Torco

[Siestarider]

I have been studying up on E30, Meth injection, etc. I only want it for track, 93 around town is fine with me.

I also found Torco, which I have no experience with and have not heard much about for tuning our cars. Loosely summarized, by 5 gallon cans, it would cost about $7.50 for a tank of 93 + Torco to get 102 octane. This approach seems more sensible to me for tracking than either E30 (long way to a source for me) or meth injection.

Anyone have any tuning experience with this stuff?

 

[meFiSTo]

I am using Torco (16 ounces per tank or so). My thinking is really just to boost octane a little to prevent detonation.

Here's the 93 chart:

Here's the 91 chart:

We have 92 here, so my chart would fall between the two (not available).

It does color the spark plug ignition bits a kind of orange hue and a bronze tint to the exhaust tips.

Seems to add some kick (hard to know really). Only been to the track with the stuff 3 times, but no issues so far.

Edit: I should add that I only use it on the rare occasion that the car is taken out for a track day. If I take it to the local dyno for benchmarking the MR tune, I'll use it then as well. Otherwise, I'm running pump gas.

 

[808FiST]

I have and still use Torco every so often on both my GTI and TTS. I noticed that when I put my GTI on 93 Tune, and run 92 Octane + Torco, it performs well w/o detonation or timing pull. W/o it, the 93 Tune will throw a Check Engine Light. For the TTS, the Torco is used for a 92 Tune as a safety measure since the 92 octane we get in Hawaii, sometime is lower than stated, and thus causes timing pull. I have used it on the FiST when switching to Stratified 93 Tune and it performs flawlessly; however, I just spoke with Livernois Motorsports and they discouraged me from using it, as the Ecoboost TDI does not do well with the additive in the long run, as well as, the O2 sensors will need to be replaced at some point down the line in their experience. I do noticed that my spark plugs for the GTI has a slight golden hue from the Torco treatment, which is commonly reported among various forums. Having said that, multiple STI/EVO guys here in Hawaii noticed that their cars did not run well on the Dyno with just 92 octane,on 91 Tune, but when they add Torco to it, their cars produced the indicated power from their respective tunes.

My personal opinion is that Torco does work, but from the consensus on the Porsche Forum, it was suggested to use it occasionally and not the full bottle daily, as this may wreak havoc on the engine and O2 sensors in the long run.

 

[Siestarider]

Mefisto posting that chart for 93 shows me my math was wrong, it costs $15 to raise a tank of 93 to 102, even buying 5 gallons at a time. Sounds like the stuff has been around a while. Maybe one of the Tuners who handles ST's can opine as to whether its a useful additive for tracking HP. I was thinking of a custom tune just for Torco mix, don't want or need to run it on street.

Not only is E85 a long way off for me, if its as addictive as SS claims, I probably should avoid it. $15 more for a track day tank of 102 octane is not that big considering the rest of the costs to track, which I studiously avoid calculating. A tank of race gas of similar octane is going to run $100.

 

[MS67]

Mefisto posting that chart for 93 shows me my math was wrong, it costs $15 to raise a tank of 93 to 102, even buying 5 gallons at a time. Sounds like the stuff has been around a while. Maybe one of the Tuners who handles ST's can opine as to whether its a useful additive for tracking HP. I was thinking of a custom tune just for Torco mix, don't want or need to run it on street.

Not only is E85 a long way off for me, if its as addictive as SS claims, I probably should avoid it. $15 more for a track day tank of 102 octane is not that big considering the rest of the costs to track, which I studiously avoid calculating. A tank of race gas of similar octane is going to run $100.

The Planet Ozone Sunoco in Stuart has E85...that's where I get mine. From what I've been told, timing can be pretty much maxed out on E30-E40 and race gas won't leave much, if any, room for more. I guess meth would be the only useful addition. If you want to drive my car on E30 to see what it feels like, let me know.

 

[RAAMaudio]

I stopped running race gas quite a few years ago due to cost even though I made plenty of money it was just nuts.

On this car I tried Torco but did not gain much with the cyborg but our tuning was quite lacking at the time but it made everything orange just from one can so I did not like the idea of it being used all the time, pretty cost effective and easy to bring some along as needed..

I then tried E30, had to drive 100 miles each way, buy jugs, only one place sold it.....still lack of tuning skills most likely is what led to low gains.

We were in the middle of planning our RVing all over the country, hitting tracks as we traveled, etc and not being able to get E85 in a lot of places made it not so great a choice.

Switched to the EFR and made plenty of power on 91 Octane, close to 300WHP at 5200 ft elevation but more lag than I wanted, moved to Carson City in the RV as a home base, made 320WHP on the same tune that was not even finished yet but the car had a mid band super donky kick, did not spin the stick tires in 2nd and was all over the road with crazy torque steer making it exciting but a bit dangerous in some places and scared my wife. I wanted 350WHP to be at the same P/W ratio as a Porsche Turbo to hang with them on the straights, 320 was enough for a C7 Vette, those were my track targets to go play with for some fun, why aim low eh! With added fueling the EFR would of made that power easily enough.

Decided to get to a smaller turbo, GTX, then after seeing the power and spooling of the GT2560 R when that route, billet wheel, etc, took forever for me to be able to work on the car, get the parts, etc...lots of issues to sort out, bought the 5th injector for added fueling as the easiest thing to deal with but had concerns with backfires blowing the manifold and burning the car up....real concerns.....so went to WMI instead and will deal with sourcing, mixing, carrying it around.

It would of been much easier to run the 5th injector and install a fire system in the car than all I did to make carrying around WM safe in the back of the car.

If Torco did not leave a questionable residue I would of stuck with it most likely, reasonable in cost and reasonable in use.

 

[Siestarider]

The Planet Ozone Sunoco in Stuart has E85...that's where I get mine. From what I've been told, timing can be pretty much maxed out on E30-E40 and race gas won't leave much, if any, room for more. I guess meth would be the only useful addition. If you want to drive my car on E30 to see what it feels like, let me know.

Last year Planet Ozone was out of E85 for months, I finally gave up and went to Ft. Pierce and got some for Panda tuning,which unfortunately failed to produce gains, so I dropped the E30 mix idea. I suspected it was just marketing for Ozone, glad I was wrong.

Offering to let me drive your car is very generous. Maybe we can trade rides, SS drove mine to see how the LSD felt, but he knew where some slippery corners were that would invoke it. Hard to feel it on street without danger.

Rick-I have read about the orange residue, and other posters have suggested its not good for regular use. But if I burn over 100 gallons of fuel/year tracking I am doing good, not likely to use it all that much.

Main question is whether it offers significant gains with a tune, it does seem handy for tracking and not cost prohibitive. I will research some more .