Torco
markets
Accelerator as a race fuel concentrate. Before discussing this
product, lets first address key differences between a racing fuel and
pump fuel. The obvious one is octane. Under the US
octane
rating system AKI (Anti-Knock Index) pump fuel is graded as
(RON+MON)/2. Meaning if a fuel had a RON (Research Octane Number) of
96, and a MON ( Motor Octane Number) of 90 its AKI would be 93. Race
fuels can be graded on any of the standards AKI, MON, RON. So
what
is octane and why is it important? Octane is what gives gasoline its
ability to resist pre-ignition. As displacement, compression, boost,
RPM, go up it becomes harder to keep the fuel mixture from igniting
prematurely. If under load or high heat, you experience knock with 87
octane, stepping up to 91 octane is logical step for both performance
and longevity. If you experience no knock or timing pull at 91 there is
no benefit to you stepping up to 93 or higher. The additives
that
raise octane have less energy than the base fuel, effectively lowering
the BTUs of the fuel. That is you will make the most power and have the
best fuel economy with the lowest octane that is capable of preventing
knock under your specific conditions.
Another major distinction between race and pump fuel is RVP (Reid Vapor
Pressure). The easiest, overly simplified, way to think of RVP is as a
scale to rate the tendency for the fuel to want to evaporate. In
general racing fuels have a much lower RVP than would be found in pump
fuel due to the poor starting characteristics that come along with low
RVP fuels.
Burn speed is another major difference. Race fuels are
blended
towards a specific application. The desired burn rate in a Kart at 16k
RPM is very different than the target burn rate of something like a big
block V8 at 9k RPM. Too fast of a burn and you may experience less than
optimum power.
Too slow and your exhaust valves may be opening before maximum pressure
is reached.
Without going into specific gravity, dielectric constant, and numerous
other variables, you should now have a basic understanding that there
is a lot more to fuel than just octane. Altering these
variables randomly can serve to be counter productive. For the purpose
of objectivity lets look at one of the most common indicators. Octane.
Torco advertises that it can raise 93 pump to 107 when used in the
highest concentrations. Tested in the highest recommended mixture we
saw an AKI of ~99 though a secondary testing method. 8 full points from
107 if you assume Torco was implying 107 AKI and not 107 RON. This
would mean it was raising 97RON to 107 RON. If you
standardize the results on AKI you will see that 107RON is actually
fairly close to 99AKI. This is much better than you could hope
for with the more common additives such as with xylene or Tulene. If
you assume $3.00 per gallon of 93AKI pump and $17.50 for a can of the
Accelerator that works out to $6.50 a gallon. With race fuel
such as VP and Sunoco in the $5.00 neighborhood this does not make
since. On the other end if the spectrum, you could mix 1 can
with 20 gallons. In areas where only 91AKI is available, this
makes a little more sense at ~$3.80 per gallon to end up with
93AKI.
Does Torco Mach Accelerator replace race fuel? No. Does it
have limited applications? Absolutely. If you have a legitimate need
for slightly more octane this is a great way to go. If you are tuning a
highly modified engine for maximum power stick to race fuels.
