Octane and boosters?

I run 104 octane race gas. The car runs very well with it.

 

The higher the octane, the less total energy and volatility in the **fuel** (offset by being able to run at higher compression with an earlier advance which gets more power out of the A/F mixture).

If you aren't upping your timing Advance or increasing your compression or running widely gapped spark plugs, then you only want an octane rating high enough to prevent knocking/pinging/detonation/pre-detonation, etc.

That being said, I run the 92/93 octane. No knocks, no pings.

 

In PA, Sunoco has 94 octane as its highest pump gas. Yesterday it was $3.09 a gallon.

Some select Sunoco stations have 100 octane race gas, and it's usually double the 94 price.

I run Sunoco's 94 octane in the Dino. Although there have been times that I put 92 in, and can't really tell the diffference. I guess I'm just supersticious, or whatever. I'd rather run 94 and not have to worry with the 10.5:1 pistons in the car.

DM

 

Compression ratio is the key: the higher it is, the more octane you need to optimize performance and not get pinging (detonation). You can, of course, run regular on a 10:1 engine but you'd have to retard the crap out of the ignition so it won't ping. This costs a lot of HP and driveability off the line.

*Most* Ferraris run fairly low compression ratios (Less than 9.5:1) and will be fine on regular gas. Premium works fine too but you're just wasting money. My Lotus is almost 10:1 and I use premium with about 11 degrees of static advance. This is just short of the 'ping' setting on my particular car; I cannot use regular at this state of tune.

Ken

 

One of the great advantages of owning an old slow 77 308
is that we can use regular unleaded.

 

One of the best most effective boosters I've tried has been the N.O.S. brand. The off road formula has propylene oxide and some methanol amongst other things. Keeps valves clean better than the Techron snake oil too.