Other questions people ask.
Q: I can't find Toluene in my local { hardware / Home Depot / liquor store }.
Does it have a common name in these stores?
A: No. Toluene is the real name of this stuff. If you can't find it in your favorite store, then it's because they don't carry it.
Go to a commercial paint store like Sherwin Williams stores. Some place that sells paints to auto body shops and commercial painters will carry it.
Q: What's the difference between Toluene and other stuff like Xylene?
A: They ARE NOT the same thing. I only know something about Toluene. Because the names sound similar and both names end with "ene" has nothing to do with it.
I don't know anything about the effects of adding Xylene, Naptha, or any of that other stuff to your gasoline. Since I don't know anything about Xylene or those other things, I sure would NOT add it to my gas tank. I don't want to screw up MY engine. I like my engine just the way it is, thank you very much!
If YOU know what Xylene is, and what it does - then you put a web page together and tell people about it. Be sure to do your research, and include it on your web page.
Q: Well, what about using Alcohol to raise octane? Don't gasoline companies use Alcohol for this?
A: First, you've got to understand something. Octane numbers are a (sort of) rating of how well something resists pre-ignition under adverse conditions. Adverse conditions can be something like hot temperatures, high boost, more spark advance, higher compression ratios, and things like that.
Octane numbers do not say anything about how much power something generates, or how good a fuel it is. How much power something generates is related to how many BTU's per gallon it has, and things like that. You might be interested in the fact that #2 diesel has more BTU's per gallon than gasoline. That's one of the reasons diesel engines go farther per gallon of fuel than gasoline engines. It certainly doesn't mean that you want to put #2 diesel in your gas tank.
Alcohols will raise the octane level of a fuel mixture, they resist pre-ignition. BUT, alcohols have considerably less BTUs per gallon than gasoline. So if you mix alcohol with your gasoline, you WILL raise the octane rating of the mixture - and you will reduce the BTUs per gallon of the mixture. Which means worse fuel mileage and everything else being equal you get less power.
Remember, some race cars used straight alcohol like the old time Indy 500 racers. But, to make it work they had to run VERY rich mixtures. So while there was fewer BTUs per gallon of fuel they were using more gallons of fuel. Plus those engines were supercharged so they could put in as much air as it took to burn the greater amount of fuel. They needed the higher octane for the boost pressures they were running.
Q: What about adding mineral spirits or transmission fluid to octane boosters such as toluene?
A: You sometimes see this suggestion when they are talking about adding alcohol or other solvents to gasoline. As far as I can read, you do not need to do this with a dose of toluene. Some of the other things are solvents and reduce the lubricity of the fuel, so perhaps there would be some merit to adding something to provide lubrication.
Toluene is a very safe choice because it is one of the main octane boosters used by oil companies in producing ordinary gasoline of all grades. Thus if toluene is indeed harmful to your engine as feared, your engine would have disintegrated long, long ago since ordinary pump gasoline can contain as much as 50% aromatic hydrocarbons.
Toluene is a pure hydrocarbon (C7H8). i.e. it contains only hydrogen and carbon atoms. It belongs to a particular category of hydrocarbons called aromatic hydrocarbons. Complete combustion of toluene yields CO2 and H2O. This fact ensures that the entire emission control system such as the catalyst and oxygen sensor of your car is unaffected. There are no metallic compounds (lead, magnesium etc), no nitro compounds and no oxygen atoms in toluene. It is made up of exactly the same ingredients as ordinary gasoline. In fact it is one of the main ingredients of gasoline.
Q: You have Audi web pages. Will this work in my { Honda / Ford / Suzuki / Snow machine } ?
A: A gasoline engine is a gasoline engine. This discussion on using toluene to raise the octane number of fuel for an internal combustion gasoline engine will apply to about any internal combustion gasoline engine. This is valid for both 4 stroke and 2 stroke engine fuels.
If you are using toluene to raise the octane rating of fuel for a two stroke engine, be sure to figure your oil mixture for the entire mixture of gasoline and toluene. Don't mix your gas and oil correctly, and then add half again more toluene - which would reduce the percent of oil in the whole mixture. If you have an oil injection engine I'd guess that it will put in the right amount of oil for the whole gas/toluene mixture.
Q: Is there some "seat of the pants" method I can use to figure how much toluene to use?
A: Maybe ... consider this ...
1. If you car is not experiencing detonation with your current octane rating fuel, then
a higher octane rating fuel mixture will do you no good and will provide no benefit.
2. In other words, you only need a high enough octane rating in your fuel to prevent
detonation. If an engine has computer controlled ignition timing, and if the computer
retards the timing when it detects signals from knock sensors, then you may benefit from
a higher octane rated fuel. How you determine if the computer is doing this (retarding
the timing) will be highly dependant on the computer setup on each model car.
3. For a easy way to determine if your 91 octane fuel is sufficient, I'd suggest something
like controlled condition timing of full throttle acceleration from 50 to 80 MPH (long
enough to get into detonation if it's going to happen - which will cause the computer
to retard the timing). My guess is that runs from 30-50 won't do it, because it will
be quick enough in all measurements that you won't be able to see the differences.
If you see quicker times 50-80 after adding (for example) maybe 20% Toluene, then you know
your original fuel octane rating was not high enough. I'd make at least 3 or 4 runs without
and then with toluene to try to eliminate outside variables like wind. Try to do this the
same direction over the same stretch of road so you eliminate the possible variable of road
that isn't exactly level. Most roads are not really level, even though they may appear so.
Try to do all this when the outside temperature is about the same, because temperature
differences will have a big effect on octane requirements.
If you see a measurable difference with the 20% mixture, then start backing off the percentage
of your mixture to see where the benefit starts becoming less. 20% is probably too much, but
it's enough to certainly show that there 'is' or 'is not' a benefit to higher octane fuel.
Remember, enough is enough, and more than enough (octane rating) does not get you anything.
So finding that there is a benefit with 'more than enough', start doing more runs with less
toluene to find out where the 'enough' percentage is.
4. If you get pulled over for doing 80 MPH in a 55 MPH zone, don't tell the cop I told you
to do it! Use your head and be careful!