oufan2929

I was just wondering if Torco is the best fuel additive. I'd like to be able to have at least a 101 octane in my car when spraying the n20. I've heard people talking about Torco on here before and was wanting some opinions. And does anyone know the mix rate? I know the website says to mix a bottle of their stuff w/a full tank of 93 octane to get 104 octane. But everybody's gas tank is a different size (ie mustangs, camaros, vipers) so do they have a more exact mix rate, or do you just have to kind of guess? Thanks--Andy

NICK YOSKIN

i highly doubt that any additive will increase the octane more then 4 points

b98

Ck with the guys on the salt, they use some high # sh-t.

Tony @ MPH

Andy,

If you're not limited to just additives, I'd think about using methanol injection. The net effect is one that is better than using an additive, although the principal is the same: ward off detonation!

chriswtx

How about Xylene?? I use to run it in my twin turbo stealth...

jbsblownc5

I've been running Torco for 2 years now. I now run Torco and Meth injection, since the meth does not start to spray till around 4#s of boost.

I've done many tests on Torco, Dyno, Street, and track. We've logged scans and watched KR. This stuff works, Period.

I've also paid good money to shut up a few people on the Forum, mostly Woody...., and have had it tested at a lab. In the face of all this she'll still probably make her stupid comments, a guess it's an open forum.

Anyway, I mixed one 32 oz can of Torco unleaded accelerator with 10 gallons of 91 and got 96.5 octane. You can see the results on my website.

www.jbsblownc5.net under Torco products.

PS go away Sondra....

speedz06

The Torco is good

Loboost

While I am no chemist and make no claims to be I am also a very skeptical person and do not believe in snake oils etc. However I can tell you this TORCO WORKS dont know how or why it just works. In my supercharged 660rwhp vette on 91 pump gas it would ping like a Mo#$%ker I would always mix 5 gallons of 100 octane with my 91 and car ran perfect no pinging no knock retard. I heard about TORCO tried it with a fill up of 91 octane and 1 can of TORCO and drove the car and was amazed no knock no ping. I have been sold eversince, It is also very convenient keep a can or two in the trunk and you can travel and not worry about were you are going to buy race gas at.

Alky injection is also a great thing but if you are NA it may be a little overkill. The other products that you mention will surely also work but are not exactly safe or convenient to use. Not trying to start a flame but this subject has been brought up many times and almost everyone on this forum who has used TORCO will probably agree the stuff JUST WORKS. Are the other options yes, sorry for the rant just my 2 cents.

Les

SS930

JB is right, the stuff works. I don't feel like going into the details so I copied a post I made last Jan. when I was trying to figure out what was in this product...

"Well I’ve looked into this product a little more. I don’t doubt the product works (as I said before), but for those ratios to be correct it would need to have an octane rating of over 300+ R+M/2. There are few compounds that can have a blending octane rating high enough to produce the dramatic octane gains advertised.

TEL (lead) fits the bill and would work as they advertise. It is almost impossible for any non-research-chemist to obtain TEL (legally), except as a pre-formulated fuel. It is highly toxic in concentrated form. TEL will foul your cats/O2’s in a hurry. But the product is claimed to be unleaded so it can’t contain TEL.

MTBE is another possibility, but it could not account for such dramatic increases in advertised octane by itself in the advertised concentrations. It takes up to 10% to see a significant improvement in octane, so this isn’t the key compound in Torco. Again, this is nasty stuff.

Aniline is another possibility. It can provide a 1% octane improvement for each 1% added to the base fuel. So it would also require a fairly large amount per gallon, far above what Torco advertises. Plus aniline eats rubber parts quickly.

I did manage to find the MSDS for Torco:
This product is a blend of light petroleum distillate,cas #8000-61.9.
Which contains benzene, cas*71-43-2 at 0.1 to 4.9%. May also contain a proprietary multifunctional additive and/or methyl tertiary butyl ether (mtbe) cas*1634-04-0-4.
Depending on origin. Contains a proprietary multifunctional additive package. (Ingridients with * in cas number are subject toreporting recuirements of section 313 emergency planning & community right-to -know and 40cfr372)

Benzene appears to be the carrier. It by itself has a octane rating of 115. 10% Benzene = 2 octane increase with typical pump gas, so one quart of benzene surely won’t be enough do give the dramatic increases they advertise. Plus Benzene is a Cat 1 carcinogen (very bad)… Some people think toluene and xylene are scary, but they're nothing compared to benzene.

“Contains a proprietary multifunctional additive package.” This additive has to be MMT (methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl). It would require some pretty hefty concentrations to see the advertised octane improvements, but it’s the only thing which would work as Torco says it does. I originally discounted Torco using this compound because it can be a pretty dangerous organometallic compound. MMT is very hard on the engine in concentrations over 0.2 grams per gallon, and in fact it produces solid, metallic particles that wear engine parts and plug cats/O2’s in high doses or if used long term. You’ll see the rusty color deposits on the spark plugs at high concentrations of MMT. If you get these heavy deposits on your plugs after using this product for a while, you might want to lower the mixing ratio a little. Some gasoline manufactures use small quanities of MMT to boost octane, but several are getting away from this practice because of the negative aspects associated with its use.

Be couscous with MMT. MMT is a manganese compound which, when burned in automobile engines, results in manganese air pollution. While the body needs dietary traces of manganese, excess amounts of airborne manganese - which is more readily absorbed by the brain than dietary manganese - are toxic. The relationship between high doses of inhaled manganese and various manifestations of neurotoxicity, respiratory toxicity, and reproductive toxicity has been well documented by neuroscientists. Manganese is a neurotoxin with exposure causing Parkinson's disease-like symptoms. Miners exposed to excess manganese have a high rate of psychosis, severe neurological disease, and premature death.

Many of you are making comments about “paint thinner”. It is easy to use toluene (114 octane) or xylene (117 octane) to boost octane, and these are safe for the engine/cats/O2’s, as they are typically part of the name-brand gasoline distributors formulations. This is especially true of toluene. These are the solvents that are mostly used to boost the octane of the higher grades of gasoline.

So those of you that wouldn’t trust putting ‘paint thinner’ in your $10,000 engine… well guess what, you already do! Typically these make up about 10% of the gas you get at the pump so it is very safe for your $10,000 engine. You can very safely use these items to boost octane, but I wouldn’t recommend going over <2.5:1 ratio if you are trying to achieve a very high octane fuel blend. And yes, myself and thousands of others have been running these very safe solvents for years in very expensive FI engines with ZERO problems. I use it in every tank on my turbo racing Porsches.

Here is a SHORT list of some of the chemicals found in gasoline, notice there is Toluene, along with several forms of Xylene:

15% n-paraffins RON MON BP d AIT
n-butane 113 : 114 : -0.5: gas : 370
n-pentane 62 : 66 : 35 : 0.626 : 260
n-hexane 19 : 22 : 69 : 0.659 : 225
n-heptane (0:0 by definition) 0 : 0 : 98 : 0.684 : 225
n-octane -18 : -16 : 126 : 0.703 : 220
n-decane -41 : -38 : 174 : 0.730 : 210
n-dodecane -88 : -90 : 216 : 0.750 : 204
n-tetradecane -90 : -99 : 253 : 0.763 : 200
30% iso-paraffins
2-methylpropane 122 : 120 : -12 : gas : 460
2-methylbutane 100 : 104 : 28 : 0.620 : 420
2-methylpentane 82 : 78 : 62 : 0.653 : 306
3-methylpentane 86 : 80 : 64 : 0.664 : -
2-methylhexane 40 : 42 : 90 : 0.679 :
3-methylhexane 56 : 57 : 91 : 0.687 :
2,2-dimethylpentane 89 : 93 : 79 : 0.674 :
2,2,3-trimethylbutane 112 : 112 : 81 : 0.690 : 420
2,2,4-trimethylpentane 100 : 100 : 98 : 0.692 : 415
( 100:100 by definition )
12% cycloparaffins
cyclopentane 141 : 141 : 50 : 0.751 : 380
methylcyclopentane 107 : 99 : 72 : 0.749 :
cyclohexane 110 : 97 : 81 : 0.779 : 245
methylcyclohexane 104 : 84 : 101 : 0.770 : 250
35% aromatics
benzene 98 : 91 : 80 : 0.874 : 560
toluene 124 : 112 : 111 : 0.867 : 480
ethyl benzene 124 : 107 : 136 : 0.867 : 430
meta-xylene 162 : 124 : 138 : 0.868 : 463
para-xylene 155 : 126 : 138 : 0.866 : 530
ortho-xylene 126 : 102 : 144 : 0.870 : 530
3-ethyltoluene 162 : 138 : 158 : 0.865 :
1,3,5-trimethylbenzene 170 : 136 : 163 : 0.864 :
1,2,4-trimethylbenzene 148 : 124 : 168 : 0.889 :
8% olefins
2-pentene 154 : 138 : 37 : 0.649 :
2-methylbutene-2 176 : 140 : 36 : 0.662 :
2-methylpentene-2 159 : 148 : 67 : 0.690 :
cyclopentene 171 : 126 : 44 : 0.774 :
( the following olefins are not present in significant amounts
in gasoline, but have some of the highest blending octanes )
1-methylcyclopentene 184 : 146 : 75 : 0.780 :
1,3 cyclopentadiene 218 : 149 : 42 : 0.805 :
dicyclopentadiene 229 : 167 : 170 : 1.071 :
methanol 133 : 105 : 65 : 0.796 : 385
ethanol 129 : 102 : 78 : 0.794 : 365
iso propyl alcohol 118 : 98 : 82 : 0.790 : 399
methyl tertiary butyl ether 116 : 103 : 55 : 0.745 :
ethyl tertiary butyl ether 118 : 102 : 72 : 0.745 :
tertiary amyl methyl ether 111 : 98 : 86 : 0.776 :

Regarding the cost to use these products… Lets assume a desired octane of 96.5 and a total quantity of10.25 gal since JB has already given us these numbers…
If the Torco is bought in bulk, it cost $8.25 per treatment of 10 gal of 91 octane gas to yield the 96.5 octane blend. Assuming gas is $2.25/gal for 91, the total cost is $30.75 for 10.25 gal of 96.5 octane fuel.
If xylene is bought in bulk it cost about $4/galfrom your local Sherwin Williams (cheaper if bought from a chem. wholesaler). You’d need to add about 2.25 gal of xylene to 8 gal of 91 octane gas to achieve the same quantity of 96.7 octane fuel. This cost $27 for the same 10.25 gal of a slightly higher octane fuel… with fewer risks to you or your vehicle. Toluene can be substituted for xylene and is a little cheaper, but has a slightly lower octane so you have to use a little more to achieve the same results. I like to add an ounce or two of ATF or MMO to each gallon of solvent added, it works as a lubricant and adds a couple of pennies for the total cost.

It should also be noted that xylene or toluene will give a liner octane boost based on varying %’s added. MMT won’t be liner, it will have a nonlinear curve which will make calculating predicted octane ratings more difficult for achieving higher or lower desired octane ratings other than what is given by the manufacture. So it you are trying to achieve a good daily driver fuel of say 93 octane rating using 91 octane fuel as the base, using the solvents it will be ease to calculate, but it will be very difficult to accurately measure and calculate how much of the MMT based product will be needed.

It’s a little more effort to use toluene or xylene to achieve a given octane since you have to add larger quantities, the Torco product is certainly more convenient to use. The solvents are a little cheaper to use, won’t leave deposits in your engine like MMT will, won’t clog O2 sensors / cats, and are not nearly as toxic / dangerous. Benzene and MMT are some nasty compounds, be very careful not to handle or inhale this product or the exhaust from your vehicle. While I wouldn’t be at all afraid to use this product for occasional track use, I would think twice about using it for long-term daily use… it will leave deposits and if you don’t believe me pull a plug after burning a tank full or two of this product. It will also drastically raise your HC emissions so don’t use Torco if you’re going in for emissions testing.

If you guys are not running cats or O2 sensors, I’d think about using the leaded version of the Torco product… it will work even better than the MMT version.

Oh yeah, for the funny guy that wants to know if he can use mineral spirits… yes but not for an octane booster. MS works great as an injector cleaner… this is what’s in many of the popular injector cleaners. "

mdhmi

I look at it this way. When I had KR in the past I added a can of Torco and that eliminated the KR.

Mark

vetterdstr

We have already determined that it takes 6 gallons of Xylene to equal the same results as one 32 oz of Torco.. IN ONE TANK OF GAS!!

So what do you want to do.. buy little cans of Torco and carry them around in the trunk and add them as needed? OR... do you want to lug around 18 gallons of Xylene in the trunk for the next three fill ups... lets see... 72 ounces in small cans.... or 126 pounds of xylene in 5 gallon buckets...

Tough decision??

VR

towercontroller

Scot, do you have any knowledge about the use of airplane fuel. I have access to the fuel but not sure about using it. I have no cats and O2s are off.

Thanks

Gary

Busa196

I'm a believer. I saw it work before my eyes on the dyno with EFI live. EFI doesn't lie. My blown Vette with alky injection will never run without it.

Skunkworks

It’s leaded fuel. With no O2s or cats you should be fine, but other can chime in.

Mike

mdhmi

I thought you can get 100 unleaded at many airports ?

Mark

SS930

I assume you're talking about avgas 100/130 (green) and 100LL (blue). Both have research and motor octane numbers slightly over 100. The 100/130 has 4g of lead per gallon and the LL (low lead) has about two grams. The LL has very high aromatics. The 100/130 is your better bet if you have no cats or O2 sensors. Regular race gas weighs about 6.2#/gal. as I recall avgas is about 5.8#/gal. Since the SG of the fuels are different you have to compensate by burning more avgas than you would normal fuels. I don't recall the specific amount, but I seem to remember about a 10-20% increase being required. Another thing to consider is while avgas has a higher octane rating than normal 93 pump gas, it's not as high as top quality racing fuels. I don't know all that much about the specifics of avgas, but I'm sure the information is readily available.

If you can get avgas free or cheap, I'd suggest you run it if you have an engine that could benefit from the octane. Keep in mind the strong aromatics might cause problems with your hoses and fuel system if you run this stuff straight unless you design your fuel system around it... and of course you'd need to richen the tune accordingly. Adding a couple gallons of avgas into a tank of pump gas might be your best bet, this won't cause any issues with your fuel system and will give you a good bump in octane, the mix will burn only slightly leaner than normal (probably not much to worry about, but it's worth checking the A/F ratio to be safe).

BTW, is your car fuel injected? I assume you're talking about a C5 (???), if so you must have at least one set of O2 sensors unless you've removed the fuel injection system... Even if you do have a set of O2's, it will take a long time for the lead to foul the sensors if you're only adding a couple gallons of leaded avgas per tank (maybe 500 hours?).

Sorry I can't help you out any more than this, but like I said before, the info is out there if you need more specific information.

towercontroller

Yes, I am talking about avgas. Thanks for the info again.

Hool97

Just curious. Has anyone ever had problems with 02 sensors with torco?
Joel? Does the rust deposit harm wide band 02 sensors and or cat's, short term vs long term?\

Thanks

0Jeff @ TPE

I have a gas station right down the street from my house that sells 100 octane. (Its a Rebel Station) Are these fuels "Really" 100 octane??
Can I use it in my car with no problems??

Jeff

jbsblownc5

I've been running Torco for over 2 years now. I've seen my plugs and O2s last the same time they did before I used Torco. The deposits are minimal. On a hipo, modded car, one should expect to replace certain items. Having to spend $100 one extra time in the last 2 years, that "might" be attributable to Torco, is a small price to pay for the peace of mind higher octane offers. I've literally beaten the CRAP out of the this motor, and it still runs like a champ!!!

There are those that theorize what Torco can and can't do, and those who have experience what it does do.

For those that still doubt it will effectively and efficiently raise your octane in a safe manner, HAVE YOU TRIED IT YET??????



JB