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Hi; I am wondering if any of you use toluene etc to add a boost to the gasoline.
I think that like is no oily is better to add a % of thin oil; may be 0.5%? to the toluene; however; may be with these heads the detonation could be a major problem?

toluene has got expensive now, it works but you need a fair bit.
start at around 20% mixture.
You may find an octane booster that works for you a bit cheaper.
Most are rubbish but there are a few that work.
Nulon seems to be one of the best, if you can get it.

Seems not so expensive here in comparison to "mild" boosters. The other day a mechanic gave me one of these by Liqui moly hence the wondering.

this is my experience yesterday with octane booster my pal calvin and i rode our BSA A65s for 40 miles his a 72 mine a 68 bitsa both single carb with Pazon ignition and Champion N4G plugs and 90 0ctane nonethanol gas..........i poured some rislone octane booster in both bikes....call it seat of the pants but my bike ran the best it ever has it seemed to have more power calvin said same of his....well, that's my 2 cents worth PS i finally finished the 1971 Honda SL175 quasi military bike project and it has 9.5 compression ration and manual calls for 93 octane i put some rislone in and bike starts first or second kick and revs to 10k smooth as silk...i dont work for rislone

But now you wish you did!

in another tale i will relate how i put some Cleveland County hi-test corn moonshine in my lawn tractor and what happened

First start of every season I stick some hi toluene thinners into the petrol tanks of all my carbed tractors, diggers, quads, motorcycles and they all start easily. It restores the volatile fractions lost over winter through the tank breathers.

Kommando; interesting point. Do you eyeball the stuff or use it in % ratio? Do you add oil, like I mentioned?
Thanks

oil would lowet the octane rating .
50:1 would lower by 2%

Toluene has a true boiling point of around 110°c and a flash point of +4°c so it probably wouldn’t replace the light ends which evaporate at ambient temperatures. Pentane might be a better component for that, it also has a much higher vapour pressure than toluene, a boiling point of around 36°c and a flash point below -40°c, not sure what the thinners element would consist of (if anything more than just the toluene) but it would likely lower it’s flashpoint further and increase its vapour pressure.

Both iso-octane, toluene, pentane and xylene are components used in gasoline so adding them in a measured quantity shouldn’t do any harm. Toluene and Xylene are used as octane improvers. Xylene would likely be better as you don’t need as much for increased octane, it has a boiling point of around 140°c and a flash point of around 27°c. I’m not fuels chemist but that would suggest to me that it would make more power further along the combustion process compared to adding toluene.

I can’t see that adding oil would gain anything.

Toluene, isn't that moth balls? An old redneck octane booster.

Plenty of guys out in the woods around here brew high octane fuel. But they sell it for "medicinal" purposes.

MEK is probably the most used chemical in standard octane boosters.
You get an orange tint on the plugs, once again don't over-do it.


Interesting science stuff.....
https://tj-es.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/vol17no2p3.pdf

Jeez. Nick-- didn't realize that you were so deep into it!

not just the plugs obviously

the piston crowns will look like they were spray paonted international safety orange

LOL, i'm not really that into it but the use of an octane booster has given us
the ability to run at over 11.5-1 without any detonation hassles. It's also
readily available and not ridiculously expensive. Used in a sensible fashion,
it does tint the plugs but that's all. The product was tested properly, using
a variable ratio engine etc and proven to lift 98ron to 100ron consistently.
I'm as sceptical as anyone but in this case it was/is a good product.
It works out cheaper here than Toluene or Xylene or even MEK.
Race gas is absolutely ludicrous in price.

Just some info gents, as during my historic racing days years ago I was always seeking to lift the octane rating of my fuel because of the compression and the on/off nature of getting avation fuel.
On the advice of a long time fast grass man I did play with Toluene, BUT, be very beware of what you are playing with, this stuff is neuro toxic by absorption through the skin AND inhalation.
Benzine is not much better for humans either!!

Having said that it did reliably lift the performance to make it worth using (and it was easier to get than Avgas as well!!).

So, only marginally safer that tetraethyl lead?

Yes but more easily available.