The other nite someone at a cruise nite said that if you add a small amount of Kerosene to your gas that it will increase the octane!! I never heard of this & figuring that kerosene is much less volitule(?) then gas i can't really come to a logical answer on this. I think it might have been the guy who drove away with the hook stuck to his door handle at a lovers lane!! he was driving a corvettethat smelled like a dead body!lol anyone ever heard this before? is there solid prove for an answer? JimV
Well, a fuel's octane rating is actually it's abli***y to NOT ignite so it seems to make sense to me. However, I don't think I'd want to put kero in my tank! Adding cooking oil, holy water, or weasel piss would probably do the same thing...
It probably works about as well as anything. compared to gasoline, it's hard to light and burns slowly, so it could help inhibit detonation. On a sorta related side note, my Harley pings alot(it needs re-jetting), just to see what would happen, I added a WHOLE BOTTLE of 104+ to the 3 gallons left in the tanks. Even that concentrated(one bottle is supposed to treat 22 gallons), it didn't make a bit of difference. I can't say I'm surprised.
Wonder if he meant toluene instead of kerosene? Remember hearing something like this years ago, and maybe the same about using xylol or xylene as a fuel additive.
What is Tolulene used for? is it available? Also the guy said you add only alittle bit to your fuel, he said about a cup.maybe it'll act as a"valve" lube.I know machinist use it alot for cutting & tapping JimV
A**** other things,Tolulene is used as a cleaning solvent in the printing industry. Any decent race fuel supplier should have it, or any place that caters to the printing industry.
Before anyone starts experimenting with toluene, xylol or xylene, I also recall hearing that it didn't take a large percentage of it deliver the real (or imagined) benefits. It also wasn't recommended to mix a large quan***y of the stuff and leave it set in your fuel tank for prolonged periods. Can't speak from personal experience but there was also a concern about long term effects on certain fuel hose materials, fuel pump diaphragms and carburetor gaskets and materials. Older stuff may have been more at risk than modern materials. So you're on your own here, blazing new trails. OK, maybe "blazing" isn't the best choice of words.
Toluene is the primary ingrediant in lacquer thinner, along with Acetone. Leaving it in your tank for any length of time won't hurt anything, although it may attack your rubber parts.
Toluene is also part of what you smell in model car glue and green label flammable brake parts cleaner.
All those so call octane booster arent worth a **** without the compression to support higher octane numbers. What most don't know, is that the advertised increase of 2-10 octane points is really .02-.10. What that means to you is your 91 octane rating ends up being 91.2 - 92. Its not what you may think!!
Just about all of the $1-$2 octane boosters for sale at the discount auto stores are nothing but a pint of KEROSENE ! If the label only says that it contains "petroleum distillates", You are buying over-priced kerosene ! Open one up and smell it !! Think about it- One of the octane booster brands I have seen for sale is "Jet Fuel"- guess what, Jets burn a version of KEROSENE. Just smell the fumes from a jet-dragster at the track- The Kerosene fumes will Choke Ya !!! There are some interesting articles on the internet about mixing up your own octane booster- 99% of them start with toulene and then some other ingredients are thrown in. like kerosene or auto trans fluid to help with the lubrication.
ELF used to make fuel for Honda's race program, by combining various percentages of Tolulene, n-Heptane, and Isooctane. One formula was over 80% Tolulene.
Xylol is a commercial name for xylene, which won't work as a fuel additive, because it eats everything rubber. I had a car owner who bought some $40 a can tire softener. He took it to work and had it ****yzed and it was plain ole xylene!!
Toulene (as we call it in the UK) is about 110-114 octane by itself. Engines will run on on it straight if you've got enough, it'll run a bit lean but add a small amount to gas and it'll boost up the octane no probs. Celly and 2K paint thinner are about the same make-up. I ran my Vespa on neat gunwash thinners when I was a bit hard up because it's cheaper than gas over here Stinks though, prepare yourself for a noxious shock
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