Naphthalene as an octane booster

Blaner

Blaner

Your Friendly South African Ambassador
Mar 26, 2008
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East London, South Africa
Im sure some of you have heard about using Naphthalene which is found in mothballs in fuel to raise the octane level. has anyone tried/used this or know anything about it? I was thinking that if your motor is running near its limits with advanced timing and porting etc and may be on the verge of detonation if it got a little hotter than normal, would it not be a wise and cheap saftey precaution to pop a calculated amount of mothballs into your fuel while you busy with premixing? This would, (i believe) raise the octane of the fuel somewhat hence preventing detonation to some degree?
I know you guys are going to say just run race fuel and im aware of that, im just wondering about the validity of the "myth"

I found these sites, Gasoline FAQ - Part 3 of 4 Mothballs and Gasoline </head>

It seems they cause a dirty burning process which would foul plugs. and it seems unclear as to whether it actually does raise the octane.

Anyone have info, experience with this as a cheap safty measure?
 
I am a trained professional, DO NOT try this at home. :eek:

That being said, I would not want to be the Guiene Pig (sp) to try it. Although there are some pretty smart people here ,(some more than others) unless I knew they are a chemist specializing in petro chems, I would not beleive it. I vaguely recall reading something simular at one time about mixing gas with some other chem, don't think it would be worth it. Gasoline is hazardous and toxic enough by itsself, let alone making a witches brew.

Also, there may be more than naptha in moth balls that might fubar carbs.:eek:

JMHO, your results may and will vary, or blow up!! :eek: :D :(
 
Won't work for anybody with a Blaster. You are supposed to be running premium which is above the octane level of napthalene to begin with. It was used earlier because they ran much lower octanes then. Hydrochloric acid....in any concentration is not something you want to build up in your engine. Plus, if the precipitates clog up a main jet at WOT, that's probably not to healthy for the engine. To sum it up...it doesn't do any good. :)
 
all this talk and the links are cool. its great to see and hear of peps thinking outside the box once in a while.

the majority of peps on this forum are an average age of under the drinking limit. Most are here because they have families that enjoy the sport and this size atv fits them well.

many discussions here talk about "POWER". everyone wants more and sure with added compression, advanced ignition timing and altered port timing that can be obtained. with these changes additional fuel requirements sometimes become necessary (i.e. increased octane, increased oxygen content, etc.).

just like when the first engine mods were done "at home" so did "home brewed" fuels. Im not a chemist by trade, but over the years racing boats, cars, go-karts, bikes, atv's and the likes I have spent a fair amount of time reading about this very subject. over the last 5-10 years the fuel industry has spent millions (maybe billions) on developing the cleanest burning - highest efficiency fuels known to man. Im not saying that ideas like these dont materialize into "magical" inventions, something the petroleum industry failed to find, but its highly unlikely that you or I will stumble across the next best invention.

I would highly recommend that you let "someone" else try this experiment out in their garage and then on their bike first. make sure it's someone you know, you can watch how they did it and see their results over time.

Dont Try This Yourself at Home.
 
only thing the fuel idustry has spent billions on is how to make the refining process more cost efficient. all they care about is money.
 
I'm no Chemist, but I'm pretty sure thats a recipe for napalm. just stick to normal high octane pump gas or race gas and you should be fine. If you start having trouble with detonation, then the safest bet would be to retard the timing a degree or two and see how that works.
 
well, the responses are unanamous! 99LRD made a good point about the octane today being higher than the octane of what naphthalene is. I run 95 unleaded, we have a 95 LRP (lead replacement) as well on tap at our south african pumps, maybe i should change to that just to be safe. i can 102.6 race fuel but it is rather pricey.

so the bottom line is that naphthalene HAS the potential to raise octane in fuels with an octane lower than itself. however it results in unclean burning with gratuitous amounts of carbon emission. i suppose thats the last thing a 2stroke needs...

Must have been fun in the old days hey!
thanks guys
 
Blaner said:
well, the responses are unanamous! 99LRD made a good point about the octane today being higher than the octane of what naphthalene is. I run 95 unleaded, we have a 95 LRP (lead replacement) as well on tap at our south african pumps, maybe i should change to that just to be safe. i can 102.6 race fuel but it is rather pricey.

so the bottom line is that naphthalene HAS the potential to raise octane in fuels with an octane lower than itself. however it results in unclean burning with gratuitous amounts of carbon emission. i suppose thats the last thing a 2stroke needs...

Must have been fun in the old days hey!
thanks guys
Click to expand...

I forgot you were in South Africa. Most countries outside the US offer higher octane. I would think the 95 would help you out. I don't know what kind of compression you are running with your timing advance so hard saying. At any rate, you have 103ish on tap, so you are good to go regardless, but yea....price is steep. I'd go with the 95 personally and see how it goes and how much pinging you have. If not, mix 95 and 102 or premium and 102 to get the desired octane you want.
 
forgive my ignorance, what does Mon and Ron and M+R/2 stand for?

hell i dont know our fuel is 95 at the pump.cut and dried. other than that you get the 102.6 race gas, avgas and another air fuel im unsure of the name. we used to get 97 leaded years ago but that was relegated to run the Somalian pirate ships i suppose..
We have a company called Sasol here which locally make fuel out of coal, but again, its branded as 95 octane.
 
oh y thank you. i think i understand why this has never caught on here....if you tell one of our local minibus taxi drivers here about which fuel he must use in his toyota hiace bus certified to carry 13 seated passengers but 23 will fit at a pinch, he will think you are mad, he just asks for "cream soda" at the pump. i mean these guys drive with a vice grip on the steering column after he had to rip the wheel off when he stole the bus. no jokes. i once saw a guy bring in his motor to a machine shop and it had a wooden piston he had made. another made his brake pads out of masonite...

you see, fuel is fuel here. that stuff is just too complicated for africans...
 
The pumps here in the states have the "unit" marked. 95 is simply a number unless the unit is labelled. In the case of the pump fuel here, it's (M+R/2) which is two standardized tests whose results are averaged to get the number.

95 RON is like 90 octane AKI (the units we use here) so it's not really high octane gasoline. If you're using 90 AKI gasoline you may be able to raise the octane rating of the fuel by adding napthalene.
 
ok, i must check this out, il probably have to mail the companies cause there is nothing on the pumps here. companies we have are Caltex, BP, Shell, Total, Engen, Sasol. personally out of the lot i find Shell, engen and sasol give the best milelage.
 
Blaner said:
oh y thank you. i think i understand why this has never caught on here....if you tell one of our local minibus taxi drivers here about which fuel he must use in his toyota hiace bus certified to carry 13 seated passengers but 23 will fit at a pinch, he will think you are mad, he just asks for "cream soda" at the pump. i mean these guys drive with a vice grip on the steering column after he had to rip the wheel off when he stole the bus. no jokes. i once saw a guy bring in his motor to a machine shop and it had a wooden piston he had made. another made his brake pads out of masonite...

you see, fuel is fuel here. that stuff is just too complicated for africans...
Click to expand...

Well on the plus side it's South Africa. I:I
 
but one thing we do have here is service, we have fuel jockies that direct you open pumps, ask what you want and how much, fill up your car, wash your windows, pump your tires, check oil and water and take your cash all while you sit in your car all at no extra charge, they dont even expect a tip...its a good way of creating employment
 
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