My primary bike right now is a 2015 Road Glide equipped with a Stage IV 103 ci engine. With the 10.5:1 compression, the bike has always been finicky about ethanol additive fuels, so I always try to purchase non-ethanol 93 octane fuel. For the most part, this has been sufficient for performance and fuel economy. However, over the past several months, I have noticed what I had thought to be lifter noise between 2,400 and 3,100 RPM. It tends to diminish the longer I ride the bike. My dealer changed the lifters after they heard it. This did not help at all. Now they believe I need octane booster. I'm not convinced this will fix my issue, but I'm willing to give it a try.

I've read about the Lucas Oil octane booster and Liquid Horsepower. Do you have any opinions and recommendations on octane boosters? Thanks in advance for your response.

 

Nitrous Oxide Systems (NOS) Octane Booster is on the shelf for times of bad gasoline in Dallas.

 

Buy a 5 gallon can of toluene (114 octane), add to lower octane gasoline to taste. Check out

http://www.worldofchemicals.com/428/...e-booster.html

 

Thanks for the info.

 

I've had good luck with Lucas. My bike will not run on 87 without pinging. Last summer in Sequia NP, all that was available was 87. I filled with 87 and added 1oz per gallon of gas, and the bike ran acceptably.

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

I've read that octane booster over time can lead to some kind of buildup in the cylinders. Any truth to that.

 

I have no idea? I've heard that the crappy ethanol enhanced fuels do the same.

 

How does toluene raise Octane. Higher octane fuel ignites slower than lower octane fuels ,Toluene is extremely flammable . The reason these engines need the 91 octane is so the fuel does not ignite under compression before the spark.

 

Straight toluene is 121 RON, 107 MON or 114 octane R+M/2. Toluene also has higher energy/volume than gasoline.

ETA Formula 1 racing engines used to run on fuel that's roughly 80% toluene and the rest xylene etc. When they ran this mixture the constructors often ducted exhaust heat to pre-heat the fuel.

Also the gasoline you buy at your local station already has substantial amount of toluene in it, up to 15-20%

Here's an Octane Calculator to determine how much high-octane to add to low-octane to get your desired octane.

http://www.motorsportsracingfuels.co...alculator.html