Question about race fuel

[DieselNuts]

I was looking at Toluene mixture formulas yesterday untill I found out that the price of it is about $20/gal. So I started thinking of race fuel.

I just did a quick search on VP Racing's website and realized that there is much more to it than just going to the store and buying a can of race fuel. I knew they offered different octanes, but I had no idea that there were soooo many octanes for so many different applications.

What I am looking to do is make a mix of pump 87 and race fuel to get the 93 octane that I should be running. I saw that they have leaded and unleaded fuels available. I know that the leaded fuel will clog your cats, but I dont have cats....does that mean I can run leaded fuel? What other parts will leaded fuel harm?

Does anyone have a reccomendation of what brand/type of race fuel to go with?

Thanks for any input guys.

[sabastian458]

the leaded fuel with eat away at the o2 sensors over time. I have never experianced it myself. some of the stations arround me have leaded 110 sunoco race fuel. I would do 1/3 ration of race per reg fuel and do logging to make sure you have enough race in it.

if you were to buy from vp, the best to get is the vp import fuel. or oxygenatied fuel. :)

[sabastian458]

I ran a full tank for race fuel ever 2 tanks when I owned my 3000gt VR4. It still had both pre cats but no main cat. I owned the car for 3+ years and never had a precat failure nor any of the 4 o2 sensors fail on me.

[DieselNuts]

Where are you located that has that fuel? Oh, this is going in a Cobra too, though I dont think that would make a big difference as far as the VP import fuel goes.

[DieselNuts]

Oh, and thats another thing, I dont have cats and only have 2 02sensors along with 2 spares.

[slostang]

leaded fuel will also mess up your fuel injectors.

[Elbow]

I used to run leaded high octane in my Civic and never had a problem lol

[GTScoob]

Toluene is only $15 and if it's being sold for more than that, go to Home Depot and get Xylene, it's also $15 a gal and the exact same thing. If you buy big barrels of it the cost drops down to about $5 a gal. I'd run straight toluene if my fuel system could support it due to the rising cost of gas.

FYI, the turbocharged F1 cars in the 80s ran straight toluene albeit with an additive to lower the octane down to 102 or something.

[Member31410]

My car was on race gas pretty much every weekend since the start of 2006 until early this year when I threw my meth injection kit on. The only issue I encountered was fouled up spark plugs right after 5000 miles of service when on leaded race gas. Nothing else has failed on my car after 100K+ miles of race gas use. Note that I also do not have a cat on my car. My dyno pulls still put out the same numbers now just as it did back in 2006 with all that race gas use so I assume all is well. I did replace my O2 sensors at 100K miles but it was just because of the mileage I put on them.

[DieselNuts]

FYI, the turbocharged F1 cars in the 80s ran straight toluene albeit with an additive to lower the octane down to 102 or something.
Yeah, I read that they used 80% toluene and 20% of something that was 0 octane to drop it to the 101 regulation...something along those lines.

But yeah, I'll check w/home depot and lowes and see what they have to offer.


My car was on race gas pretty much every weekend since the start of 2006 until early this year when I threw my meth injection kit on. The only issue I encountered was fouled up spark plugs right after 5000 miles of service when on leaded race gas. Nothing else has failed on my car after 100K+ miles of race gas use. Note that I also do not have a cat on my car. My dyno pulls still put out the same numbers now just as it did back in 2006 with all that race gas use so I assume all is well. I did replace my O2 sensors at 100K miles but it was just because of the mileage I put on them.
Thanks for the info. I dont have any cats either, so no worries there. I just dont want this bullshiit to break the bank.

[Elbow]

Who would have imagined a day when tuner guys are trying to find their own alternate ways of using gas lol.

[pinoyboy]

I don't think I found anything at HD before, but sherwin williams carries some. I bought some 3 years ago, so not sure how much I paid.

*edit* just called and a gallon is $18.99 at Sherwin williams. The guy knew on the phone knew why I was calling for it too.

[DieselNuts]

I called a sherwin williams yesterday. They didnt have any toluene, but they did have xylene. They are similar, but I have read that toluene is better. I think it was $15/gal.

[Sport1.3]

Who would have imagined a day when tuner guys are trying to find their own alternate ways of using gas lol.


lol i'm swapping motors till this crap is overwith

[pinoyboy]

I called a sherwin williams yesterday. They didnt have any toluene, but they did have xylene. They are similar, but I have read that toluene is better. I think it was $15/gal.

From what I've found so far, I think xylene is actually better and you can't beat the cheaper price

[DieselNuts]

From what I've found so far, I think xylene is actually better and you can't beat the cheaper price
links?

[redrumracer]

from what i remember about leaded gas is that it also had something to do with the valve seats being soft or something like that. with modern engines and hardened valve seats you dont need to run leaded except if you want to raise the compression higher. or something like that.

[pinoyboy]

links?
http://www.geocities.com/runyardj/Octane-Boosters-Info.htm
http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/misc/octanebooster.html

[sabastian458]

it wont mess them up. it will actually "clean" them so to say. I havent seen an injector fail because of race fuel. Manufactures say it will, but they say that to cover their butts and to keep you from using it.

[DieselNuts]

http://www.geocities.com/runyardj/Octane-Boosters-Info.htm
http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/misc/octanebooster.html
nice, thanks for the info :goodjob:

[DieselNuts]

from what i remember about leaded gas is that it also had something to do with the valve seats being soft or something like that. with modern engines and hardened valve seats you dont need to run leaded except if you want to raise the compression higher. or something like that.
The main reason I was asking about leaded fuel is just to see if I would be limited to using unleaded race fuel or if I could broaden my research into the leaded territory.