Fuel additives

[mad in general]

There is a topic over on pistonheads about adding acetone to petrol.

Is there anyone on here who understands these chemicals and would it be safe to experiment with small amounts?

 

[Djw John]

I don't so I wouldn't! The only brand I ever use, once is a while, is forte.

 

[Matthew]

Do they do actually do anything or is it a waste of time?

My GTI runs on Vpower which is meant to clean the engine anyway.

 

[Chip-mk1]

If you can get hold of toluene, that works particuarly well, but the engine needs to be tuned to suit the fuel its running on.

In terms of "off the shelf" products that are a lot easier to buy, one called "power pour" allowed 3 degrees more timing when I tested it for Fast Ford magazine on a Focus RS engine.

 

[Dave..]

Are we talking about octane boosters or fuel treatments?

forte fuel treatments work well, bottles of Nos octane booster, I'd be less confident about.

 

[Chip-mk1]

Are we talking about octane boosters or fuel treatments?

forte fuel treatments work well, bottles of Nos octane booster, I'd be less confident about.

With any octane treater, the key is volume, if its a tiny little bottle you pour in your tank, the difference is going to be minimal at best, as essentially you are taking an average.

If you have 50 litres of 98RON and add 100ml of 120RON to it, you are diluting the difference 500:1

But if you put 10% toluene in, the difference is very noticeable.
Sadly though since all the terrorism nonsense its a lot harder to get hold of, as its a key ingredient in TriNitroToluene

 

[Dan@SJM]

Water methanol injection ftw!

 

[mad in general]

Well from what I gathered they were suggesting its use as an octane booster.

A few people have said that there are noticeable differences and that they would recommend it for power and cleaning advantages.

Say I was to try it with a full tank of fuel, what would be a safe amount to avoid causing damage to pipework etc..?

 

[Ex-User (60778)]

2 gallons and a match.

Pointless

 

[mad in general]

2 gallons and a match.

Pointless

Informative, Thank you.

 

[Chip-mk1]

Sorry I have no firsthand experience of acetone specifically but I do know myth busters tried it and failed to find a benefit.
I don't think they tried adding timing though so probably not a definitive test, but certainly contradicts what a lot of people claim online.

As its such a stable and readily available chemical I would have thought petrol companies would mix it in to improve their fuel blend if it really worked.
The fact its quite corrosive when it gets moist might be an issue though?

They do use toluene for example which does work.

​Best option use to be E85 in morrisons although it ruined economy, but sadly its not longer available, very popular in other countries though.

 

[JP Racing]

The main problem with using additives is people chuck it in the car and hope for an instant result :/ you will only see benefits of adding toluene and such if you add it whilst on a rolling road tune to get the car to produce more power. The reason for this is toluene has some amazing anti knock properties so it will allow you to run more boost or timing before the on set of knock. It is supposed to work really well on turbo cars too producing more energy during the combustion and spooling the turbo a little quicker. Formula 1 used to run a mix of 85% toluene and 15% n-heptane which had a 0 ron rating. The n-heptane was used to stay in line with the rules to keep to the correct ron rating. That allowed them to run 75psi of boost on qualifying and 60psi in the race but there are draw backs as if you mix it more than 40% you have to heat the fuel as it wont evaporate properly and will make your car run rough. Perfect in hot weather as it works well but in colder weather it won't work so well. Also I have recently brought some toluene and xylene to add to the tank but only whilst having it tuned I'm going to run 2 maps one with and one without. Its easy to source if you know where to buy think I brought 5 litres for around £20 so lots cheaper than most octane boosters you buy off the shelf

 

[Chip-mk1]

The main problem with using additives is people chuck it in the car and hope for an instant result :/ you will only see benefits of adding toluene and such if you add it whilst on a rolling road tune to get the car to produce more power. The reason for this is toluene has some amazing anti knock properties so it will allow you to run more boost or timing before the on set of knock. It is supposed to work really well on turbo cars too producing more energy during the combustion and spooling the turbo a little quicker. Formula 1 used to run a mix of 85% toluene and 15% n-heptane which had a 0 ron rating. The n-heptane was used to stay in line with the rules to keep to the correct ron rating. That allowed them to run 75psi of boost on qualifying and 60psi in the race but there are draw backs as if you mix it more than 40% you have to heat the fuel as it wont evaporate properly and will make your car run rough. Perfect in hot weather as it works well but in colder weather it won't work so well. Also I have recently brought some toluene and xylene to add to the tank but only whilst having it tuned I'm going to run 2 maps one with and one without. Its easy to source if you know where to buy think I brought 5 litres for around £20 so lots cheaper than most octane boosters you buy off the shelf

It works very well on very high comp N/A engines as well.
Basically anything where the tune of it is knock limited, you see more power with adding toluene or running on E85 etc