fuel additives....whats the story?

[DP1112]

ok....FYI....i have a '03 WRX....i am totally a newbie....to all cars in general so i am frantically trying to educate myself on everything WRX....so ne wayz....i heard that the emissions in the US suck...and hinder performance....because our fuels have such a low octane level...and to achieve better performance...it would be good to have higher octane....now....i go to autozone and i see NUMEROUS products claiming to raise octane level?....good?...bad?....whats the deal?....i read some stuff from this one sight that said it would make a tremendously good difference.....i just dont know....i'd just rather have more than one opinion...THANKS!!

[fc735]

ok...that stuff you see, all it does is raise the octane level about 1-2 points. thats it. yes, the water they sell at the pumps here SUCKS, but....all is not lost. the main thing to remember is that alot of the octane boosters have lead, and lead+catalytic converters=meltdown. stick to 93 if you can get it, and when you change to a catless up/down pipe, with no other cats, start runnin avgas. hehehehe. aviation fuel around here is 102, and its about 3.20 a gallon, last i checked. the WRX's in the states are tuned from the factory to about 92ish octanes, but you can get more power out of the engines stock with CAREFUL ecu tuning. hope this helps.
Joey

[jwtarbaj]

Originally posted by fc735
ok...that stuff you see, all it does is raise the octane level about 1-2 points. thats it. yes, the water they sell at the pumps here SUCKS, but....all is not lost. the main thing to remember is that alot of the octane boosters have lead, and lead+catalytic converters=meltdown. stick to 93 if you can get it, and when you change to a catless up/down pipe, with no other cats, start runnin avgas. hehehehe. aviation fuel around here is 102, and its about 3.20 a gallon, last i checked. the WRX's in the states are tuned from the factory to about 92ish octanes, but you can get more power out of the engines stock with CAREFUL ecu tuning. hope this helps.
Joey

OK FYI lead is BAD for fuel injectors. It wears them out and ruins them! Don't put anything with lead in it into the tank!

[PJC]

take the $ you want to spend on bottled HP and buy synthetic oil - buying 108 octane boost (et al) is throwing your $ away...will get you as much HP as a SCCA sticker

[fc735]

the av gas i get is unleaded......here in VA at least