[QUOTE=Driv300mph,Jan 12 2006, 04:35 PM]"Optimax" had like 98 octane.

 

I've noticed that sometimes when I start my 2005 there is quite a bit of exhaust smoke and a smell resembling paint thinner. After a little online research, I learned that toluene is used in gasoline to boost octane. So is that smell from the exhaust incompletely burned fuel containing toluene? Thoughts?

 

They had Regular at the bottom, BP Ultimate in the middle, Shell Optimax at the Top. Here in Fl the highest octane I see is 93. Now, is the Shell Optimax the highest(93 here), and BP Ultimate the highest(93 here)? Or, did they use a higher octane from the Shell then the BP? If so, that is stupid.... If not, it is saying that Shells highest octane(93 here) is better than BPs highest octane(93 here). Am I lost or correct in what I am getting from this video?

 

Ok, I watched it again. And the Shell gas was a little bit higher of octane than the BP gas. So, if I were to get Shell Optimax here in FL it would be 93. If I were to get BP Ultimate here it would also be 93. And both would probably have the same performace.

 

We don't have 93 octane here in Vegas. I saw a 92 octane, but it was at an Arco station.

Ryan

 

The premium Shell available in the US is that DriveClean crap, not good for performance engines! There have been a lot of reports of poor running engines due to the 5x more cleaning agents than required. I have firsthand experience of how bad it is. My friend's car was running great on BP 92 octane, the tank was pretty much empty so he filled up on Shell 92 and within a few blocks the car ('87 Conquest TSi) was bucking and studdering like crazy. It ran like that for the whole tank and was then refilled with BP and within a few blocks the problems stopped. I have also heard reports of S2k's running poorly on it, but I will not try it to find out.

 

Ok, now we know that a higher octane rating will boost the performance of our car. But what I want to know is if the pump only has one hose for all three grades of fuel, are you getting whatever gas is left in the hose from the last guy?

So lets say the guy before you pumped 87 octane into his oldsmobile. Now since there is only one hose for each grade, the extra left in the hose contains 87, when i'm paying for 93. Now for the first few seconds i'm pumping 87 into my baby. Is this true, or does the extra gas get sucked back down into the underground tank? I've always wondered about this, and have only been going to gas stations with a sperate hose for each grade.

 

Also, since we have higher octance in Jacksonville then some of you in Vegas, we may dyno higher. So your car may be more powerfull then you think

 

Here in Detroit, the shell station pumps have seperate hoses for each grade of fuel.


As someone asked before, Toulene is a MAJOR component of gasoline. F1 cars run on mainly toulene (or they used to, I think they changed the rules). When I had a WRX it was common place to run down to the hardward store to pickup some toulene to boost octane.

Beware of the snake oil octane boosters at the autoparts stores. The ones that claim they raise octain 5 points. The 5 points they are rerfering to are .5 octane (so from 87, to 87.5). If you really need the octane, buy yourself some toulene (114 octane r+m/2). 1 gal of toulene + 4 gals of 93 octane pump = 97.2 octane.

 

93 only in my S!