Mothballs for added octane?

[Flatie46]

My son has been wanting a hotrod of some kind ever since he knew what the term meant. I finally talked him out of putting a V8 in his '52 Cranbrook but he still wanted something fast. He'd been looking at late 90's mustangs when he found a friend that needed to sell his S-10 that had a V8 transplant. I looked it over and for the money and what it was I couldn't really knock it. The truck had been a father/son project and had quite a few dollars spent. It's got a fairly new 383stroker with 350turbo shift kit in it and the rear has a new richmond gear set in it. Pretty nice truck inside and out. Well we were talking before he bought it about what kind of gas it would run on. The previous owner said it would run on 87 but like 93 much better. I was at my favorite old car junkyard and we were talking about the truck and the old guy that owns the place said, " throw ya some mothballs in it and a little rubbing alchohol in it that'll raise the octane". I thought that sounds crazy, but I looked it up and sure enough back it the day it was popular to do. But of course, mothballs aren't made from the same flammable stuff they used to be back in the day. Have any of you guys ever heard of this or tried it?

[greg g]

Uh NO!! Acetone NO, alcohol NO, Might as well add some Mentos as well......

[Flatie46]

Uh NO!! Acetone NO, alcohol NO, Might as well add some Mentos as well......

Ha! The old guy said he'd run it in his hotrods in the past. Maybe he's crazy, I wasn't going to try it but thought it was interesting.

[plyroadking]

I just heard about this a week ago, the guy was telling me the same thing then asked if I'd ever smelled moth balls, I said I had, then he asks me "how'd you get their legs apart???"

[Flatie46]

It's probably no worse than some of the stuff in the injector and fuel system cleaners these days.

[X53Gunner]

Believe it or not this is an old hot rodding trick. They even did this on Myth Busters and confirmed it. You have to use the right mothballs or you will coat your fuel lines with plastic so do not use the Polyethylene ones!

Scott

[knighthawk]

the mothballs thing has been around for a LONG time,, how good it works, I never tried it. I also heard about ( years ago) filling your gas tank 1/2 with regular and 1/2 with premiun, you ended up with higher yet octane, and I think that worked ! I heard today, if you use the 'Stabil' addditive ( for long storage stabilizer ) it also will increase octane.

[Rusty O'Toole]

This is an old trick that probably goes back to the twenties or thirties. When unleaded came in and octane went out it had a revival. I remember at the time, publicity handouts from the oil companies warning that it was no good and not to do it. A few months later I noticed a distinct smell of mothballs when I was filling my tank with gas.

[MacGyver]

When mothballs were Naphthalene and octane ratings of gasoline was significantly lower, this old trick actually worked. Naphthalene has an octane number of 90 and gasoline was much less than that 'back in the day;' probably in the 40-60 range in the 1940's and 50's. Most mothballs are now para-dichlorobenzene and won't do the job - that said, neither would the naphthalene balls since they'll never get your octane greater than 90 anyway.