For the last 8 months I have been using ethanol free premium. The car runs great and gets almost 2 more miles to the gallon. Yesterday when I went to the only station around that has it they informed me that they would no longer be carrying premium and I would have to drive almost 70 miles to the next station that carries it. A 140 mile round trip to get fuel would be a serious waist of time and money. I left without filling up. My EVIC informs me that in 26 miles I will be empty. So here is a question. Can I use mid-grade (89 octane) with a good octane booster safely or will I have to go back to the ethanol crap? The car has Mondello stage III heads, PPP track warrior cam, Kooks long tubes, Bwoody exhaust and a prochager. If so what brand booster will be best? Thank You, Bill
Be careful about expectations with most octane boosters....most are misleading when they say it will raise your octane 3 points...."points" is the key word....3 points means you raised 89 to 89.3.....octane "number" is what you want to raise. 3 numbers moves 89 to 92. I read a test between about 10 different boosters and the only 2 that really made a difference were Torco and Lucas. Torco and Luca are the only boosters Kenne Bell recommends to use with their blowers. Both are safe for emission systems (cats, sensors, etc) but are not legal for street use because they contain MMT. To get 89 to 93 octane you would probably need to add one bottle per 8-10 gallons. Lucas can be found in most parts stores (Advance, O'riellys, AutoZone) at $8-$11 per bottle. I have only found Torco online and it runs $10-$14 per can depending on shipping charges. With all that said I would not waste money on a booster just to keep from using E-10 gas. It will add about a $1 per gallon. That would be expensive for a DD.....