and do i need one ? octane around here only gets up around 91 . My car has a 350 .30 over , aluminum heads ( 64cc) pro-flo fuelinjection.
Thanks,
Gary

Only if you need it. That depends on not only how the engine is built, but how it is adjusted, and driven. Octane boosters can improve performance and fuel mileage. They can also hurt both. Too much is as bad as too little.

It won't hurt you to try it once and see what happens. Most of the time they are a waste of money if you use good fuel. Sometimes they are worth their weight in gold.

Be sure to check and see if the one you choose has lead in it. Lead will kill Oxygen sensors (81 and up) and catalyic converters (75 and up). That gets expensive.

|UPDATED|4/21/2004 8:31:26 AM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

Thanks,
The reason I asked was sometimes when I stomp on the accelerator it kind of pings/rattles. So it could just be timing or something or the fact it has only been driven 500 miles in the past 2 years by the guy I bought it from. Gas probably isn't the best after that much time either I guess.
gary

no, and you have bad gas

Check your timing and see where it is set. If it is advanced too much it will cause your engine to ping. If you are running higher than 10 to 1 compression, you might have to run high octance gas or look into octane boosters. I run C 5 Octane Booster in my car. It is made by VP Racing and can be found at certain speed shops. This allows me to advance my timing where I want it without the ping. I have tried many of the other products carried by the parts houses and retail stores. They work a little, but always foul the spark plugs.

Thanks for the replies ! I hope to have her cleaned up and some nice weather this weekend to empty the tank and blow out the cobwebs !

Be careful!!! Octane boosters that advertise their octane boost in points, mean that they will boost your octane by 10th's, not full points. If it says it will boost your octane by 7 points then it will increase by 0.7 not 7.0 . So if your running 91 octane you will only end up with 91.7 octane and a hole in your wallet.
I have been using toluene for octane boost with no problems so far. I mix about 5-10% toluene per tank. With 91 octane I end up with about 96-98 octane.

Trevor,
What is toluene ?

|UPDATED|4/26/2004 5:29:14 AM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

After a fair amount of time researching octane boosters I can tell you that from what I've learned, they only coat your combustion chamber to prevent detonation and they do nothing to actually boost octane. There is no substitute for high octane fuel. Try mixing 110 octane race fuel with premium and you will see for yourself.

This is based on personal experience with 11:1 compression and a 3/4 race cam in a '69 350/350.

Best of luck!

R1stVette said: Thanks, The reason I asked was sometimes when I stomp on the accelerator it kind of pings/rattles. So it could just be timing or something or the fact it has only been driven 500 miles in the past 2 years by the guy I bought it from. Gas probably isn't the best after that much time either I guess. gary

before you go looking for octane booster which just treats the symptom.. you need to look at the causes.

you need to do a thorough tune up on this vehicle.. that means replace the rotor and cap... REPLACE the rotor springs.. no body ever does this and it is one of the most common causes of timing problems on old cars.

replace the plugs.. and if the wires look or feel cheap, chunk em. it would also help if you could tell us what the timing setting is now..

a car that has only been driven 500 miles in two years sounds like it has what i like to call hibernation sickness.

there is another thread here where myself and ken and a few others discuss "steam cleaning" the engine by trickling water in the carb.. these are all important elements of a tune up when you get a vehicle from someone else... in addition to the standard filters and fluids.

just my $.02 but I would definitely go over all of this stuff regardless of what the last owner said he did..

I have bought cars with "fresh" tune-ups only to find point dwell wildly wrong, plug gap wildly wrong, vacuum leaks, worn rotors with a new cap, etc.

definitely drain your gas and use it in your lawnmower or something if you cant let 2$/gal go to waste. and use injector cleaner when you fill back up.