1) stay away from "octane boosters" most make very little difference in true octane, and many will foul your sparkplugs (eventually). You will hear folks "swear by" certain brands, but do your research and read the tests and draw your own conclusions. 2) For off-hwy use, mixing Toluene (which is about 114 octane) at 10-20% with 91 octane has always worked fine for me to get to approx 93-95 octane (just wear proper gloves, eye protection, and have fresh air when fueling (just like you should for gasoline)) Ace has Pure Toluene, which is mandatory. Check your local motorcycle shops for race gas, there is a myriad assortment of unleaded (some oxygenated, some not) that can be mixed with 91 octane, expect $60 to $80 for 5 gallons, call the supplier for recommendations. http://www.vpracingfuels.com/vp_01_fuels.html#unleaded 3) For regular hwy commuting the tune seems to work fine at 91 octane, and retards timing to protect the engine at full boost. This is all just my opinion, but it is based on experience. Do your own research, and draw your own conclusions.

 

good info in this thread. should be a sticky!

 

my car is a 5spd man w/ lsd

 

Decided to cut loose with the change for the tuner today... after 3 calls and 4 hours finally got a call from a sales dude who didn't even know if they were selling the tuner or not........ he stops while talking to me to read an email, and then says "Oh yeah, I guess we are selling them."

????????

Suppose to get an email back to supply the VIN, trannie, etc. well, guess what, no freaking email.......

If the tuner is as "good" as the sales staff, my grandkid fed Wheaties and on his bike is going to dyno better!!!

Hate to think what kind of treatment I'd get if I spent more than a grand!!!

 

Robin the phone gal is really cool, chat with her, it's a heck of a lot more fun than the sales dude!!!!!!!

 

Since you have obviously done drag racing before you have to know a little something called altitude does to a car especially a boosted one. With a lower altitude the computer in the car is actually going to cut back the boost I noticed down in VA beach I was only making about 12PSI where as here in Northern VA I am constantly at 18psi with the higher elevations. The computer in the car regulates the boost so the car will will make the same power in death valley as it will in denver. Personally id rather have a car that does this automatically rather than manually and risk blowing up the engine. I really dont care what the car is making whether its 5psi or 30psi as long as the car is making the power I need than i dont care.

 

Even though I am very very Anti-Hand tuner I didnt realize that your graph was on the automatic so I will probably be ordering one soon as I get my seats installed to give me an extra edge against some of my stronger competition in autox B stock class (having trouble against a few RX8 and R32) I believe the extra ponies will give me the extra second I need around the course. And since I am Anti-hand tuner and have a dyno right down the street I will do a before and after and if the tune is crap I will record me unloading 30rds of 5.56 into it so dont let me down guys LOL. Dont let me down. LOL

 

Yup... boost is just a number, especially when compared between unlike systems.

"My xyz car runs 10 psi."
"Oh yeah, we'll my abc car is running 15... and it's blue."

... all equally relevant info (especially the color ).

And on the altitude thing, the hardcore guys who run Pike's Peak are in the 80# range... yowza! Of course, at 13,000 feet, it takes a LOT of boost to capture those precious few air molecules and mash them down into the engine as it rotates.

 

Yes, of course. Those $8 cans of acetone are ego boosters more than anything else (I'm picturing an old beat up truck hanging out at the local drive-in on a Friday night with a couple of empty Schlitz cans and an empty 104+ can in the bed, with the pimply-faced driver begging people to "run it.")

I did a little Intarwebnet research on CA gas and, basically, it appears the formulation method is to squeeze all the chemical energy out of it, and just leave it as "wet stuff" that's now $4.59/gallon

 

Since your on the subject of fuels what kind of gains if researched are you getting with race fuels or will you not even see any gains. Cause if I do get this tuner there may be times where I will be racing in locations that have 99 octane but I dont want to waste the money if im not going to get any gains out of it.