octane booster/fuel system cleaner

[MyZeR]

anybody either tried octane boostesrs or fuel system cleaners?

[shipo]

Originally Posted by MyZeR

anybody either tried octane boostesrs or fuel system cleaners?

Unless you've modded your engine I cannot imagine why you'd want to use an octane booster, and as for fuel system cleaners... Well, let's just say that I consider them simply highly refined oil of snake. That said, what does your Owner's Manual say about fuel additives of any kind?

[AllShowNoGo]

^^what he said. if ur octane level is too high, it'll be hotter while burning and can screw up ur engine. just use ur premium gas and ur good to go.

[leonphelpss11]

I used Lucas Oil octane booster that is not "street legal". I used it one time to see what kind of performace gain I would get, I got nothing. It is worthless.. It didn't do anything to my car though, the temp was the same.. I still have the same performance from when i never used it..

[divinebarrel]

waste of money, waste of time

[nayilsi]

premium is a booster itself....

and our cars are new... now is not the time.

[slow4drsi]

i think even with modified motor this things aren't good , cause when u tune ur car with 93octane i'll prolly just stick with it specially with turbocharged motors, my car ran better before without this octane booster , because i think it's harder to burn this when ur car is not tune to it, it's prolly better to use this to clean the injectors or if u had bad gas ....

[AllShowNoGo]

Originally Posted by nayilsi

premium is a booster itself....

and our cars are new... now is not the time.

my Si and all other Si's require premium gas

[Grimey]

lol people actually waste their money of that stuff?

[ryker]

Originally Posted by leonphelpss11

I used Lucas Oil octane booster that is not "street legal". I used it one time to see what kind of performace gain I would get, I got nothing. It is worthless.. It didn't do anything to my car though, the temp was the same.. I still have the same performance from when i never used it..

That is a near worthless in a Honda.. But in my high compression 13:1 modded street bike the Lucas prodcut is really good. Not as good as mixing in a gallon of 110octane alky but the Lucas octane booster is the better off the shelf product you can buy.

[ryker]

Also most fuel system cleaners are just kerosene with 1-2% of some other stuff. For the modern honda engine and using good gas a fuel system cleaner isn't needed. And I think the manual say to NOT use them. That being said - I would only use them on a long trip that I knew would require the use of a tank of fuel.

[WhiteSicivic06]

My vote would be to not use them, unless you accidentally put in 89 octane gas and wanted to boost it.

[mrbill]

Originally Posted by shipo

That said, what does your Owner's Manual say about fuel additives of any kind?

Our Owner's Manual is *explicit* about oil additives and coolant additives.

On fuel: It recommends "using quality gasolines containing detergent additives that help prevent fuel system and engine deposits." But they also "strongly recommend, in areas where it is available, the use of gasoline that does NOT contain manganese-based fuel additives such as MMT." Further, "Use of gasoline with these (manganese-based fuel) additives may adversely affect performance, and cause the malfunction indicator lamp on your instrument panel to come on."

More on fuel for the Si:

• 91 Octane or higher - "Your vehicle is designed to operate on premium unleaded gasoline with a pump octane of 91 or higher."
• 87-91 Octane - "Use of a lower octane gasoline can cause occasional metallic knocking noises in the engine and will result in decreased engine performance."
• Less than 87 Octane - "Use of a lower octane gasoline can cause occasional metallic knocking noises in the engine and will result in decreased engine performance [and can] lead to engine damage."

Finally on fuel:
"Your vehicle is designed to operate on oxygenated gasoline containing up top to 10% ethanol and up to 15% MBTE by volume. Do not use gasoline containing methanol."

So snake oils that boost octane? No worries except for how they boost octane. If they contain ethanol or MBTE, and if after you add them to a fill and you exceed the % by volume as a result of the snake oil, your engine isn't designed for that. You are also strongly recommended to NOT use manganese based additives, so beware of snake oil bearing manganese gifts.


Other than that, beware of scientific sounding snake oil claims. My personal favorite, a *MAJOR* *OIL* *COMPANY* *FUEL* *ADDITIVE* claims the Enzyte-like property of "combustion enhancement" and has an exclusive synthetic formula that acts as a catalyst. Dug out their patent. "The use of surfactants as additives for fuel has long been known." Yup, the exclusive synthetic formula contains SOAP.

-mr. bill

[shipo]

Thanks for the detailed backup. +rep