Xylene vs. Race Gas

[justabuickv6]

What are the pro's/con's for using Xylene over Race Gas?

What kind of performance will I see?

Does it affect your O2 sensor like race gas?

How do you mix it?

 

[bar87]

do a search on this....youll get plenty to read....

xylene will only get you up to about 100 octane....

race gas can take you further, but at the expense of your O2 sensor and/or catalytic converter, if your car has one...

 

[BLACK6PACK]

Don't bother. Buy or put together an alky injection setup. You'll get better performance and it will be cheaper in the long run.

 

[Hammer]

bar87 how quick is your car?cool to see mostly stock s-up.

Also did you notice improvement after mease pipe addition?,powerplate?

 

[squeeze87]

How will alcohol perform better than race gas? I know 2 people now who have blown head gaskets from problems with alcohol systems while running 93 octane and high boost. Ask d0n_3d how his motor is running right now. Everyone wants to take the cheap route but you'll pay eventually.

 

[bar87]

never been to the track, but i did beat a (new)bmw m3 in a street encounter...i would guess low-mid 13's on 93 gas(with traction)....

i LOVE my mease downpipe, i installed it, the powerplate, and got rid of my cat at the same time... felt like a new car. if u r still running your cat, get a testpipe, and put the cat on just at inspection time...

i am currently running a xylene mix & 100 oct chip, i like it but mixing xylene on a daily driver kinda gets old...so im lookin into alky

 

[c&cgn]

There is no substitute for good octane racegas. PERIOD! Xylene is fine for fooling around on the street etc, but if you are running at the track and want to get serious, then get the good stuff. C16, accept no substitute It's cheap insurance. It sure beats blowing your motor

 

[Syclone0044]

I can't say if Alcohol + Pump gas is better than race gas, but I will say that I set the record for fastest stock motor Stock Turbo Syclone at 12.26 @ 108 MPH and I did it using Alcohol + Pump gas (SMC kit)! The old record was set using race gas and a manually advanced distributor for extra timing (we don't have nice DIS like you guys unfortunately). My record currently stands.

So I'm convinced that alcohol + pump gas is such a powerful combo that it must be seriously considered when building a true STREET/STRIP vehicle, where you may find yourself far from a local race gas fillup and you want to race and need to refill your tank. Especially on a Syclone where the 20 gallon tank only has 10 gallons of useable racing capacity, once it gets below 1/2 tank the acceleration forces will cause the gas to slosh and the engine will sputter and backfire. Not to mention the EXTREME cut in cost of pump gas + alcohol versus race fuel! I also thoroughly enjoy the intercooling effect.

Finally to all those people who imply "Only use $7.00/gal C16 or you will blow your motor" with their suggestions that it's "cheaper than rebuilding your motor", that's all fine and dandy but I'm not going to drive 2 states away to find a VP brand Racing Fuels dealer just so I can buy this magic potion. All they have in Wisconsin is Sunoco, best I can find is their Sunoco Maximal 116 at $7.00/gal stored in 55gal drums (probably stale and rusty) and the Motor Octane is not as high as the VP Racing Fuels "C16" brand anyways. So instead of paying $80 at the track for race fuel and splashing fuel draining the tank etc., I'll just stick to my alcohol injection permanently.

Oh and to the guy who said mixing xylene into the gas tank gets old, you ain't kidding. I tried holding the barrel up to allow gravity to do its thing and it cost me a repaint on one of my ground effects panels when the Xylene spilled out of my siphon and permanently marred the paint on that panel. I made it through about 20 5 gallon cans of Xylene before I had an accident but it would have happened sooner or later if I had continued using it.