Fuel additive?

[Car Guru]

Does anyone on the Pelican use fuel additive or any of those off the shelf fuel/ octane additives or injector cleaners? I Purchased my car from a Porsche dealer, and haven worked at a dealer many years ago while in college I remember the dealer had one fuel pump all ’87 and they would pump brand new Saleen Mustangs , used High performance cars etc.. with 87 octane. My car ran good but I didn’t feel it was good enough.. .at anyrate I haven’t put enough mileage on the car to go though the entire tank the dealer gave me, but I bought some off the shelf octane cleaner (Most expensive one) And it seemed to smooth out my idle and make the car easier to start, but it could just be my but dyno telling me this? At any rate do you guys use it or recommend it in your 911’S? or is it snake oil? Myth Busters busted the octane booster gains on a show using an old V6 Buick, the car showed slightly lower hp numbers and actually returned less mpg using it. They even tested about 6-8 different brands.

-Ryan

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Most "octane boosters" are worthless. Here's a good read on the subject, right here in the Pelican archives.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/techarticles/mult_gas_and_oil/mult_gas_faq1.htm

That said, I do use a lead additive for my '74 car. Supposedly the exhaust valve seats are hardened and won't suffer from lead-free fuel, but I figure it's cheap insurance.

Back when I had my 951 I experimented a bit with Xylene/Toluene blends added to regular motor fuel, which helped with anti-detonation quite a bit. Supposedly toluene gives a wicked flame front spread inside the cylinders too. . .

[Thrlls]

Try using the Swepco injector cleaner.
You could use Techron, but you'll need to change out your oil soon after that as it degrades the oil from what I'm told.

[PatrickB]

That was the nice thing about Mustangs. They were engineered to run on 87 Octane. No need to run Premium.
That might be the misnomer about Octane boost additives. IMHO the MythBuster test was flawed. If the fuel was actually tested, they would have probably showed an increase in Octane level. Merely testing for an increase in HP, or mileage doesn't prove whether octane was increased.

[cnavarro]

I use the Swepco 503 fuel improver, Redline SI-1, or Chevron Techron (the largest, most expensive bottle). I only use the Chevron Techron before an oil change, where I use the Swepco or Redline between changes.