[s-cars] Octane Boosters

[Nathan Belo]

I am friends with Eliot Lim that many years ago got people into "toluene" leading to the Charlie Smith post & many said his '97 A4 1.8T would blow. We still have a long standing joke "It's gonna blow!"; now a friend owns that car & it's in the 160K mileage. He puts it in his stock 993. Now he just puts in a couple of gallons of 101 in because a local gas station near the track has it.  He is very critical about turbos in the US because the 92 fuel sucks here so he'd supplement every tank with the "rocket fuel." I'd have to agree because I experienced a tricked-out WRX that had issues so I had him put in 94 & that smoothed things out a lot. Why can't the US have 94 like in Canada?  When the Canadians come down for track days their chipped for 94 octane cars have issues so we have them put a couple of gallons of 101. 

I tried toluene in my '92 S4 IA3+ about 277hp mixed with 94 octane at a PCA track day at Pacific Raceways. It was like the car was on cocaine; as if I got some new software and the throttle was more responsive. I pissed off a lot of Porsche drivers because they couldn't pass me, intermediate group. I finally had to pull over because the stock G60 brakes caught on fire. The discs were no longer x-drilled because the holes were filled with pad material and smoking, not to mention the car was slow to stop. 

Due to all the crystal meth manufacturers it is difficult to find toluene in the paint store in the small cans, besides it costs more. It is cheaper to buy it by the drum from a fuel distributor or chemical supplier.  Ask your local paint only supplier.  If you tell them you're putting it in your car they'll look at you like you're crazy and will say "It's gonna blow!" You'll need a pump that measures the volume pumped out to get it out of the drum and another can to pour it into to transfer to the car and you should wear a protective glove. It will destroy your paint job too if you spill it. They use it nail polish. 

It's much easier & cheaper to mix some 101 in. 

Nathan Belo
Seattle 
'92 S4 looking for a pearlescent boot lid & '95 S6

-----------------------------------------
> 
> Message: 1
> Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2012 11:48:59 -0700
> From: Martin Baggenstos <martin.baggenstos at gmail.com>
> To: s-car-list at audifans.com
> Subject: [s-cars] octane boosters
> 
> Hello Everyone,
> 
>  I would like to get the opinion of anyone who has used octane boosters in
> their vehicle to improve their octane rating. After doing a lot of
> research, I curious about trying toluene and mixing it into the 92 octane
> that we have here in oregon. I have read that toluene is safe as long as
> you do not create greater than a 30% mix of it in the gas. In my 95 S6 with
> an rs2 setup I am not too worried about it but in my rs6 that is tunned, I
> wanted to see about reducing the knocking that occurs under WOT or heavy
> load. All the info on octane boosters seems to point to ruining your spark
> plugs.
> 
> Martin
> 
> 
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> End of S-CAR-List Digest, Vol 106, Issue 11
> *******************************************