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From: svirsky@ttidcb.UUCP (William Svirsky)
Newsgroups: net.auto.tech
Subject: Re: gas and octane rating
Message-ID: <486@ttidcb.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 21-Oct-85 19:37:50 EDT
Article-I.D.: ttidcb.486
Posted: Mon Oct 21 19:37:50 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 25-Oct-85 02:15:06 EDT
References: <1740@akgua.UUCP>
Reply-To: svirsky@ttidcb.UUCP (William Svirsky)
Organization: Transaction Technology, Inc. (CitiCorp), Santa Monica
Lines: 28

In article <1740@akgua.UUCP> dlp@akgua.UUCP (D.L. Philen [Dan]) writes:
>
>    Lets talk about gasoline and additives to increase octane ratings.
>MYTH:  HI-Test (high octane) gasoline burns faster and is more powerful
>than regular.

If its not more powerful, then why does it give better gas mileage?

>Low octane gas burns too fast a must be retared by the addition of
>compounds like tetraethyl lead or branched chain hydrocarbons.
>Problem: The EPA has now virtually abolished the use of lead.  Thus we no
>longer have the really high octane levels of the "muscle car" days.

What does lead have to do with increasing the octane?  You said octane was an
indication of the number of branched chain hydrocarbons.  Does adding lead
increase the number of branched chain hydrocarbons?

>    Since the use of lead is out of the question, what has to  be done is to
>increase the total number of branched chain molecules to the point where
>there is a high octane rating.  Adding just a few gallons of high test
>to a tank of regular will not add enough molecules to raise the octane
>rating significantly.
>                ...The other alternative is to drastically reduce
>the flame front propagation velocity by adding really slow burning compounds
>like aromatic molecules.  ie. benzene and naphthalene.

Is this what all of those "octane booster" additives do?