Homemade Toluene Based Racing Fuel Specifically for Turbo Regals

[kna4977]

I've got a GN that is running about 15 lbs of boost, and I would like a little more boost out of it. A lot of factors are involved, but it seems like the missing link in my combination is higher octane fuel. There is a lot of good information about "homemade octane booster" at the links below:


http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/misc/octanebooster.html

http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/misc/octaneexplained.html

In summary, what I gather from these, and a few other sources is that toluene seems to be the preferred ingredient to increase octane since it is already employed as an octane booster in fuel and is therefore safe for gas engines. It also has high anti-knock properties which allows for increased performance(double edge sword because if you add too much you will have difficult cold starts or your car may not start at all). It also seems that toluene can be somewhat hard to find. Hardware stores or chemical supply places may have it, but none of the ones I have visited have it. It is also somewhat expensive at $15/gallon. Xylene is easier to find, at least in my area, provides slightly higher gains in octane (117 vs 114) ratings for about the same price, and therefore may be a suitable alternative to toluene.

Now for a few questions:

Main Objective: To obtain an octane level of as close to 100 as possible.

Facts: Turbo Regal Tank Capacity = 17 gallons

Theory: If I have 12 gallons of 93 octane gas; and add it to 5 gallons of toluene (114 octane), this will yield an octane level of 99.2. (12 x 93) + (5 x 114)/17 = 99.2............This would be ~ 30 % toluene

Questions:

1. Has anyone actually done this?
2. Does anyone see any potential problems with doing this?
3. What combinations of toluene, xylene, and gas have worked the best for your turbo regal? In other words, what is the maximum percentage of toluene to gas that we can use safely and efficiently in our cars (10%, 20%, 30%.....or below or beyond)??
4. When it comes to xylene vs toluene is one better than the other in any way?



-According to the 1st link, if you take 100 oz of toluene, 25 ounces of mineral spirits, and 3 ounces of ATF, you have 1 gallon of "homemade octane booster"

1. Mineral spirits act as a cleaning agent, and the ATF is a lubricating agent in this mixture, but are they completely necessary?

2. If I can't find Toluene, can I use Xylene instead? If so, would the amounts be the same?

thanks

[kenmosher]

Read here for mixing:

http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/misc/Octanemix.html

By the time you get done, you might be further ahead to just buy unleaded 100 octane gas at your local petroleum distributor.

Not that much difference in cost and probably a whole lot safer/consistent!

[kna4977]

Read here for mixing:

http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/misc/Octanemix.html

By the time you get done, you might be further ahead to just buy unleaded 100 octane gas at your local petroleum distributor.

Not that much difference in cost and probably a whole lot safer/consistent!

You are most likely right as I thought of that 1st........So, do you have any tips on how to find that "local distributor", as thus far I have turned up nothing.......

[Keller]

You are most likely right as I thought of that 1st........So, do you have any tips on how to find that "local distributor", as thus far I have turned up nothing.......
http://sunocoinc.com/site/Consumer/RaceFuels/
http://www.sunocoinc.com/site/Consumer/RaceFuels/260GT100Locations/
http://www.vpracingfuels.com/worldmap.html
Or, talk to your local track, speed shop, or local racers for info.

[kna4977]

http://sunocoinc.com/site/Consumer/RaceFuels/
http://www.sunocoinc.com/site/Consumer/RaceFuels/260GT100Locations/
http://www.vpracingfuels.com/worldmap.html
Or, talk to your local track, speed shop, or local racers for info.

I would have to drive quite a distance to one of these locations...........So, I'm still interested in the xylene or toluene homebrews....................So, what would be the safest combination/mixture?

[Overboost]

I was looking into the same thing. I cannot find toluene anywhere around my small town of flint michigan. I have found xylene at the local hardware store for $11 gal and I mix it in at a 30% ratio with about 2% of my total mix being tanny fluid and another 5% diesl fuel.
works great for me being that I am under 20PSI right now. no knock, starts fine for me and I can find the mix readily here. there are no stations that sell race gas except for turbo blue (leaded) at $5.50 gal and when I mix 10 gal of 94 octane with my xylene mix, I save about $1.50 gal total.

[kna4977]

I was looking into the same thing. I cannot find toluene anywhere around my small town of flint michigan. I have found xylene at the local hardware store for $11 gal and I mix it in at a 30% ratio with about 2% of my total mix being tanny fluid and another 5% diesl fuel.
works great for me being that I am under 20PSI right now. no knock, starts fine for me and I can find the mix readily here. there are no stations that sell race gas except for turbo blue (leaded) at $5.50 gal and when I mix 10 gal of 94 octane with my xylene mix, I save about $1.50 gal total.


So, just for the sake of an example of your formula.....if you had 10 gallons of 93 octane gas, how much of each component (Xylene, tranny fluid, and diesel fuel) would you mix together, and what quantity of the mixture would you add to the 10 gallons?

Do you have to have the transmission fluid and diesel fuel or mineral spirits?

What boost and fuel pressure are you running?

Also, based on the calculation that KenMosher posted above it looks like for every 3 gallons of 93 octane gas adding 1 gallon of toluene would boost octane to 98.25 while adding 1 gallon of xylene would net 99 octane. They are roughly the same cost ~$15/gallon so 4 gallons totals about $23, which is about the same cost as the leaded turbo blue gas, and cheaper than the $8-$9 racing fuel you get at the track although you may be sacrificing some consistancy if you aren't a careful measurer. Still not sure if there are any safety issues (to the car) by using xylene vs toluene, or if racing fuel is a lot safer>>>>>>>>>just thinking out loud....,but for you, me, and probably a lot of other people who would have to drive some distance for race fuel, and by the time we drove back it would be gone, it seems more convenient, and less costly to just make our own...............

Anyway, don't know if you have a Sherwin Williams there, but they carry toluene. I bought some today..............

I added 18 ounces toluene to 1/4 of a tank of 93 octane, and it felt a lot more responsive. I then shortened the wastegate actuator rod by 2 turns and upped the fuel pressure from 44 psi to 46 psi.........I managed to get 16 lbs boost with minimal knock < 2, but it didn't feel as responsive as before I adjusted the wastegate & fuel pressure..........Not sure if I'm giving it too much or too little gas eventhough I did get some knock, which would make you think it was too little gas, but.....I'm thinking that I just need more octane since the small amount of toluene probably only raised the octane of the gas from 93 to 94, but I'm not completely sure if I need to up the fuel pressure anymore or not as well..........any thoughts??

[Overboost]

the formula I used called for 100 OZ of xylene, 25 OZ of diesel or kerosene and 3 OZ of trans fluid. that together makes your 128 OZ or 1 gallon.

a 10% mix of that is 1 gal of this mix to every 10 gal of gas.
that makes 30% 1 gal to every 2.5 gal of gas.

I just go with 3 gallons of 94 to 1 gallon of the mix. this yeilds apx 99 octane. I say apx because the formula calls for 92 octane and I use 94 but delute the mixture by 4% and I account for the fact that the last guy at the pump did not buy 94 and I am getting that hose full of 87 which is around 32 OZ of gas.

the diesel fuel is used as a cleaner buy I cut that down a bit because the sunoco ultra 94 that I use has cleaners added to it from the factory. I have not had a problem out of this YET, I have been running it about 2000 miles and my plugs, valves and pistoins are spotless. no carbon, no goo and no knock.

my boost is 19, fuel pressure is 40 but again, I am going with 94 octane base and I am adding a bit more xylene and I am mixing the percentages at around 27% total which still equals around 30% when I am finished.
I am also running a street chip and not race, this lowers my timing a bit so I can get away with the higher boost with a bit less fuel pressure. my turbo tweak chip wants 44 psi but that is my race chip, this one wants 38 PSI, it is not a TT chip, not sure who it is, came with the car.

[kna4977]

the formula I used called for 100 OZ of xylene, 25 OZ of diesel or kerosene and 3 OZ of trans fluid. that together makes your 128 OZ or 1 gallon.

a 10% mix of that is 1 gal of this mix to every 10 gal of gas.
that makes 30% 1 gal to every 2.5 gal of gas.

I just go with 3 gallons of 94 to 1 gallon of the mix. this yeilds apx 99 octane. I say apx because the formula calls for 92 octane and I use 94 but delute the mixture by 4% and I account for the fact that the last guy at the pump did not buy 94 and I am getting that hose full of 87 which is around 32 OZ of gas.

the diesel fuel is used as a cleaner buy I cut that down a bit because the sunoco ultra 94 that I use has cleaners added to it from the factory. I have not had a problem out of this YET, I have been running it about 2000 miles and my plugs, valves and pistoins are spotless. no carbon, no goo and no knock.

my boost is 19, fuel pressure is 40 but again, I am going with 94 octane base and I am adding a bit more xylene and I am mixing the percentages at around 27% total which still equals around 30% when I am finished.
I am also running a street chip and not race, this lowers my timing a bit so I can get away with the higher boost with a bit less fuel pressure. my turbo tweak chip wants 44 psi but that is my race chip, this one wants 38 PSI, it is not a TT chip, not sure who it is, came with the car.

I am also running a street chip.......Running 19 lbs boost at 40 psi, tells me you have some seriously high octane going on to get no knock...........at this point I think I will lower my fuel pressure and increase octane............Have you found a happy medium yet that does not require you to add octane boost, which results in an ultimately high performance car as well as low maintenance?

[Overboost]

with no octane booster, I can only run 16 psi but I still get 3 degrees of retard with 94 octane so 15 is about my limit.

[kna4977]

with no octane booster, I can only run 16 psi but I still get 3 degrees of retard with 94 octane so 15 is about my limit.


Adding the small amount of toluene to my 93 octane brought it up to about 94 octane, and I also got 3 degrees of retard and 16 psi boost.

Are you doing any adjustments to your wastegate actuator rod between when you run the regular 94 octane gas versus 94 octane + homemade booster?

Either way, do you know what length do you have the actuator rod set at (I beleive it should be measured from the base of the actator to the end of the rod when detatched from the end of the wastegate because when it is attached it always measures 5 and 1/4 inches in my cars case)?

My turbo tweak street chip likes 43-44 psi fuel pressure vacuum hose off...concerning your fuel pressure levels, are those with or witout the vacuum hose attached?

[kna4977]

My car simply will not run right without 47 psi fuel pressure.......wants to knock like hell at 43....., and gradually deminishes with each increase in fuel pressure....

Anyway, I did the front brake job on my GN today (removing the original pads, which I saved), and to clean up I used GOOF-OFF. As it was eating multiple layers of skin off of my hands and causing chemical burns eventhough I had on latex gloves, I noticed that the ingredients stated "contains toluene and xylene". ....................With that in mind, has anyone tried Goof-Off as an octane booster????

[Keller]

With that in mind, has anyone tried Goof-Off as an octane booster????
At just a bit under $1 an ounce, it doesn't seem like a logical choice for most of us.

[kna4977]

At just a bit under $1 an ounce, it doesn't seem like a logical choice for most of us.

Why would you pay $1 per ounce for it when you can buy it from Lowes for $19.88 / gallon = $0.15 / ounce? Xylene and tolune are $0.12 / ounce. Not really as large of a difference as you are indicating. Not sure exactly what else is in Goof-off besides toluene, xylene, and surfactants, but if it has mineral spirits or another type of cleaner in it, it would make up for the cost of diesel fuel or the mineral spirits you add for that purpose.

[Overboost]

I run lower fuel pressure due to my 65 LB injectors. it gets way too rich if I go much higher. I dont use the acuator rod to adjust boost, I use a modified pressure regulator under the dash and change on the fly.

[Keller]

Why would you pay $1 per ounce for it when you can buy it from Lowes for $19.88 / gallon = $0.15 / ounce?
First online quote I found for it was for a 4.5 oz can. My bad. I'm sure that a gallon of xylene or toluene has to be cheaper than $20.

Here: $13.49 http://www.idealtruevalue.com/servlet/the-64588/Detail
Perhaps you can even find better?

[kna4977]

First online quote I found for it was for a 4.5 oz can. My bad. I'm sure that a gallon of xylene or toluene has to be cheaper than $20.

Here: $13.49 http://www.idealtruevalue.com/servlet/the-64588/Detail
Perhaps you can even find better?

Locally, a gallon of Xylene or Toluene will run you $16.

[kna4977]

I run lower fuel pressure due to my 65 LB injectors. it gets way too rich if I go much higher. I dont use the acuator rod to adjust boost, I use a modified pressure regulator under the dash and change on the fly.

I've got stock injectors, I guess that explains the reason for the need for 47 PSI

[Overboost]

Locally, a gallon of Xylene or Toluene will run you $16.

I am telling ya, the local hardware store here gil roys, sells it for $11 gal for xylene. I have been stocking up, and the denatured alcohol is $10, much better than wally worlds $21