Octane Booster

I am seeing more and more 10% Ethanol stickers on gas pumps. It's probably in the ones that don't have the stickers on the pumps.
Question: Can you over amp on octane by adding octane booster?
My bike is 06 RK Custom; EFI; Powercommander; Rhinehart true duals.
I was low on fuel and put 2 gallons of regular to get me to the next station.
I topped it off with premium with ethanol.
The bike seemed to load up at low rpm and do more popping out of the exhaust.
Back in the '60s we had one gas station that you could buy racing fuel (100+ octane) which I ran in the Honda 750.

Any harm by running octane booster with 10% ethanol premium?

boost

buddy, just got a reply from lucas about their octane booster. premium gas sits alot. not many people using it. so it goes bad. 89 octane is refilled daily, so it's fresh. lucas says their boost raises octane by 3 points, period... and that's at 3 ounces to 5 gal..adding more to the 5 gal. makes no diff.. you could run fresh 89 and add boost to get 92. this is my plan as my bike is a 107 with comp. releases and such. never knew when i would get good or bad premium. what i am hoping for is some consistancy that i can tune to. good luck, and if you find out something better, please pass it along, gabby

Unless you have a motor built with high compression you are wasting your money. Your motor is stock is should run very well on 89 oct. some even run 87.

No need to hate anything, run what you have to, but under most conditions the compression ratio that the stock HD motor runs at should not require premium fuel. The MoCo only recommends it to help avoid the damage that can be done by low rpm throttle busters. JMHO

I Use Kerosene / Diesel

My dyna packs a lot of compression..... i added a scream'n eagle progm. ingition so I can control the SPARK ADVANCE which makes a BIG difference whether or not you ping or KNOCK....... (gas exploding way before top dead center destructs the motor) trying to run piston in reverse. KNOCK

THE NAIL was hit on the HEAD when said "reg. gas is OK in STOCK harleys"..... and when LOW octane gas is used the TWIST OF THE THROTTLE IS VERY IMPORTANT.... LUGGING ANY MOTOR (with HEAVY throttle) WILL RATTLE * PING and some times KNOCK*****

Harley has a RETARD the spark sensor in the intake manifold which detects a NORMAL condition (spark ping) BEFORE it becomes a KOCK. this unit RETARDS the ingition to HELP prevent the problem.

NOTICE in the owners book, it says (like?) a noise (rattle) will be produced upon heavy acceleration and not to worry it is NOT a spark nock. :fight:

GAS QUALITY and BURN is very important. LOW octane can explode under loads ond or high compression...YOU want the gas to BURN pushing the piston down NOT explode and BLOW the piston down or backwards...... ping and KNOCK

Reg gas with LOW octane is HIGHER in BTU's than PREMIUM HIGH octane.
soooooooo regular gas has more POWER in it than HIGH TEST or PREMIUM gas....

The difference lies in the BURN CONTROL AGENT called octane......HIGHER octain SLOWS the burn and LOWER octane allows a faster burn.. TOO FAST a burn and you get an explosion *** to early AND fast a burn, you get a KNOCK. (trying to run piston backwards)

I find that when I get BAD or LOW octane gas I put a little kerosene OR diesel (fewer dollars than special octane boosters)
into the tank (6/8 oz per 5 gal) and this does allow the gas to do a SLOWER BURN RATE which helps the explosive nature of reg. gas to burn without the ping rattle or KNOCK...

I'm not after the savings of $$$$ on reg vs. premium on gas but mostly in saving $$$$ worth of UN-NEEDED repairs to my high performance motor..

LEAD ADDED to gas was an upper-lube for valves and guides.. but bad after burning and put into the air for us to breath.

When gas had lead ADDED years ago..... (red gas) it was called "regular leaded "

then came the time when lead was REMOVED....and gas was called UNLEADED...... gas co's charged more for un-leaded than leaded during the phase out peroid... and have kept that increase in price thru today!!!!

Noting the above, ? HOW can the gas co's. justify charging MORE for(UNLEADED) gas when they DON'T have to ADD lead NOR TAKE IT OUT?

:rant:
signed....REDHEAD

That along with many other questions I am sure, have kept the thinking person perplexed for millenia!!!

Sorry I haven't done any homework since my last post. A friend and I took a bike trip down to south Texas last month. A truck turned left in front of us and killed my friend. I have not been on the bike since my 10hr ride back... alone. Except for today and I felt like everyone was out to get me.
However, on the way down to south Texas, we stopped for gas and it had ethanol added. So I decided to add about an ounce of Harley Fuel Adder to my tank. I never heard any pinging nor knocking but it started running sluggish and then went to running on one cylinder. I didn't know, at the tiime, that it was supposed to be doing what it was doing when overheating. Also, this was about halfway into a 7hr. 70mph ride so it was warmed up plenty. It cleared up on the ride back so I'm not going to play with the octane adder anymore.
Ya'll have come up with some good points that I had not thought of....
1. not as many people use 93 octane gas so it could be getting old at the station.
2. probably be better off running 87 octane if I was going to use the adder.

My bike has true duals and high capacity (Screaming Eagle) air filer with PowerCommander. Am I still considered a stock bike?
Ya'll take care and ride safe,
Buddy

Hey Buddy, sorry to hear about your friend, I cant imagine how bad that would suck to drive 10 hours by yourself after seeing your friend get killed, Todd

I'm so sorry man... That must really suck... Thought I was having a bad time with my wife leaving me and ****... Had a van do that to me today, Thank God I anticipated it and was able to react around the ******* all while flipping him off!!! Other vehicles were beeping horns too... That was just one dumb ass MF!!!!:cussing:

loss of a friend

buddy, i got knocked off my bike some years ago. took awhile to be somewhat comfortable again. then i lost 2 brothers back to back. they were bikers to the core and i'm sure they went the way they would have wanted, on their bikes. now when i ride i remember them and what our bikes mean to us. i miss them not being beside me, but i smile when i remember the times they were. i'm sure they wait for me. and one day WE WILL ride together again, till that time, they will be in my heart and mind. sorry for your loss, but ride for your friend. old biker saying "for those who understand, no explanation is needed, for those who don't, none is available. gabby

Damn Buddy, thats a tough one to read. I'm very sorry about your friend.....like Gabby said though, that's got to be your spirit, ride for your brother. My thoughts go out to you and his family. Take care now......

I'm riding a Screamin Eagle 110, When we went to the Myrtle Beach Fall Rally we could not find Premium Gas from Newport, TN until we got into Florence, SC, so we ran whatever we could find and added octane boost, Think it was 3 or 4 oz. to 5 gal. and had no problems at all.

boost

DKIN21, does your 110 have high comp.? i don't know about this kit. mine is a s.e. 107 and it is high comp. if your 110 is and low octane with boost worked, happy days for performance geeks. thanks gabby

gabby, yes it has high comp, Its not a kit, its a factory 07 CVO Screamin Eagle Road King, with the 110 ci, I'm running a Arlen Ness Big Sucker, PCIII, V&H Big Shot Duals with Big City Thunder's Thunder Monster QC Baffels.