Thread: Octane Booster Fuel Additives - Opinions/Facts Needed!

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OK, I have a 350 with unknown guts, Edlebrock 650 CFM 4-barrel carb, Edlebrock Performer intake manifold with headers. The engine was built by a shop in Missouri (data plate on block with only serial number) and it kicks #ss when its running right.

My problem is detonation (knocks) when accelerating. Spoke with my mechanic about this and he recommended a fuel additive that he is super-pumped about (and a dealer for).

The cider is called DLEF All-Purpose Fuel Treatment and is produced by David Liles, Liles Oil Company Inc. It is listed as a "Cetane & Octane Booster" and has ethanol in it.

I tried it, bam! no knocks!!! Seems to work great!

So what is the problem? I've moved away from my mechanic and this stuff isn't the easiest to find where I live now.

I always fill with premium (93) and add 16 oz to a 17 gallon tank. It seems obvious to me that the extra octane is what is getting rid of the knocks but maybe there are other ways to get the knocks out and enhance performance???

I now use this car as my primary rig and don't like the knocks!

Anyone have any good ideas/opinions/facts about these "snake oil" products?

I built a sbc a few years ago that I thought would run on the 93, but got knocks..It cost me more but I would run 110 with the 93 half and half. ran fine and if I wanted to play a little harder I just didn't run the 93. In town here there is a Co-Op the owner is a circle burner and the have 110 at the pump island.

I used to use 104 octane booster, about the same mix ratio as the product you mentioned.... Now I just run them on E-85, lots of octane and cheaper then premium!!!

I had not considered E-85 which might be your answer, but have you tried backing down the timing a few degrees? Octane simply slows down the burn time in the cylinders which reduces peak pressures and thus eliminates knock. Retarding your timing has the same affect, and unless your base compression ratio is way high you should be able to de-tune it to run on available premium pump gas without knocks.

Charlie, thanks to you I am on the search...but driving it as much as I do I hope I find it close! Someone in St. Augustine told me where I could find 104 from a pump. But he may have been on the beach too long.

Dave. care to elaborate? E-85 is a 15% ethanol right? Here in the sunshine state we have up to 10% ethanol on three different rankings (87, 90 & 93 if you believe thet pump text). In getting ready to put this question out to the world I read the bottle of the stuff that I am pouring in the tank and see that it is ethanol too!!!!

When you say you "run them on E-85, lots of octane and cheaper than permium" my simple mind gets confused. Do you still use additives or just E-85 and what the hey is E-85?

Not to mention WTH is cetane?

Back to the original question it sounds like I need to find the best (highest octane) gas that I can. Doesn't sound like others have found the same perfomance from additives.

But I love all of the opinions! I need help in running my engine right at a reasonable cost!

With as many engines that I know are out there, there has to be as many opinions about fuel!

E85 is 85% ethanol, generally runs about 106 octane. Most folks don't have any use for ethanol but we've been running it for 5 or 6 years now in drag cars and circle track cars. Not as efficient as gasoline so you have to pump more of it to the engine. Takes some reworking on the carb, too. But when things are set up right, it really works good FOR ME!!!! Don't have any idea what the availability is around your area, here in the cornbelt it's available most everywhere....

Also might want to check into a water/methanol injection system... There's a number of companies making them, my experience is with one made by Snow....used it on a blown car with a boost reference system, worked great!!!!

Cetane is the rating system for diesel fuel.

What are your running for an ignition system and timing??? Sometimes you can pull a few degrees of advance out of the engine in the rpm range where it rattles and cure the problem, too...

Mark Thomas has campaigned a E85 funny car for yrs.

Race on E85

I had a stroked BB Mopar,,11.5-1cr,,and ran Maxrace additive,,not a lot,,a 400gram can,nearly full,in a tank of 96 unleaded to get the knock out of the engine..Ran good and hard..Worked well,but wasnt too cheap..

Thanks for all the replies, I guess that Roger and I must have posted at the same time cuz I just saw his reply.

That may be the deal though, I hadn't thought about it before. I guess that a couple of degrees might do the trick without losing too much HP or torque.

Lamin8r have you tried setting your timing back a mark or two?

Thanks all! I'll let you know how it works! But for the time being I'm heading back to my "snake oil" supplier and get another case

you may not want to work on your engine any but a few times iv`e had to run double head gaskets to get out of a too high of compression problem ..

Reading through this thread makes me wonder if you might have too much/too fast mechanical (centrifugal) advance internal to the distributor - wrong, weak or broken spring or maybe someone before you decided to elongate the slots or maybe they are just worn. I used the wrong spring pair arrangement in my MSD distributor and did it rattle under low speed load -

Hmmmm, there is another thing that I hadn't thought of Dave...I had only considered this as a by-product of high compression. or perhaps an advanced timing (from other comments) But this would have the same effect wouldn't it? Thanks for the idea!!!

I need to get in touch with the folks that built the engine and get more info on the engine, see how high the compression is, what kind of cam etc.

Thanks for all the help!

Hoss, once I find out about the compression that idea might be a winner!!!

Did you ever have any other problems as a result of the double gaskets? Same torque on the head bolts right?

Thanks Roger, I guess that it's time to get the timing light out and put it too work!

Kind of wish I had one of those handheld calibrators though...

Originally Posted by rspears

Eric,
On my 347 I can simply use my handheld calibrator to do a global timing adjustment, backing out two or three degrees of spark across the board until I get back to a known, consistent fuel..

Showoff!