Tuners and Octane booster or E-85 mixes?

[meadowsdb]

What's up, all!!!

So, I just installed my JB4 and love it. Problem is, I only have trash ass 91 Octane fuel here. UUUgggggggg! Do people prefer adding an Octane booster to up the rating, or just toss in a few gallons of e-85?

[RockCrusher]

Originally Posted by meadowsdb

What's up, all!!!

So, I just installed my JB4 and love it. Problem is, I only have trash ass 91 Octane fuel here. UUUgggggggg! Do people prefer adding an Octane booster to up the rating, or just toss in a few gallons of e-85?

Not familiar with the JB4 but a quick read about it at the company web site has this: "The JB4, on the other hand, ranges from $479-$900 and includes 8 unique maps, including maps for pump gas, race gas, ethanol fuels (E85), factory tuning, VALET mode, WMI integration, and a user-defined map."

From the above if you select a pump gas map 91 should be ok, but the pump gas map probably will offer little bump in any performance.

My advice would be to read the JB4 literature and see what octane is recommended for the various maps available and select the gasoline and its octane level accordingly.

Using an octane booster can be expensive. Boostane is often mentioned favorably. You can visit the web site and there will be chart which provides how much Boostane is needed to bring various octane grades of gasoline up to a higher octane level.

But from the chart you can arrive at some idea of how much you will spend on Boostane to provide the necessary octane to maximize the benefit from the JB4.

There might be some guideline on using E85 in part as an additive to possibly boost the octane rating of the "hybrid" fuel in the fuel tank.

Trouble is E85 ethanol content can vary from 51% to 83%. So the ratio of E85 to 91 (E10 or ethanol free if you can find it) will vary depending up the percentage of ethanol of the E85. Unless you have an ethanol test kit with you I don't know of any way to have some prior knowledge of the ethanol content and thus what octane boost can be had by using E85 as an octane booster.

[lens]

Originally Posted by meadowsdb

What's up, all!!!

So, I just installed my JB4 and love it. Problem is, I only have trash ass 91 Octane fuel here. UUUgggggggg! Do people prefer adding an Octane booster to up the rating, or just toss in a few gallons of e-85?

Buy a ethanol tester, and test the stations E85 before mixing, I would throw a few gallons of E-85 per fill up to try for E-20 to E-30.

[Redd]

The price of RON97 (93 octane) fuel jumped 2x recently due to removal of govt subsidies so I've had to use RON95 (91/92 octane) fuel. Problem is I have a stage 2 93 octane tune so I've had to add octane boosters.

In the process I did a lot of research on octane boosters and this is what I've learned:

1. Almost all octane boosters use MMT as the active ingredient, from the cheapest to the most expensive race fuel additive.

2. MMT leaves an orange deposit (manganese) around your spark plugs and in your catalytic converters. May decrease cat efficiency in the long term, but what exactly is 'long term' no one has quantified.

3. I've been using octane booster regularly for my daily driven car for 6 months now with no issues. But I am catless so I don't need to worry about cat efficiency.

4. 1 octane point = 0.1 octane. 1 octane number = 1 octane. This is important to know.

5. Octane booster strength/dosage is not standardized. Read the fine print on the label carefully. Some brands state clearly how many octane points/numbers the dose increases, but many don't. Some race fuel octane blends have specific dosage tables to increase x gallons of fuel by y octane points.

6. I've used Bardahl simply because the label is clear about how many octane numbers it increases. I do not see the benefit of using expensive brands like Liquimoly just because cheaper brands all use MMT and do the same thing (do educate me if I am wrong).

Hope this helps.

[meadowsdb]

Originally Posted by chaungo

Buy a ethanol tester, and test the stations E85 before mixing, I would throw a few gallons of E-85 per fill up to try for E-20 to E-30.

That is my main plan. We have fantastic e-85 quality and availability here in SoCal.....one of the few things that's good about this place.

Aim for a e-20-30 mix should put the car around 94-95 Octane.

[lens]

Originally Posted by Redd

The price of RON97 (93 octane) fuel jumped 2x recently due to removal of govt subsidies so I've had to use RON95 (91/92 octane) fuel. Problem is I have a stage 2 93 octane tune so I've had to add octane boosters.

In the process I did a lot of research on octane boosters and this is what I've learned:

1. Almost all octane boosters use MMT as the active ingredient, from the cheapest to the most expensive race fuel additive.

2. MMT leaves an orange deposit (manganese) around your spark plugs and in your catalytic converters. May decrease cat efficiency in the long term, but what exactly is 'long term' no one has quantified.

3. I've been using octane booster regularly for my daily driven car for 6 months now with no issues. But I am catless so I don't need to worry about cat efficiency.

4. 1 octane point = 0.1 octane. 1 octane number = 1 octane. This is important to know.

5. Octane booster strength/dosage is not standardized. Read the fine print on the label carefully. Some brands state clearly how many octane points/numbers the dose increases, but many don't. Some race fuel octane blends have specific dosage tables to increase x gallons of fuel by y octane points.

6. I've used Bardahl simply because the label is clear about how many octane numbers it increases. I do not see the benefit of using expensive brands like Liquimoly just because cheaper brands all use MMT and do the same thing (do educate me if I am wrong).

Hope this helps.

Bardahl uses MMT too...just saying lol

Every company uses MMT, for their octane booster.


I personally use Boostane as it has proven results (I've logged and it does clear up timing corrections) I normally mix between 4-6oz for a full tank of 91 oct to get 93ish oct.

[Redd]

Originally Posted by chaungo

Bardahl uses MMT too...just saying lol

Every company uses MMT, for their octane booster.


I personally use Boostane as it has proven results (I've logged and it does clear up timing corrections) I normally mix between 4-6oz for a full tank of 91 oct to get 93ish oct.

That's what I'm saying. Everyone uses MMT. Bardahl, STP, Liquimoly, all MMT.