home brew octane booster
i found this and figured i'd see what you guys thought about it
How to make your own octane booster (this is the basic formula of one of the popular octane booster products). To make eight 16 ounce bottles (128 oz = 1 gal):
100 oz of toulene for octane boost
25 oz of mineral spirits (cleaning agent)
3 oz of transmission fluid (lubricating agent)
This product is advertised as "octane booster with cleaning agent *and* lubricating agent!". Diesel fuel or kerosene can be substituted for mineral spirits and light turbine oil can be substituted for transmission fluid. Color can be added with petroleum dyes.
R+M/2...114
Cost...$2.50/gal
Mixtures with 92 Octane Premium
10%...94.2 Octane
20%...96.4 Octane
30%...98.6 Octane
Notes: Common ingredient in Octane Boosters in a can. 12-16 ounces will only raise octane 2-3 *points*, I.e. from 92 to 92.3. Often costs $3-5 for 12-16 ounces, when it can be purchased for less than $3/gal at chemical supply houses or paint stores.
a 50/50 mix of this and 93 would put you at 105oct and would end up saving you around $40 over 10gal of 105 race gas (at 7.50 a gal *rough estimate)
what do you all think?
Last edited by nastychevelle; Apr 29, 2009 at 09:28 AM.
time, but don't usually see recommended to add
the "cleaner" and "lubricant". Not sure that ATF
when burned, is going to be O2 sensor or cat-
friendly. And why do you need to lubricate
whatever, when regular gasoline doesn't? Ditto
the "cleaner" mineral spirits.
Xylene I've also seen recommended and it's more
commonly available than toluene it seems.
But boosting octane when you don't need to, adds
no power.
where can you buy toluene? Have you found a place that you can buy it in at least gallon sizes?
do some googling on it, if you added a decent amount it will alter the air-fuel ratio required for the engine to run. If it's late model fuel injected with O2's then it might compensate for it no problem, carbs you may need to re-jet.
toluene and xylene are the only 2 real octane boosters that are cost effective, toluene is a hydrocarbon so when burnt it only forms CO2 and H20. Not sure about xylene, and I think xylene alters the air-fuel ratio more than toluene and xylene has less energy content also. Both of which will be a waste of money regardless, cause like was said if you don't have a high enough compression to take advantage of the increased octane rating then it is doing nothing for you.
Last edited by 1 FMF; Apr 29, 2009 at 04:56 PM.
where can you buy toluene? Have you found a place that you can buy it in at least gallon sizes?
do some googling on it, if you added a decent amount it will alter the air-fuel ratio required for the engine to run. If it's late model fuel injected with O2's then it might compensate for it no problem, carbs you may need to re-jet.
toluene and xylene are the only 2 real octane boosters that are cost effective, toluene is a hydrocarbon so when burnt it only forms CO2 and H20. Not sure about xylene, and I think xylene alters the air-fuel ratio more than toluene and xylene has less energy content also. Both of which will be a waste of money regardless, cause like was said if you don't have a high enough compression to take advantage of the increased octane rating then it is doing nothing for you.

This is not really an advanced engineering topic.
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I never ran into any issues running it on my dsm and a/f looked alot better at higher boost.
Just add 3 gallons of E85; at 105, that'll raise your octane rating to 96 [(0.75 x 93) + (0.25 x 105)] = 96, simple!
: )
i found this and figured i'd see what you guys thought about it
so if my math was right (its probally not) if 16oz would raise your octane 2-3 *points* so a whole gallon of this stuff to 9 gallons would raise your octane 2.4 so from 93 to 95.4 but 3 gallons of this home brew octane booster (30%) to 7 gallons of 93 (70%) would make it 100.2 octane
a 50/50 mix of this and 93 would put you at 105oct and would end up saving you around $40 over 10gal of 105 race gas (at 7.50 a gal *rough estimate)
what do you all think?
Good luck.





