Lee Lyons

Okay my dad figured this out and thought I'd share. This was obviously before my time and when I got it all figured out I'll post the mixing ratios for you. Okay everyone here knows what moth ***** are I'm sure of that! We've all run into their strong smell at one point in time or another. What is a moth ball exactly? Moth ***** are...a crystalline white hydrocarbon called naphthalene...derived from coal tar...but not that kind of coal...basically when it all comes down to it moth ***** are solidified gases and it just so happens that these gases are and can be used as an octane booster if you know the correct mixing ratios. When my dad first figured it out he tried it in his firebird...just mixing alittle and bringing it to a race to put in his tank before he raced...first time he tried it he said that it was amazing...the amount of power derived from these simple department store items was unexpected...so I'll figure it all out and work out the mixing ratios for those of you interested in a cheap HIGH octane boost...thought you'd all like to know seeing as were always looking for something that will perk up the rotaries alittle more...

Jeff20B

iTrader: (13)

I'd prefer an octane reducer.

Turbo II-FB

tell us more

Lee Lyons

the gas that they solidify through some process has the same chemical properties as the chemical that...say a gas company would use to make a high test fuel...so if I can figure out the mixing ratios for the different available octane levels at the pumps you could just buy regular and pep it up to supreme or above that with less that the price of the high test gas...and if I figure it out per litre for Canadians and gallons for Americans how many moth ball each gallon or litre would take to make a certain octane level then you could even add moth ***** right into your tank at the pumps...say each litre of gas with an octane level of 83 or something takes 1 moth ball to increase the octane to 91 then on 40 litres of gas you would need 40 moth ***** to increase the octane level to 91...and so on for each type of gas...

tasty danish

iTrader: (5)

now all you need is a car with high compressino to realize the benefit and you'd be set.
high octane gas in a car that does not require it LOWERS power as the gas resists combustion.
probably one of the worst myths floating around is that high-octane=always good.

Lee Lyons

I wasn't saying that you would drive around necessarily all the time like this I was saying that you could...that premixing a couple litres or gallons before your going to race on a track or something could be beneficial...obviously you wouldn't put it in a small 4 cyclinder something not designed for it...but a rotary definitly has the compression to deal with it...you don't need a V12 to realize that extra power that has been added...thing of it sort of as solid dissolvable NOS...only not really...lol

peejay

Octane has nothing to do with how much energy is in a fuel. (Actually, chemicals that increase octane rating tend to have lower BTU/lb, so the total energy in the fuel is reduced slightly).

Naturally aspirated rotaries don't care about octane rating anyway - what we need is combustion speed. Now, this is where it gets tricky... a lot of race fuels have compounds that *do* burn faster than street fuels, so this is a gain. The gain is not from the higher octane, though. And for street fuels, sometimes higher octane fuels burn more quickly, sometimes they don't, it depends on what cocktail the brand you bought is using in your area that month.

64mgb

iTrader: (1)

This could be useful for forced induction motors (supercharged, turbocharged) though. From what I've been reading about superchargers, higher octane fuel will help prevent detonation.

Feds

64 MG is right. NA rotaries don't need high octane. Force-fed ones do.

HOWEVER.... I'm going to remain sceptical on dropping mothballs into a gas tank until I see it on MYTHBUSTERS.

DAVID GRIMES

How do they get their legs apart ? I mean the moths... to get their *****.

Directfreak

iTrader: (2)

With Really tiny tweezers.

candyassmiler

they're enunuchs.

Metallic_rock

ACTUALLY!!! It was on Mythbusters recently. They put some mothballs in the gas and the buick engine actually ran better. The myth was that it caused problems. The engine started to purr like a kitten. They tried a bunch of other things as well.

Lee Lyons

maybe I shouldn't have said octane...but the moth ***** do something to the gas to make the explosion of the gas greater...

Metallic_rock

Check out the MSDS on it: http://www.jtbaker.com/msds/englishhtml/n0090.htm


Fire:
Flash point: 87C (189F) CC
Autoignition temperature: 526C (979F)
Combustible. May be ignited by heat, sparks or flame. May burn rapidly with flare-burning effect. Fire may produce irritating or poisonous gases

Metallic_rock

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasc.../chem00485.htm


Yes, mothballs will slightly assist the octane rating of gasoline. HOWEVER, in
that grain of truth there lurks the potential for disaster. One must use very
few mothballs (naphthalene only) because the ratio of carbon to hydrogen in
the molecules makes for a very dirty burning fuel. Too many mothballs and your
engine will load up with carbon deposits -- very bad news in the performance
department.

DAVID GRIMES

Will our cologne smell better ?

kettlman

iTrader: (2)

i've heard of that along time ago. never wanted to try it though.

Rogue_Wulff

A freind used to put a few mothballs in the fuelcell of his racecar, and swore it made a difference. I always asked how he could tell, because invariably at least one rocker stud would break, or the nut back off, or a plug wire would come loose, and he would run the race with 6-7 Cyl instead of 8.
These days, he runs lower compression and higher CID, so 93 octane pump gas works just fine, and he has yet to drop a cyl during the race.
Did the mothballs contribute to the dropping cyls? Doubtful.
Did they improve HP? Hard to tell.
Any engine damage? None we ever found.
That being said, I conclude that each person would have to test for themselves to see if it really makes any difference, as I never bothered trying it for myself.
Testing at a Dyno would be the best way to determine the true results, IMHO.

edmcguirk

Once again it's time to go back to the Gasoline FAQ. Read the whole thing and learn something.

http://www.repairfaq.org/filipg/AUTO...l#GASOLINE_005


Short answer: Don't bother.


If I remember right, toluene is considered the best.

http://www.elektro.com/~audi/audi/toluene.html

ed

lovintha7

I read in there that too much of naphthaline will increase carbon deposits. Just a wonderful thing for a rotary. You know, we all want those apex seals damn near welded to the rotor. No spring is good spring.......riiiiiiiighhtttt