toluene

[s13sr20chris]

i read on twinturbo.net that you can dope your gas with 15% toluene from the paint store to get a couple octane points. i was a chem major in college and i cant imagine putting a solvent as strong as toluene in my gas at 15%. anyone over here(NICO being a pretty reputable source) have experience with this?

[PalmerWMD]

Yes it can be done and it has been done.there is a certain amount of toluene and other aromatics in your gasoline to begin with.

All "octane boosters" are mostly toluene.

there is a limit on how much aromatics your pump gasoline may contain to limit solvency adding to it, carries some risks.

Fred

[DAEDALUS]

I've done it a couple times. 5 gallons total, raising my octane to maybe 95-97. Can't say I noticed any ill effects, but the car sure seemed happier above 4000 RPMs.

[Nismo_Freak]

Common pump gas contains up to 40% toluene

[Q45tech]

Average bulk gasoline contains 150 chemical components [in any significant quanities] but over 1,000 different chemicals have been measured in gasoline. This is before what ever marketing additives are added at the terminal into the tankers plus water and other contaminents and just reacting with residual fuels in station tanks can create more different chemicals

"In order to maintain the "anti-knock" quality and octane ratings of motor gasoline in the absence of lead, the portion of aromatic hydrocarbons used in gasoline was increased. Aromatic hydrocarbons take the form of CnH2n-2, a lower ratio of hydrogen to carbon than other hydrocarbons typically found in gasoline. Because carbon is much heavier than hydrogen, this lower ratio results in increased fuel density and higher shares of carbon."

"The average gallon of reformulated gasoline includes about 8.5 percent MTBE and 0.5 percent TAME. Thus, in 1995 the overall [CARBON] emissions coefficient for gasoline fell to 19.38 million metric tons per quadrillion Btu. About a third of motor gasoline consumed since 1998 was reformulated, leading to a consumption-weighted emission coefficient of 19.33 million metric tons per quadrillion Btu in 1998 and 1999 and 19.34 million metric tons per quadrillion Btu in 2000.This regression analysis produced the following equation, which is used to estimate the carbon content of crude oil:Percent Carbon = 76.99 + (10.19 * Specific Gravity) + (-0.76 * Sulfur Content) . ".........the heavier a barrel is and the less sulur it contains the more it is worth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!http://www.refiningonline.com/...0.htm

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/autos....htmlh ... os....html

http://www.reformulyzer.com/do...2.pdf

It appears that Toluene is only one component of the Total AROMATICS found in gasoline.

In California, law restricts aromatics to 30% of a gasoline blend. Elsewhere it may be as much as 40%. The effect additional toluene or xylene has on pump gas is unpredictable for two reasons: 1) the octane boosting ability of both is less effective on premium pump gases than on regular grade gas because of the aromatics premium gases already contain, 2) toluene and xylene have high octane ratings alone but lower octane when blended with other gasoline components.

Toluene and xylene have specific gravities higher than pump gas so the more of them you add, the leaner you need to calibrate the engine’s air/fuel ratio.

http://www.idavette.net/hib/fuel/page2.htm

Sorry for the jumble but it is hard to be coherent and not write a book.

[s13sr20chris]

fantastic, ill beware.

[s13sr20chris]

that description of MON vs. RON really helps explain some inconsistencies in performance.

[toki]

Sorry to bring up a semi-old thread, but we are just having a discussion about this over in the 240sx Technical section, and there seems to be support from more than one person saying that it will help considerably at 1:3 with a little bit of some kind of oil lubricant, a personal blend he ran with no il effects. Now, say I am running 10.6:1 CR on my KA24E and 91 octane (premium in AZ) just aint cuttin it and I am getting knock, just a little. Buying Toluene on the barrel scale can yield prices of 2.50/gal, and in a 55 gallon drum, that's $138 basically. Now say I fill up with 89 octane every 10 day, filling with 10 gallons total. to get a 92+ octane these are the numbers I get:

7 gallons 89 + 3 gallon 100 (4.50/gal) = 92.3 octane

8 gallons 89 + 2 gallons 114 Toluene (2.50/gal) = 94 Octane

makes for a grand total of...$8.50 every 10 days or about $310 a year.

And yes I know the guy from 76 said they (T and X) lose some octane when mixed, so lets just give him the benifit of the doubt and assume the 94 calculated of the Toluene is actually the same 92.3 of the race gas mix, it's still the same performance for less.

And that 55 gallon drum will last 9 months. Give or take some.

I just wish there was a completely un biased source of information..someplace that has actualty done the mixing and come up with real numbers, or a magazine that has done a dyno test of all...oh well. Maybe that will be something to put my school's chem lab to use with once I get back in session.

[Q45tech]

Each refinery complex has the test machines plus SWRI test octane all the time.Arizona bulk gasoline all come from California which is having fits with the phase out of MTBE.

http://www.zeltex.com/zx101.htmlhttp:// ... regon.html

"The ZX101C operates in the short-wavelength NIR, from 800 to 1100 nm wavelength. The instrument is factory calibrated to predict octane number (RON, MON, and PON) from the absorption spectra of the fuels being tested. This prediction is accomplished through the use of a multivariate regression equation of the form:

Octane number = K0 + K1 (OD1) + K2 (OD2)...+ K14 (OD14) + K15 (Ta)

where K0 is a bias term, K1 through K15 are slope coefficients, OD1 through OD14 are the absorbencies measured at each of the 14 wavelengths, and Ta is the ambient temperature at the time of the test. The instrument can store up to 10 calibration equations and is factory calibrated for RON, MON, and PON of blended gasolines."http://www.zeltex.com/zx101_aln.html

Maybe your state has the above machines, you might be able to get them to test a sample if you didn't mention you blended it??

[toki]

Do you think a University Chem department might have one for any reason?

And if I can't find one of those nifty things, couldn't a specrophotometer do that also, just have to take a number of readings by hand?

[s13sr20chris]

fantastic idea.