Most are snake oil. I read Kemco Octane Supreme and Torco are the only ones that are any good, and the octane supreme is made from real TEL smuggled in by big tanks from Australia or some place.

I've got too much timing. I intend to fully tune the engine and make it be happier on the 90 ethanol free around here, but I would like to confirm it is as healthy as it is on the leftover 110 I got on the way home from a road trip last month. Contrariwise, I think I can buy 110 race gas around here and do my testing with that. If it runs like a raped ape and it's all good, then I definitely just have a timing issue on the lower octane gas.

 

Is there no 93 Octane gas in your area ?

 

Maybe check out a GA airport and get some 100LL Avgas. IF they will sell it to you it will have to be in a gas can, as you can't pump it right into your car.

 

VP Octanium with the purple label. Don't even bother with anything else. I don’t go full strength, just 16oz to 20gal or so (half bottle at fill up).

 

This is the way to go. Way cheaper than race gas and you can purchase it in cans at a local municipal Airport. My last purchase a week ago was at 4.38 a gallon.

 

I think you grabbed the wrong quote.

 

Lol. Must have hit just as I was responding.

 

This is the way to go. Way cheaper and works good. I use it on my 13.5:1 BBO race engines.

 

However, if you have a more pedestrian CR like the rest of us, you might be able to squeak by with something milder, like the Lucas Octane Boost I use. I swear it makes an audible difference -- if I forget to use it, I need to block the vacuum advance to keep away part-throttle detonation.

 

All you have to do is drop a couple gallons in it not a tank full. The lead doesn't hurt either.

 

Sunoco gas station finder web site says they have 94 octane at the stations.

https://www.sunoco.com/find-a-station

 

I was experiencing very minor detonation ping in my '67 400ci with 10.5:1 compression on 93 Octane. I tried some Lucas Oil Octane Boost at the recommended ratio of .6oz of Octane boost per gallon of 93 Octane. This ratio is supposed to raise the Octane level 3-points to 96 Octane. Any audible evidence of detonation completely disappeared, and I could feel a difference in my "butt dyno". I am completely sold on the product, and I'm now adding it at every fill up!

 

That's great! Their "3 points" is .3, three tenths!

 

91 is the best ethanol-free I can get around here at a normal station. I wish I could get 93 ethanol free.

I do have a regional airport with a private air facility on one side within five miles of me. I'll go talk to Tri State Aero at EVV.

I read all environmentally friendly octane booster just gunks up your plugs. If you like this stuff, I may try it.

Might try it and see how it goes.

This car was molested. The good news is the guy knew how to do power, the problem is, a lot of things were just made to work. The timing curve could be way off. I need to pull the springs and see what total is, I chickened out at 4k revving it next to me reading the timing last time I did it. This exercise is to see if everything is tight and right with enough octane, then I know it's just settings.

Not in Indiana, but I did check, thanks.

This thing could have high comp pistons in it, I never scoped the bore. It is far ruder and seems more powerful than my stock 68 H/O, some of that may be the 3.23 rear to the 3.08 in the 68. It DOES have 3.23 gears in it, I spun shafts and counted rotations.

I also want to determine, via testing, if I will lose any power tuning for 90, or if I just have too much timing than the car needs for peak power.

 

Are we talking about your '72 ?

 

Av-gas is the most economical if you have a source.

I don't care what they call it at the pump; anything west of the Mississippi is cat pee. FFS, how is SoCal the hotrodding epicenter of the world when you can't have compression or timing?

 

Yes. The engine was reworked by a previous owner, to an extent I don't know.

Noted.

 

Wow, didn't know decent octane isn't available down in the boot!! 90 sux, but the Sunoco stations (94) are here in the center, and 93 is everywhere around also. Sorry Koda!

 

I noticed that their web site doesn’t work very well. I had to fiddle around with the location, and at some point it started showing results, with 50 stations in the Evansville area.

 

I just tried that and it showed none in Evansville!

 

It did that for me as well, then after choosing Chicago it showed locations, then I input Evansville again and it showed locations. I’ll walk through it again and try to see what causes it to start working.

 

Update: So I typed in “Evansville, Indiana” and nothing showed up. Then I selected “Shop n Save Pump Perks” and nothing happened. Then I changed it back to the default “Select a Grocery Rewards Partner” and it showed stations in Evansville. You’d think Sunoco would WANT people to find their fuel stations.

 

I believe the stations are there, I have seen them. I don't think the 94 is there. It is worth confirming. Thank you for your efforts.

 

Sunoco just announced the 94 rollout last year I believe…we did some ads for them.
But I believe it’s only in test markets still.

I could be wrong, as I haven’t talked to them for a bit.

 

Why does it have to be Ethanol free ???? Octane is Octane and in my opinion the whole ethanol argument is not what a lot of people make it out to be. We have had 10% ethanol in the fuel for probably 40 years in this area and I simply have not seen a problem with it. The only vehicle I own that has ever had ethanol free fuel in it is my 71 Chevelle and even it has been running E10 since it came out in the late 70's.

I dont know exactly what engine and compression ratio you are dealing with but there are very few engines out there that will not run just fine on 93 Octane Shell gas from the pump.

 

We can discuss ethanol vs non-ethanol elsewhere, if you would like. This thread is about what octane boosters are actually good.

 

I would reset the timing and see if the car will run on 91. If the timing is too advanced, the octane booster is just a band aid. Is there no 93 ethanol gas in your area? To answer your question, the Octane Supreme is probably the best followed by Torco. It takes a lot of it to move full numbers.

 

Octane Supreme's website is straight out of 1995. Like early, early days of the internet. It looks like a class project - student website design from the mid 90's hosted on Geocities. Absolutely amazing.

Good grief, that stuff is just straight up lead additive. Nothing good going on there.

 

I see a few recommendations for Octane Boosters. I also see people suggest using AVGAS.

AVEGAS is blended to atomize at lower temps at higher altitudes for small aircraft. It can be a cheaper solution for people that don't drive over 10-15 miles from home. Its good to bump up octane numbers a little.

But if you travel more, as Fleming442 does, You don't have time to find a small aircraft airport. Its called "Gas up and Go". The octane boosters are perfect for this.

If you get a little ping, perhaps you need to bump the distributor back, as Oldcutlass suggested. You also need to keep "fresh gas" in the tank. Fresh gas is usually in high volume gas retailers. If you feel like a little ping is the sign of a powerful engine, thats not true. It really means you don't have your timing set for the gas you are using.
......Just my two cents worth.

 

I think John is just looking for a temporary solution so he doesn’t melt a piston crown while he's monkeying around with his timing, trying to get a good baseline.

 

That is the plan. This is temporary to see if the car is fine on higher octane and not if there is an actual problem.

There's a lot of old stuff in our hobby. Have you seen Fusick's website? Lead additive worked, that's why it was used. Yes, it had a lot of side effects, but the world will not care if I run a bottle of it to test things.

I agree with all this.

Precisely. I am merely confirming the engine is happy at some fuel condition. I may just go get some more race gas and hoon around for a bit for the baseline.

There's a bunch of stuff not right; the carb is wrong, it may be the wrong (by numbers) distributor, the springs in the advance may be shot, the vacuum advance may be in left field, I may have too hot of plugs. Nothing time, tools, tach, timing light, and a vacuum gauge can't solve. I wish I had a Sun distributor machine, those things are cool.

 

Oh I know, I get it, burning a little lead in your gas won't hurt a thing, It's just, well.....that's a pretty strong can of lead additive. The amount of lead in that one bottle is quite something. Talk about hazardous goods! There's gotta be something shady goin on there.

Fusick's website is a beauty compared to that state of a website, haha.

 

They pop up on FB marketplace from time to time.