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Post by bigggroovy on Dec 9, 2012 1:47:15 GMT -5
I'm curious. A co worker asked me to try it and see what happens. Have anybody tried it?
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Post by prodigit on Dec 9, 2012 7:56:02 GMT -5
Yes, I tried it.
I doubt it'll damage your engine, but octane booster does nothing but retard the ignition. At startup the bike will bog, and the CDI will try to auto correct it (I presume), by making the spark go earlier.
In the end, nothing happened to my scooter. It just ran as crappy as before (I used crappy mobile gasoline).
Instead, get BP premium fuel. Lots more performance!
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Post by carasdad on Dec 9, 2012 8:23:52 GMT -5
I gotta agree with prodigit...it is a waste of money. Unless you have a high compression racing scooter.....it does nothing for ya... If that was the case that it gave ya more power....I would be buying the TORCO 104 octane fuel they sell at the Race Track down the road from us. Those cars need it..as the compression is so high...they can't crank the engine with a starter...they have a truck that push starts them..  |
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Post by lovemy2strokes on Dec 9, 2012 10:39:29 GMT -5
I always have a 5 gallon of c10 that I mix 1:5 for new engine builds until after break in. It always feels safer doing it that way in case youre a little lean. Its never harmed anything yet and I doubt octame boost would either, but just know octane boost only increase a few points meaning .2-.8 of an octane number. so if you have 93 octane to start you will now have 93.2-93.8 octane. mixing 110 at 20% gets you near 98 octane.
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Post by millsc on Dec 9, 2012 10:52:59 GMT -5
i tried some not to long ago my scoot ran worse, never again
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Post by prodigit on Dec 9, 2012 19:15:37 GMT -5
i tried some not to long ago my scoot ran worse, never again +1! At best it'll run the same. I added upto 1/3rd of the bottle, which was recommended for a 20gal tank, (in other words, I added the right amount on the bottle, did nothing, and I kept adding until I poured just about as much as you should do for a 6GAL tank, in a 1 GAL tank, thus dosing 6x the amount, and it only made my scoot run worse). |
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Post by Moat on Dec 10, 2012 11:07:22 GMT -5
... octane booster does nothing but retard the ignition. At startup the bike will bog, and the CDI will try to auto correct it (I presume), by making the spark go earlier. You may be right about octane booster being a waste of money, but you're waaay off the mark on the quote above. |
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Post by carasdad on Dec 10, 2012 12:32:28 GMT -5
I was given 12 octane boost tablets for free by a vendor to try...it said "Drop one tablet in tank for each gallon of gas" So I did and noticed no improvement...in fact a few miles down the road the engine began to bog and lose power. I found the petcock was not flowing correctly...removed it and found the tablet was just a ball of Goo..and plugged the filter in my tank mount petcock. Vendor said it was because of the Ethanol in our gas. Whatever...regardless if you decide to try any octane booster avoid those! But then again any octane booster we have played around with...none of it showed improvement..in fact it was just the opposite..  |
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Post by Blueboy5000 on Dec 12, 2012 7:13:23 GMT -5
Nope, it just won't run very good, it will pre-detonate.
Try using dry gas instead.
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Post by suddethtray on Dec 12, 2012 10:59:58 GMT -5
go to local race shop get u 110 octane bring it home and mix 50/50 with reg unleaded ......
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Post by rockynv on Dec 12, 2012 12:39:09 GMT -5
Octane booster is to prevent power robbing pre-ignition in high compression engines. If your compression ratio is 11 to 1 or greater then give it a try otherwise you will just be potentially robbing power from a low compression engine and lowering your mpg.
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Post by rapidjim on Dec 12, 2012 12:57:17 GMT -5
Octane booster is to prevent power robbing pre-ignition in high compression engines. If your compression ratio is 11 to 1 or greater then give it a try otherwise you will just be potentially robbing power from a low compression engine and lowering your mpg. Yeppers, what he said. Also, try running NON ethenol fuel. Ethenol causes more problems in small engines than octane ever did. Esp. to rubber parts like fuel lines. We run and suggest Non Ethenol Premium grade fuel. Jim |
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Post by jlee on Dec 12, 2012 13:00:52 GMT -5
If your engine is not 'pinging' (pre-detonation) there is no advantage to raising the octane level.
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Post by suddethtray on Dec 12, 2012 13:36:23 GMT -5
I run 110 octane in wife's stock QMB 139 and if she uses any less. There is lot of diff pulling wise. It will hold the same speed if u hit a grade . but u might end up doing a rebuild quicker than expected but pro out weigh cons ..
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Post by mwlehman on Dec 12, 2012 21:28:32 GMT -5
Octane booster is to prevent power robbing pre-ignition in high compression engines. If your compression ratio is 11 to 1 or greater then give it a try otherwise you will just be potentially robbing power from a low compression engine and lowering your mpg. bingo! the way octane boosters work is they cause the fuel to be harder to ignite and slow down flame wave front..which is needed in high compression engine...high compression causes the fuel to ignite quicker/easier and sometimes even before spark. it also causes the flame to travel quicker |
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Post by prodigit on Dec 13, 2012 2:09:54 GMT -5
In other words, a good CDI could tard the ignition perhaps better than ethanol gasoline
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Post by scootnwinn on Dec 13, 2012 2:24:35 GMT -5
Retarding the timing will only increase the problem. Basically the fuel is exploding/burning before the spark fires. The solution is to prevent the pre-igition with premium fuel it isn't a timing issue really. In a sense the engine is dieseling...
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Post by gmblnmstr on Jan 1, 2013 23:39:43 GMT -5
Will it hurt your engine...probably not but depends on what it is. Will octane booster be effective...depends on which one. I seem to remember reading years ago about the stuff you buy at the grocery store or corner auto shop not even having a significant effect in "boosting" the octane level. It was much more of a marketing gimmick. But a friend of mine used something called tulene or tulane...I don't remember the name. He mixed it in his tank at the pump. Although he was running very high levels of boost and detonation would have grenaded his engine.
On the flip side...octane booster, injection cleaner, other fuel additives and gear oil mixed with conventional were all old used car salesman tricks to make an engine sound and feel a little better...lol
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Post by mainepeace on Jan 1, 2013 23:43:45 GMT -5
What a few people haven't mentioned yet is that with octane booster they typically add cleaners and solvents to keep the fuel system clean. Those chemicals do work well to keep the carburetor clean. However, for the price, you would be better off adding Seafoam and Sta-bil to your fuel.
I pre-mix Seafoam and Sta-bil into a 2 gallon jug that I use to fill the scooters. Eventually I will buy a 20 gallon drum and premix that with a small hand pump to keep our scooter fleet happy.
Greg
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Post by wutzthedeal on Jan 2, 2013 1:42:53 GMT -5
I got a top end boost somehow with Seafoam... might have just cleaned something, I don't know, but I do know that I've used it every fill up, a cap full or so, and haven't had any freezing yet this winter. Why the addition of Sta-bil, Greg?
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Post by mainepeace on Jan 2, 2013 1:50:47 GMT -5
Sta-bil gets rid of the ethanol and any excess water in the gasoline.
Greg
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Post by wutzthedeal on Jan 2, 2013 1:56:16 GMT -5
I see; time to adjust my formula  |
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Post by rockynv on Jan 2, 2013 5:36:41 GMT -5
If your scooter is running lean and hot or has too hot a spark plug it may help also.
Since there is no knock or lambda sensor on most Chinese scooters with a carb the CDI has no way of getting any feedback on how the engine is running or even at what temperature it is at so it just goes through its preprogrammed timing curve based on rpm running the same program regardless of what octane you put in.
The burden is on you to figure out if your bike is pinging, etc and needs to run higher octane.
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Post by kyle401 on Jan 2, 2013 10:41:10 GMT -5
I tried it with my Tao and it did nothing at all.
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Post by prodigit on Jan 3, 2013 14:26:48 GMT -5
Those cleaning agents are already present in most gasolines you can get from big brands.
I know BP calls it 'invigorate'. They use less than Shell or Mobil in their gasoline, so you'll get more real gasoline per gallon.
Those additives may clean your carburetor, but it's not necessary to add them every time you get gas. With current gas available from the big brands, you may want to add a few bottles every 5k miles but no more is necessary for cleaning purposes.
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Post by rockynv on Jan 4, 2013 6:58:50 GMT -5
Invigorate does not eliminate the need for a regular program of adding fuel system treatment. I have used BP with invigorate on my bikes for some years now and still get the telltale signs that it is time to add a little Lucas or Berryman's to the tank. On my Lance Vintage 150 if you did not treat the fuel at least once a month even on BP Invigorate the fuel pump would not be able to keep up and there would be fuel starvation issues at extended riding at 50+ mph or while going up long hills. After one tank treated heavy with Lucas or Berryman's things would get back to normal.
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Post by mainepeace on Jan 4, 2013 21:08:18 GMT -5
Those additives really aren't effective for a carburetor based system. They may work for a fuel injected system, but a small scooter motor with a single cylinder is much more sensitive to minor issues than an automotive engine with more than 10x the displacement and multiple cylinders.
Also, the biggest issue with these motors is the ethanol, which the brand name additives do nothing about.
Greg
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Post by rockynv on Jan 4, 2013 22:12:34 GMT -5
Ethanol is a curse and you need a regular program to counter act it especially in small engines.
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Post by Blueboy5000 on Jan 9, 2013 7:40:43 GMT -5
I use a cap full of Seafoam in each fill-up because Connecticut is a very humid environment. I use Sta-Bil in our fleet gas drum (big can). That should be all anyone needs, as this environment swings from -15 to 105 degrees every year with high humidity the whole year (except for maybe 2 weeks in January where it is slightly less humid).
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