I'm going to embark on a 1000 mile road trip in a couple weeks, which I know will bring me to fill up in some very small towns and I'm concerned I may not find premium gas/ethanol supplemented fuel. What are the thoughts on the various octane booster products I've seen in NAPA, etc?? Should I bring a few cans along? I only use Premium currently. I have an 02 MC non-S THANKS!

 

Where do you think you are living, in the third world? I think you won't find a small town anywhere in the USA that doesn't have premium gas and a Wal Mart if you need anything else. Probably can get premium gas there too in the Wally mart!

 

I should have specified, I have been in some of these areas before and with a mom+pop gas station in towns of 300 or less, I have cause for concern. Any thoughts on octane booster, just in case the 'third world' area has crummy gas, do you have any suggestions?

 

I use to carry that stuff in my motorhome or when I was pulling the motorcycle. I am not big on additives of any kind any more. I really am serious, I think you won't have any problem, considering the range on a MC is probably close to 500 miles or more, if my S is 450. Just start topping it off after 250 miles or so when you see a standard gas station. 1000 miles is one fill-up at half way, you really aren't travelling 100,000 miles around the world.

 

Don't use octane booster in your MINI. All the crap in them is horrible for the engine.

I second other people, you should have no problem finding premium gas along the way. If you need to fill up in a town when you have half a tank of gas to get to the next town with premium, then no biggy.

Worst case scenario, putting 87 octane in a stock MINI won't hurt anything as long as you're not driving it like you stole it.

 

You'll find premium anywhere. I might suggest a can on Seafoam to toss in the tank if you have questions about the quality of the fuel.

China-Mart? No thanks. We've made China rich enough.

 

Study your Map of the entire route.

Since you are driving mostly highway you can get about 32 mpg x 13 gallons or about 400 miles per tank so fill ups would be about two or at most three times. If you carry a spare plastic tank 3 gallons you can extend that but there can be a gas smell if you store the extra fuel.

Putting in some unleaded plus or even regular unleaded then adding more premium later should not be a big problem if only done with no other option for premium available (as you considered).

I have run my MCS with plain unleaded and with mixed premium and regular and done fine. No real difference noted for street driving.

Adding octane booster is not needed.

More important to keep your tire pressures up for best mpg. A little high would be good. 38 or 39 psi cold for the trip.

 

I do a lot of roadtrips and often find myself in the same situation, small towns and needing fuel. I'm never found anything less than 91 octane available and have never had an issue related to the octane level. This is with a MINI thats fairly highly strung too. So long as every shift is not at redline and you drive it spiritied and not at 10/10's there should be no issue.

 

I agree with all the above but if along the way, you will encounter some hill clims, it is good to have few bottles on hand. When engine gets hot and there is more load, the chances of pinging is higher. The mini can retard the timing but you'll have lesser power and it is always good to have that extra grunt especially when in never been before places. I have been using Lucas Octane Booster if I can't find 93 octane gas.

 

My small town is insulted! Do you think that +91 octane gasoline is only for
them there "Big City Boys"? Not appropriate for us poor cousins out in the boonies? Hell, we can even buy bottled liquor out here!

 

Thanks everyone for your input! I appreciate it.

 

No insult intended I originate from a small town myself!

 

No prob. Just havin' fun.

 

lol ancient mariner

 

You'll be fine. There isn't a gas station in the US that doesn't provide at least 2 Octane choices. I wish I weren't limited to only 91 - here in California, enjoy your trip!

 

Somewhere on the forums I read that octane boosters only raise the octane rating by fractions of a whole number.

 

I wouldn't doubt that!

 

IMHO you really don't need premium gas for a non-s, its not going to hurt putting 87 in it if that's what your worried about.

 

Sweet rides!

 

I understand that premium is necessary for the S, being a performance based vehicle. But, I would think the non S was designed as an economy vehicle, therefore needing only regular unleaded.
Not that it's a huge difference between the cost of super vrs regular, but why waste any more $ at the pump then you have to.

 

If I'm not mistaken (and somebody, please, correct me if I am) the justacooper requires higher octane #'s than the 'S'. When the 'puter dials back the timing to account for the lower octane, mileage suffers significantly. Probably enough to erase the savings that would be had from buying the lower octane stuff, or it might be a wash.
But then the engine is not running in it's most efficient mode and there's usually a chance of carbon accumulations from running lower octane, which further decreases efficiency.
Short-term gain; long-term loss.
Read here for basic info:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Octane-Boo...Them&id=802568
and here to see what you're getting (and how to make your own):
http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/misc/octanebooster.html

 

Not what you call long distance really, and if it is all highway mileage, that is what, about 1.5 fillup after leaving point A.

I would not be overly concerned with Octane issues. If the areas are as remote as you say, bring along a few extra bottles of H20, a spare engine belt, a roll of duct tape, and a small tool kit. And while your at it, unless you carry a SAT phone, there probably wount be any cell towers around, so bring a mirror or other visual signalling device

 

THANKS! One problem, I wouldn't know how to change my engine belt! I could bring some fire wood for smoke signals though!

 

Adding a bottle of octane booster to 87 octane will typically raise the octane by .3 or .4 (87.4 octane). You'll need quite a few bottles of octane booster to turn your 87 octane into 91 (In fact if you're mixing up toulene, which is a safer alternative to octane booster, you'd need several gallons of the stuff).

Food for thought, here's a chart of various octane boosters (And their actual octane content)


So Shell 91 octane gas tests at 91.2 ROM+MON/2 octane (The standard measurement in the US, yay free .2 octane!)

A popular street-legal octane booster "Outlaw" has an RON+MON/2 Octane of 92.4.

10 Gallons of 91.2 octane and .125 (16 oz) gallons of 92.4 octane = 91.2148
The same example using 87 octane gas would produce a net of 87.067 octane

Worth it? I doubt it...

Like others said, stay away from octane boosters and just run 87 if you can't find anything else. I've seen motors blow and expensive emissions repairs from octane booster containing MMT and Ferosene.

Source: http://www.europeancarweb.com/tech/0...ted/index.html

 

The non-s is just as prone to detonation as the S due to high compression. The engine requires a minimum of 91 octane to keep the car from retarding timing, and even higher if you're driving in extreme heat (I've seen stock cars pull timing with 91 octane gas in).

There are a number of threads on this subject in the various forums.