Vettepartz

I have recently been fighting a knock retard problem with a friends 2000 C5. I made a few slight changes to the spark tables; an EASE WOT run, and everything was fixed. Now he tells me he had added a can of Techron Concentrate injector cleaner to the gas . I am wondering if this may have helped control his knock retard since it contains naptha. Anybody with any ideas here?

ChrisB

Naptha alone is actually going to lower your octane generally - it will have a research rating of about 72 octane points (RON).

Sometimes you see something called "Catalytically reformed naptha" - this is naptha has has been passed over a catalyst metal (normally Pt/Pd) and ends up combining to form heaver/larger aromatics. This will have a higher blending octane - probably 97+ depending on the process. But it also has a good chance of having a high benzene content, so I wouldn't mess with it.

For octane boosting buy either racegas, or use toluene or xylene as an additive.

Chris

SixPak

I would never do this to my car today, but when I was a kid my buddies and me would put mothballs made with napthalene in the gas tanks of our minibikes and race them. It did make em run a little faster, and the engines seemed to run a little bit hotter....duh. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="gr_eek2.gif" />
then we discovered model airplane fuel with 40% nitromethane...thats when we learned about things breaking. <img border="0" alt="[jester]" title="" src="graemlins/gr_jest.gif" />

<small>[ July 16, 2002, 09:50 PM: Message edited by: SixPak ]</small>

1dirtyZ

iTrader: (1)

i used napthalene ( mothballs) in my dodge ram back in saudi arabia, the octane there ( of all places ) is terrible! as soon as i put 7~10 ***** in the tank and pour gas in there , i'd really feel a diference! the truck would actually move this time!
i used this stuff for more than a year with no problems . the only thing i'm not sure of is the effect it has on cats ( vehicles in saudi arabia have no cats).

ChrisB

FWIW naptha and napthalene are 2 different compounds - napthalene has an octane value of around 120.

As an interesting note it has a cetane value of 0 (by definition). Cetane is to diesel engines what octane is to gas engines. It is horrible in diesels.

Chris

Vettepartz

I am not looking for something to put in the tank to either raise or simulate raising the octane value. I was wondering if the Techron Concentrate would have an effect on monitoring the knock retard at WOT. See the first post on this thread.

ChrisB

Knock retard is a function of the amount of pinging/pre-ignition, etc. that you get. In respect to gas this is going to primarily be a function of octane value. So for something to effect the knock retard parameters it is going to have to effect the octane value.

There are a few additives that directly attack/inhibit certain knock pathways (tetra-ethyl lead for example) - but naptha is notone of these.

Chris