What Octane booster does to plugs

[Bodywerks]

Originally Posted by Unreal

Depends on the octane boost. Torco works wonders and can easily raise 91 or 93 octane to 100 octane.

And does wonders to spark plugs as well. Doesn't hurt them, but mine are twice as orange as the OP's plugs. I'm running about 97-98 octane equivalent(1 quart per 10 gallons).

[CamaroDreams76]

That orange hue isn't just from octane boosters. It's from the additives in gasoline. I installed new plugs when I did my header install and about 1000 miles later my plugs were far more orange. I used no octane booster. Just 93 octane pump gas.

[Matty Ice]

BooneSS, Curious if this is brand specific, what brand of gas do you use??? Do you use the same gas or station all the time. I always run Shell 93 or Mobil 93 as a 2nd choice. My car seems not run as strong on BP. Those are the only three choices I have in Wisconsin for 93. A lot of Harley riders swear by Mobil and I did notice a difference when I switched from BP.

[Jasper]

Um,.... How do you know the plugs didn't look like that before you added it? I think unless you know for sure they were perfect, you cannot conclude that one use of an additive caused that. Even still, that doesn't look too bad and maybe it wouldn't get any worse. What prompted you to pull the plugs afterwards?
Wish I had the free time you have to just pull the plugs for the hell of it


J

[booneSS13]

Originally Posted by Jasper

Um,.... How do you know the plugs didn't look like that before you added it? I think unless you know for sure they were perfect, you cannot conclude that one use of an additive caused that. Even still, that doesn't look too bad and maybe it wouldn't get any worse. What prompted you to pull the plugs afterwards?
Wish I had the free time you have to just pull the plugs for the hell of it


J

Because I checked my plugs only a couple hundred miles before this andthey looked nothing like that. My engine was still in the break in phase so I was checking them once a week.

This is was about 100mi before

[booneSS13]

Originally Posted by Matty Ice

BooneSS, Curious if this is brand specific, what brand of gas do you use??? Do you use the same gas or station all the time. I always run Shell 93 or Mobil 93 as a 2nd choice. My car seems not run as strong on BP. Those are the only three choices I have in Wisconsin for 93. A lot of Harley riders swear by Mobil and I did notice a difference when I switched from BP.

I've been using nothing but Shell V-power 93 octane gas station in the car since I've had it running. That day I put in maybe 5 gallons of 91 I had to used BP. The same day I found a Shell shortly after and put maybe 3/4 of the 93 back in there plus the octane booster. It seems like Shell is the only option in my area for good 93. I did see a K gas stations selling it but I wouldn't trust that

[booneSS13]

Originally Posted by Black_SS10

OP, now I remember...most octane boosters contain MMT. This is what caused the orange residue on your plugs. It can clog 02 sensors can cats as well. It was used in leaded gasoline and now is used to raise the octane rating in UNleaded gasoline. While I used Torco, and yes it has MMT, I never had this residue. This could be due to the mixture or amount that is used to create said octane booster. The Race gas octane booster that LSX Camaro speaks of also contains MMT.

Yeah I may want to stay away from MMT to be a safe unless it's an extreme emergency. I found this interesting article from Volkswagen

[Black_SS10]

Originally Posted by booneSS13

Yeah I may want to stay away from MMT to be a safe unless it's an extreme emergency. I found this interesting article from Volkswagen

Yea, there is a lot of info out there about MMT AKA Manganese. According to the EPA, MMT is still allowed in U.S. gas along with other additives. The amount is small but it is still there. It may be hard to tell which companies have it in their gas.

https://www.epa.gov/gasoline-standar...e-additive-mmt

[bionick]

Originally Posted by Unreal

Any of the autoparts store ones are junk.

Torco, VP octanium, and a few others are the only ones that actually do anything.

As for right now I would have to disagree with you on that. I logged my car and it was knocking pretty bad. I filled my tank and used a bottle of the Lucas booster and all I had were a couple spots with less than 1* of KR. Before, I had 3's and 4's on the KR table. This testing was done same day and same time, back to back tests. Coincidence? Could be. Maybe my original gas was bad. Although I got The gas at the same station the very next day so I highly doubt that it was bad gas. That right there tells me there is hope. I'll update once this tank runs out and I just use a tank of 91. I'll relog it and see. Sure torco is much better but if you're just wanting to up the octane a bit for knock etc then it could benefit people. My reason for trying it was because I was knocking, I pulled a little bit of timing and was still knocking, and didn't wanna keep pulling so I tried the booster and seemed to solve the KR

[Unreal]

Haven't seen lucas at the local stores, but maybe it works. Only ones I've seen at the NOS and other crap brands.

Either way, torco works FAR FAR FAR better than even lucas.

[rotwiler]

I used to use a mmt based octane booster in my old 2002 z28 only at the track. Over a year of use(in summer, approx 8 days a month at track), my plugs looked like the inside of a oyster shell, that rainbow translucent look. Car ran ok, but I did notice some issues over time(may not have been octane booster additive) but 02 sensors failed at 35k original miles on car too. Honestly, comparing times with and without the added octane, I did get my best times with the additive. Once I seen the plugs I stopped using the octane booster and paid for the race fuel at track.

[firestone_ss]

why isnt anyone concerned for this mans hands jesus guy you need to get that checked you have a condition!

[Bo White]

I know tons of people that's used Torco for a long time.

[dreyesforeal]

You should see what lotion does to dry skin tho