Can a gas car engine run on pure octane booster?

Question

Can a gas car engine run on pure octane booster?

This guy experimented on lawnmower engines and concluded they ran very well on octane booster, but can car engines run on pure octane booster?

Answer 1

An important part of good quality gasoline is isooctane. It's the "good stuff" in the definition of octane rating with octane number 100 (with the "bad stuff" having octane number 0 being n-heptane). Mixing isooctane into low-quality gas increases its octane rating, so in that sense, it is actually an octane booster.

You can run an engine on pure or slightly impure isooctane. Finding completely pure isooctane is of course expensive, but you can get near enough by purchasing "small engine gasoline" / "alkylate gasoline". It has very clean, non-smelling and non-carcinogenic emissions (because it doesn't have aromatics), burns without carbon residues inside the cylinder and can be stored for about 5 years unlike normal gas which goes stale in few months (because normal gas has olefins whereas alkylate gasoline doesn't). Because it has no ethanol, it doesn't degrade fuel lines as rapidly and doesn't absorb water.

I use alkylate gasoline, i.e. slightly impure isooctane, in all my small engines. I also have some amount of alkylate gasoline stored in case there's fuel shortages and I need it for my car or my electricity generator.

Answer 2

I cheated and looked on the net instead of guessing. Booster is likely either ethanol ( octane 113) , or aromatics xylene ( octane 117 ) , toluene (octane 114). I think these are R+M/2 octanes, but the sites were not specific. Jet fuels are very low octane because they are mostly kerosene with some naphtha . I think it is the naphtha that gives it a little octane. Different jet fuels are different blends so no specific answer. And , you can run an engine on aromatics , some will say it is bad but I don't think so. Pure ethanol may need some engine adjustments to run, like 30 % more fuel through the injectors. Ethanol must have something mixed with it ,(like other alcohols) or it would require a liquer tax (US).