Octane Booster

Hey all, i run my 4cyl honda vtec on premium fuel (as it should be).
The premium here in australia is supposedly nothing compared to the
overseas ones so i put some octane booster in my tank. It ran well the
first tank yet i put a little bit more in the next time i filled up.
After filling it the second time and adding the octane boost my car is
running extremely rough. Conditions are

- Idleing inconsistently and lots of engine movement - can feel it in
the wheel!
- Changed engine tempo, much deeper growl, sorta like a WRX with a 4
inch exhaust (and my car isnt a WRX)
- Extremely slow in low revs and struggling to pull hard, same in
higher revs
- When the VTEC kicks in it sometimes clears up but other times its
extremely laggy.
- Sounds like the cars going to backfire...... well not really but it
has that excess fuel build up sound in the exhaust like theres unburnt
spits.

Any ideas guys? i thought maybe the octane boost has clogged up my
injectors yet im not too sure.

Thanks

 

Nope.

It's designed to run on regular.

If you doubt me, check your owner's manual.

Gas with higher octane rating actually creates *less* power in an engine
that's designed for the lower octane.

 

Adding fuel injector cleaner is a cheap and easy step to take. If it clears
up in the next couple hundred km you know that's what it was, and that
additive isn't for you.

Mike

 

Hey Mate,
What's is it like to live down under? I believe that you should start
making use of regular gasoline and stop adding octane booster to the
gasoline. I hope that you did not "burn" or damage the valves. I suggest
that you or your favorite mechanic take a close look at the valves to make
sure they are still working the way they are suppose to work. Also--adjust
the valves if the valves are working normally. I don't know about the
gasoline in your country--if it's dirty--you should install a new gasoline
filter to see if that helps. If you have dirty gasoline in your town--you
may have to replace the fuel filter everytime your engines starts to run
badly.
jason

 

How much gas is still in the tank? It might be easiest to drain and refill
it with regular gas. Disposing of the old gas might be a hassle, so it
might be best to have your mechanic take care of it.

Eric

 

First thing I would do is siphon all the contaminated gas out of tank
and fill with the octaine suggested by owners manual. You may be
lucky and as soon as old gas clears line car will go back to normal.
s

 

hey again guys, thanks for all your responses!! Turns out my head
gasket was leaking co-incidently at the same time id put the injector
cleaner in! Found water in where the sparkplugs were so only 3
cylinders were firing!

Its not bad downunder thanks jason! Pretty kewl place to live.

The reason i said the fuel was not all that great as ive been told the
octane content in the fuels here both premium and unleaded were lower
than places like japan. Seeing as i have an imported car i thought id
run it with a higher shot of octane, it did make a difference though!
Oh well, time for a new head gasket haha, thanks guys!

 

Happy to hear you found the problem.

That might be a misunderstanding. There are different ways of measuring
the octane rating of gas, there is the Motor Octane Number and the
Research Octane Number, the difference being how the measurements are
done. In the US the published number is called PON, or Pump Octane
Number and this is the average of RON and MON. In Europe and many other
regions the RON only numbers are published. For a given gas blend, the
RON number is higher than the MON number, so a European gas sold as 92
octane will be a lower octane gas than what is sold as 92 octane in the
US. In the US, regular is 87 octane, intermediate is 89 octane and
premium is 93 (sometimes 92) octane. You'll probably find that the
octane rating for the different categories are higher in Australia
(assuming they use RON like in Europe). Thus a US Premium is probably
equivalent to an Australian Premium even though the posted numbers are
different.

 

Being able to laugh when facing a head gasket replacement makes you a
stouter man than I am, VTEC! Sorry to hear about the tough break, glad it is
on the mending path.

Mike