temperature, map or maf readings, throttle position, etc. During the test phase of engine development the engineers specifically target the performance of the engine to gas octanes. Adding something to the fuel will not necessarily make the engine perform better as the engine has not been tuned to take advantage of the higher octane. The newer computers do not keep adding spark until knock and retard it, they have a limit, again set according to load, temperature, etc.

The best advice has already been given. Use a can of Chevron Techron or Red Line Fuel Injector Cleaner once every few months to keep the system clean. Use a good quality motor oil and change the oil filter often. The only other advice I can give you is to run the piss out of your car. Seriously, that will clean the engine out better than anything. Babying the car is the absolute worst thing you can do to it.

[shenmue]

3. Thanks

:)

[DainBramaged]

4. Are you ever welcome to DU. Another motor head with cred!

My shit went 1/4 fast, not street fast. I am impressed. The Arrows F!! Hot shit.


Welcome.

:yourock: :yourock: :hi: :hi: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause: :applause:

[jimmil]

5. You should see things now

I had a friend who went to AVL after TWR collapsed and worked on the Toyota F1 engine. It had no cams, twisted to 23,500 RPM, and put out 950 Hp from a naturally aspirated V10. I used to have all the stats on the motor but they have disappeared over the years. Of course, F1 being F1, the engine never made it out of the shop. Now, unfortunately, I am putting my computer skills to work in a completely different industry.

I am finally in the process of building my little Corvette after pushing the last customer out of my shop recently. Since gas has skyrocketed it won't be quite as powerful as I once envisioned. I am shooting for a little over 600 Hp from a 402ci motor, JE Pistons, Oliver rods, a custom built crank (thing cost me $5K), stock cams for drivability, and still get around 23 miles per gallon in normal driving using a 3.48 rear end. It will be inspection ready as I put the new Random Tech cats onto full length headers before running them out 3" exhaust. I am also using the exhaust to pull a vacuum or at least some from the crankcase for better ring seal. Compression will be 11.5:1 and I will control the spark and fuel with an aftermarket computer. After this car is built that will be it for me.