amsoil octane booster

[luhbo]

... I took my tank off a couple years ago and couldn't get it back on . . .

 

My first thought when I read it was: apparently lack of practice

[docc]

... I took my tank off a couple years ago and couldn't get it back on . . .

 

My first thought when I read it was: apparently lack of practice

HA - yeah, I couldn't figure out that one bolt.

[Skeeve]

We all know about the ethanol effects on Guzzi tanks. I found a local station (50 miles local?) that sells gas with no ethanol and so I got a few gallons to put in my tank for over the winter months. What I've found is that although this gas is rated at 91 pump octane the same as the ethanol bases gas I get at Sheetz, it pings a lot more, even on cool days. I'm looking into using some amsoil motorcycle octane booster to use even on a regular basis but I know a lot of octane boosters contain high amounts of ethanol. So I don't want to use one of them to aggravate the tank swelling problem. Can anyone tell me if Amsoil booster uses ethanol? I can't seem to find any info on the net. Eventually I'll have MYECU up and running but even with that if I have more octane I can adjust for a little more power or just have an extra safety cushion.

 

Don't mess around buying octane booster: you'll spend, what, $8 for a little pint bottle of mostly methanol [ie, alcohol, which you've just gone out of your way to buy pure gas to avoid?]

 

You're in the U.S., so your Guzzi doesn't have a cat in the exhaust. Go to an airport, buy some 100LL, clearly mark the jerry can so that you won't get it mixed in your car fuel by mistake & kill your cat [as an aside, Honda wanted ~$2k to replace the cat on a 2000 Accord when someone stole it from my vehicle parked on the street. Needless to say, my ins. co. refused to replace w/ stock components...]

 

100LL has way more tetraethyl lead in it than any hi-octane pump gas we used to buy back in the 70s: diminishing returns means that getting that last 4 octane points from the 80 octane base stock that had already been pumped up to 96 w/ TEL required more TEL than was used to get it to 96. Accordingly, adding this stuff to your lead-free mogas is going to be synergistic w/ the octane boosters already in it, so a little will go a loooong way. Start w/ about 2 oz per tankful to start, ride it a little, and if you still get pinging, add another 2oz. Rinse, lather, repeat. I expect you'll end up using less per tankful than the pint bottle of lead-free octane booster, and you'll be buying it for less $ by the gallon vs. the pint of booster.

 

Get it while you can: a group calling itself Friends of the Earth filed suit a couple years ago to force the EPA to eliminate TEL from airplane fuel ['cause, you know, you can't have anyone flying old classic planes anymore that were designed around the stuff] so we won't have 100LL for too much longer. C'est la vie.

[4corsa]

My V11 Scura has always knocked (pinged) under hard acceleration - that is until last weekend while I was out for a ride and saw a sign for CAM 2 Racing Fuel!  This shop in the middle of nowhere South Jersey Pine Barrens had the 110 octane (leaded) on tap.  Since the bike has no catalytic converter we decided it would be fine (he said the engine would love it).  My tank had about 2 gallons of 93 unleaded in it, and I added a little over a gallon of Cam 2 ($8.90 per gallon, so i put in $10 worth).  We figured the resulting average would be around 98 to 99 octane. 

A mile down the road I tried hard acceleration in various gears and rpms and NO KNOCKING!!  The engine felt better than ever.  I'm now going to keep a 5 gallon fuel filler of CAM 2 (I will try to find the unleaded 103 octane version), and add a gallon or so of it after each time I fill it up.

[AndyH]

$8.90 per [uS] gallon - for special fuel: that's just a bit above what we pay over here for normal pump Super Unleaded (97 - lower or no Ethanol). Lucky folk!

You wouldn't really want to run a V11 on the cheap stuff here (95 - uncertain ethanol content) which works out at ~ $7.80 per [uS] gallon.

That said, the 97 works pretty well with no messing about and that's got to be worth something.

 

Just to keep up with the times, what do you guys over the pond pay at the moment for your best pump fuel?

 

AndyH

[GuzziMoto]

Around here it is around $4 (give or take 10 cents) a gallon for premium pump gas.

Keep in mind the European method of rating octane is different and our 93 is your 97 (or there abouts).

[AndyH]

Around here it is around $4 (give or take 10 cents) a gallon for premium pump gas.

Keep in mind the European method of rating octane is different and our 93 is your 97 (or there abouts).

Cheap gas, and for the good stuff (didn't know about different ratings - WTF, is nothing standard?) - lucky folk!

AndyH

[Yeahoo Whoyah]

I've been using Star-Tron Enzyme Fuel Treatment. Their claim is the concentrated product cures ethanol problem, stabilizes gasoline for up to two years, cleans valves and injectors, helps remove water, rejuvenates old fuel, and a list of other good things, but NOT an octane booster. My CafeSport has not suffered from tank swell syndrome as far as I can tell. I don't know for sure if the Star-Tron is doing anything helpful, but it doesn't seem to hurt anything, it's not expensive, and readily available at Wal-Mart.