[Wayne Maybury]

This subject was discussed in quite a bit of detail last year under the thread title of Octane Additives. Do a search and read the whole story there.

At that time I contacted a petroleum engineer that confirmed that pump gasoline contains up to 30% toluene which does boost octane. He suggested that using any sort of lacquer thinner, etc could be very bad for the various components in the fuel system.

One final point, I believe that MTBE is added to gasoline as an oxygenate, not as an octane booster, this has to do with trying to make the fuel burn as cleanly as possible. California was expected to make a ruling on banning MTBE back in April but that has been put off for a year. All expectations are for the MTBE to eventually be replaced with ethanol. The problem with MTBE is that it is showing up in ground water.

Wayne