PICKLE

Right, before anyone tells me I'm being stupid, I've been reading a thread on 22B.com about using Alcohol as an Octane Booster!

There was talk of the chemical to use was :'ISOPROPANOL' which is as near dammit pure Alcohol. I want to know if this is the correct stuff to use and at what percentage to mix??

Any Chemists or experts have a view on this? Need to know, cos we use it at work

Henrik

iTrader: (5)

Just don't go pouring whiskey into your tank, because propanol has three carbon atoms per molecule, as opposed to ethanol (drinking alcohol), which has two

tweenierob

Hmmmm... wonder if you work where i work

Rob

fuz

AA ?

David_Wallis

I found a site mentioning all the blends..

Toluene was most favoured... but if you can get ipa then use it

David

PICKLE

Any ideas as to how much I should add?? Percentage??

The stuff we use at work is totally clear, and evaporates very quickly! Don't know the Chemistry to it, just that it's called ISOPROPANOL!

I must admit to being a little bit worried of using it? Have used it in water spray as it is a wetting agent, as that's the purpose it serves at work.

Hmmmmmm I wonder

Delboy2

I used to use a 50:50 mix of IPA and water in my water injection system on my MR2 Turbo. Worked very well

SiHethers

Pickle

You need to be very sure of the composition of the isopropanol. 70% isopropanol would be no good. You need dry (aka anhydrous) isopropanol. Start with 5% mix ie if you fill with 50L, add 2.5L isopropanol before you fill the tank. Be aware, if your tank is contaminated with water this will be drawn up into the alcohol and mixed with the petrol, which may cause rough running until it's cleared.

Isopropanol's blending octane is 118 so a 5% mix with optimax should produce 118*2.5/50 + 98.4*47.5/50 = 99.4RON fuel. It's charge cooling effect will be additive to this. Using anhydrous methanol would be better as it has a blending RON of 133 and a higher latent heat of vapourisation (ie more charge cooling, although isopropanol has a higher boiling point). I've personally noticed that with isopropanol the first few WOT runs after your coolant and oil reaches operating temp can be a bit rough. I put this down to the combustion chamber not being quite upto optimal operating temperature, and incomplete vapourisation of the alcohol. Only tends to occur higher in the rpm range at high load, and goes after the first couple of WOT runs.

Get it from here £39 for 25L delivered.

Simon

[Edited by SiHethers - 12/29/2003 9:21:47 AM]

PICKLE

SiHethers, thanks for that. Will get hold of a Data sheet for the stuff we use and see whether it is suitable. Hopefully it is, as I can get it for free and that clearly is a good thing!

Cheers everyone,

PICKLE

Right, got all the info I could from work. It turns out the stuff we use (IPA) is actually 99.9% pure Alcohol I reckon this will be more than perfect to bring the Octane rating up a little with Optimax Will try it at 3% first I reckon, see if I notice any difference in performance. Then increase %age as I go.

Pavlo

IPA = Isopropanol

PICKLE

Paul, The actual name of the stuff I got Is:ISOPROPYLALKOHOL..... Its German! as I said 99.9% Alcohol according to Data Sheet.
It is IPA/Isopropanol call it what you will