This might be a silly rookie question but i will ask anyway.........does anyone see a problem or benefit from using the automotive octane boosters found at walmart or pep boys.....name brands like gumout....stp or street legal.....thnx

 

It's a waste of money unless you have bumped up your compression and are having troubles with pinging.

 

If you must, use the Harley fuel additive. It does help keep combustion chambers clean. I use some about every 2-3 tankfulls. You will notice an increase in power.

 

What exactly does it do to increase power?

 

Increase the power of the dealer to milk money out of gulible individules!

 

Use octane booster only if you can't use premium fuel. Premium fuel costs 5-10 more per gal. Octane booster is usually 12-16 oz and usually on treats 20 gal, and costs $6 or more (average). which is cheaper? I do use fuel inj cleaner every 10k miles (just a couple of oz. (preventative).

 

Unless your bike is far from stock, you don't need high octane fuel. No advantage for more money. Do a google search.

So assuming you actually do need mid grade or premium after doing some mods. You're probably trhinking you could uy regular low octane and add a booster to save a little money. If you do the mathc, you'll find out it really doesn't pay. If you're really meticulous in your measurements, you might be able to break even.

And if it did save money, you're better off buying toluene at Ace hardware in a gallon jug. Again, do a google search.

 

My local HD dealer mechanic told me that to compensate for the conspicuous power-loss from Hawaii's recent switch to ethanol-laced fuel, an octane booster is a good idea. I tried some, Lucas brand, and it really does make a noticeable difference in performance. Runs kinda like it did before the junk fuel we're dealing with now.

So my question is: Can this stuff do any harm to the engine? I've read some posts about the engine running hotter. Is that valid? Yeah, if you use more power, the engine will run hotter, but under normal circumstances, like cruising down the highway, why would it run hotter?

'97 FLHT, rejetted, K&H air filter, Screamin' Eagle II exhaust.

Aloha!

 

**** DISCLAIMER *****
Not having personally performed any scientific studies, university, private corporation,or government research in this area, what I'm about to type is purely my opinion based on personal experience and the conclusions I have drawn based on reading and hearing what others have had to say...
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Keep a small container of octane booster handy so that when you're off the beaten path and pull into a back country gas station "on fumes", you can fill your tank with the 85 octane stuff, add the booster and be on your way...

I know that the metric cruiser guys love to point out that their water cooled engines run fine on 85 octane gas, but air-cooled big bore V-Twins do not... higher octane gas burns slower which prevents the pre-ignition and detonation so common to "hot running, high compression" motors. Ethanolhas a higher "natural" octane than gasoline, but I've also heard it contains a higher moisture (H2O)content which helps to cool the combustion cycle, but not at a controllable rate.

Will not harmyour engine... might mess withcatalytic converters a little, but the combustion chamber components are safe.

Run the lowest octane your scoot will accept without pinging... Unfortunately for me that's been 91 at 5200' above sea level, might be better closer to the center of the Earth, but don't know for sure (no Internet data available for that yet). And that's if for no other reason than you'll save $.50 a tankful. Other than that, I just try and buy gas from "busy, main stream"gas stations, primarily so that I can "think" I'm getting stuff that hasn't been sitting in an underground tank gathering silt and rust and other undesireable components of common gasoline...

Live and learn.

 

Octane rating is nothing more then a measurement of the fuels ability to resists detonation.If you are not experiencing detonation then it does nothing for or against you. It does not add power or take it away. Hot spots can ignite low octane fuel, high octane needs the high energy charge of the spark plug. The higher the compression ratio, the greater chance of pre-detonation due to increase of hot spots from heat of higher compression.
If you read the fine print in the octane boosters and do the math correctly, you are not getting anywhere near the octane rating increase that they lead you to believe by the labeling.