Fuel additives

[cp996]

Hi, please forgive me if this question has already been covered and for my ignorance on this matter, but....
I keep seeing adverts for fuel additives with various claims about increased fuel efficiency and engine performance.
Does anyone know whether mixing an additive with 95 RON fuel actually makes a noticeable difference- would this bring it up to 97 RON? Would you recommend using an additive?

Thanks

[bobsan]

yes it will up 95 RON to 97, but why, when you can readily get 97 at pumps. only reason to use additive is if engine is tuned for a higher Ron and its not available. No other advantage.

[mrdemon]

just use Vmax it works (and is stated on your fuel cap that a Porsche is made to run on 98 RON + )

[Martian O]

So if you add an additive to V-Power, would you get 101 RON?

[cp996]

Just wondering if it made economic sense- where I live the highest RON is 97 and it is significantly more expensive than 95.

[majordad]

We only have 95 RON which I use. It clearly says in the recent Porsche Owners Manuals not to use an additive. I'm often tempted to disregard this advice, but my biggest stopping point is how can the additive when added be evenly mixed throughout the tank. I doubt if letting the tank go low and then adding the additive and new fuel would get an even mix, or does it ?

[rigster2]

If you cannot get 98RON fuel it makes no sense to do anything else other than just use normal 95RON.

[tjlees]

See http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

Meaning of octane rating http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating.

A comparison of additives http://www.fueltechexperts.com/2008/08/08/octane-b... I have used the NOS booster in the race car but not noticed the difference, with tesco 99 the hp scanner reveals no knocking at all - which is really the aim of high octane petrol and should remove detonation problems and improve performance.

Tesco 99 composition http://www.greenergy.com/Products_services/test_re... which shows how much ethanol/ methanol is used in petrol these days.

I have seen other results from which? And maybe Autoexpress that show no significant Ron improvement when you add a booster. Personally I would use proven race fuel and retune to use above 100RON if you really want the ultimate in performance fuel, otherwise stick with tescos 99, Vpower etc rather than peasant 95RON fuel.

[stewart rix]

Don't forget you can also get fuel system and injector cleaners which claim to improve performance (assuming performance is suffering due to contamination on the injectors etc). I was skeptical, but tried Magic Bullet to see if a problem I had with lumpy light throttle running was injector related. It didn't solve the issue, but when the injectors were bench tested subsequently they were found to be performing at the top of the expected range ie. much better than expected for a 15 year old car. So maybe the cleaner did its job, or maybe the injectors just didn't need cleaning...........

[Rockster]

cp996 said:

Hi, please forgive me if this question has already been covered and for my ignorance on this matter, but....
I keep seeing adverts for fuel additives with various claims about increased fuel efficiency and engine performance.
Does anyone know whether mixing an additive with 95 RON fuel actually makes a noticeable difference- would this bring it up to 97 RON? Would you recommend using an additive?

Thanks

Almost a given the additive will cost more to bring 95 RON fuel to a 98 RON level than it would be to just buy 98 RON fuel to begin with. The "1 or 2" point increase in RON rating is misleading. It is not a whole 1 or 2 points, that is 95 RON does not become 96 or 97 RON fuel it becomes 95.1 or 95.2 RON fuel.

If 98 RON is not available where you are use the highest RON grade of fuel you can find, though you probably want to stay at or preferably above the lowest grade of RON Porsche recognizes is ok for these engines.

About the only additive (make that the only additive) worth a darn is Techron and this is not a tank to tank additive but a one or two tank additive used to deal with fuel systems that are suspect from the car sitting around unused long periods of time between uses or if the engine is subjected to short trips which among other things can result in a build up deposits that can interfere with combustion or if crappy fuel is used which doesn't have the proper detergents in it.

Use the Techron as directed on the bottle label, one or two tanks' worth, then after the last tank of fuel gets down to say 1/4 tank change the oil/filter.

Sincerely,

Rockster.

[cp996]

Thanks for the advice.

[MadMark911]

I've used Silkolene Pro Race for the odd trackday - but I think the main benefits are slightly smoother running at high rpm and improved throttle response. Not sure how much it influences the RON, but it's always mixed with V-Power (a 1 litre bottle per tank).

I've also recently tried a fuel system cleaner as my car isn't used that often - (Motul Fuel System Clean in the 300ml bottle). An interesting side effect is that where there was an occasional hesitancy between 2-3,000 rpm - this hasn't occured since I dosed the tank (about 3 weeks ago).

[static2010]

FACT:

The so called octane boosters dont work.
Think it was 5th gear did a test & in some cases it actually degraded performance...

[Raitzi]

static2010 said:

FACT:

The so called octane boosters dont work.
Think it was 5th gear did a test & in some cases it actually degraded performance...

I think "ocatane" boosters only allow you to run on higher compression(or boost) and if engine is stock, there won't be gains.

Edited by Raitzi on Saturday 27th October 07:33

[tjlees]

Raitzi said:

static2010 said:

FACT:

The so called octane boosters dont work.
Think it was 5th gear did a test & in some cases it actually degraded performance...

I think "ocatane" boosters only allow you to run on higher compression(or boost) and if engine is stock, there won't be gains.

Edited by Raitzi on Saturday 27th October 07:33

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=fifth%20gear%20octane%20booster&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDEQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D2jbcCr2ll3c&ei=yceLUImsMvGR0QXBjYBg&usg=AFQjCNFDi4lwNTBen6fdVha8Pj7tmQhXfg

You tube fifth gear bit about octane boosters ....

Edited by tjlees on Saturday 27th October 12:49

[b2hbm]

Hmm. Just watched the 5th Gear test and I can't really say I'm surprised that they didn't get more power with the additives. From what I could see they didn't modify the engine characteristics to suit the higher octane ratings, just left them as standard, so why would you expect a massive jump in power ?

But I was surprised that showed a drop in power with all of the additives,it would have been nice if they'd explained that one.

[mrdemon]

static2010 said:

FACT:

The so called octane boosters dont work.
Think it was 5th gear did a test & in some cases it actually degraded performance...

They do work, I added one of the best and could up my timing without getting timing pulls and got a faster car.

There is no point if you cannot ajust you timing or boost though so vmax rules the day.
But if can can ajust your own timing they work as stated.