Bubbajones_ya

Okay, maybe not my life but here it goes:

I posted another thread in the tuning section because this issue effected my EBL what's up display as well.

I was doing a stats project for a college class testing MPG differences given different conditions. I poured some octane boost in the gas tank (about 1/2 a bottle) and went to test it out.

Immediately after starting, my gauge fuse blew, and putting in new fuses caused it to blow some more. Also, the car started running differently and seemingly struggling to at some points.

The gauges on the EBL system (read through my laptop) are going wild at idle with not throttle applied. The MPH reading on the EBL what's up display reads from 0 to 250 mph back and forth within fractions of seconds.

I don't see why octane boost would mess with any elecroncis, but it seems like it did. When I get a chance, I'm going to try and siphon the tank and put in good gas, but I need to figure out this electronic issue as well.



Does anyone have any pointers or advice to help me out? I'm now stranded because my spare vehicle decided to quit starting on me and it's a diesel which I don't know much about.....

redneckjoe

reminded me of an old post.
some guys motorcycle wasnt running right so somebody told him to put a bottle or 2 of octane booster in it. he bought 2 cans of that "NOS" stuff, but it was actually the energy drink, lol.


http://www.gixxer.com/forums/27-anyt...-additive.html

Bubbajones_ya

Haha.. yeah I imagine that not helping much...

I just hope whatever happened isn't any permanent damage to my car. It doesn't make sense how I'd get electrical problems after this stuff...

OrangeBird

iTrader: (1)

Of course it doesn't make sense , cause there is no way possible that pouring 8 or 10 ounces of any type of "octane boost" (or "drygas" or "stabil" or whatever) into the 10 or 12 gallons of gas in your tank could ever cause your gauge fuse to blow !

You DO have a problem if the fuse keeps blowing , that problem being a short circuit in something being fed power from the gauge fuse , and it is pure dumb luck coincidence that the short happened when you put the bottle of stuff into the tank .

Forget about any draining of the tank , and get with some proper electrical troubleshooting of the things that are fed power from that fuse .

Bubbajones_ya

Yeah I don't see how it could, the timing of the two happening just sucks!

I still need to drain the tank I believe though. I believe the octane booster isn't letting the engine run well. The car won't idle correctly, it dies immediately the first two or three times it turns over, and when I rev the engine, it stutters at RPMS above 2000K. It had no issues directly before this.

I wouldn't think that the computer got too messed up where it would cause sporadic fueling issues where it would die or stutter. I suppose with the electrical issues that happened, it is possible though. I think the octane booster stuff just isn't making my car happy though despite the computer issues.

I'm going to do some digging around after I take my last final Thursday. I'm going to start by taking out the gauges and see if the fuse still blows when they are out. It seems like it's going to be difficult to figure this out though. I haven't messed with any wiring behind the dash at all, and I've had 0 electrical issues. The car was driving 100% great too right before it was parked, and the only thing that was changed was adding the octane booster. I'm not saying the octane booster caused the problem, it's just that I don't have much to start off of looking for the cause of the issue.

I'll update what happens as I get some more work done. Luckily I got my Bronco up and running again! I just put a 7.3 powerstroke in it, but then the injector module died for it a few days later, so I was out both vehicles. I replaced that so I can drive that around for now.

redneckjoe

this also got me thinking of something an ASE master mechanic buddy told me once. he could always tell if a customer was using octane booster products when he changed theyre sparkplugs. he said it left white, spotty, deposits on the electrode. told me 9 out of 10 times the customer would admitt to it.

again, im not saying thats your problem. it could leave deposits on the o2 sensor or effect the cat? but i was advise to always avoid that stuff. the only thing i ever use is fuel injecter cleaner by "gumout".

sometimes those "snake oils" work, but some can bite you in the azz. does sound like it was an odd coincidence in your case though.

TTOP350

iTrader: (8)

You have a electrical problem, not a very very very very minor octane increase problem.

Bubbajones_ya

I can say pretty certainly the octane booster is PART of the problem. I doubt it caused the electrical issues, but it's definitely causing running issues.

I was in the process of draining my tank using the fuel pump to pump out the gas because I couldn't get a siphon tube into the tank through the gas cap.

I had about 1/2 a gallon of gas so I decided to test it out on our quads. I figured I might as well not waste the gas. Anyways, I started the quad right up and it idled and ran great as it always has over the years we had it. Its a 4 stroke 80s Yamaha quad as well, not an 2 stroke.

I know it's not the smartest technique but I started pouting the gas in the tank of the quad while it was running. Very shortly after pouring gas in, the quad started to sputter and it died. Now it doesn't want to turn over and runs very roughly.

While I do believe I have an electrical issue, the octane booster stuff added to the tank is causing issues as well....

PurelyPMD

iTrader: (3)

How old was the gas in the tank?

TTOP350

iTrader: (8)

Wasn't the energy drink NOS booster was it?

Bubbajones_ya

Haha no it was some lucas 3x octane boost stuff. The gas was pretty new. It's maybe a month old now, probably not quite that old. The car was running great on that gas before the octane boost as well.

Maybe the bottle had some type of contamination from the factory or they sent out a bad batch or something. It seems unlikely, but the octane booster does seem to prevent any engine from wanting to run.

The bottle says it eliminates spark knocks, they should have said eliminates plain spark as well!

redneckjoe

i would pull some sparkplugs out of your car and the quad. examine them very carefully for white spotty deposits.

and i would pull the fuel filter off the car. test it out. maybe the octane booster loosened up some crud or something?

Bubbajones_ya

I should get around to doing that today. I did have the tank down about a year ago to change the fuel pump and I cleaned it out while it was down. I replaced the filter then as well. It's still possible some crud could have gotten in there though.

I wish there was an easier way to drain the tank. Can the fuel pump be jumped with a spare battery easily if I take of the pump relay? I've been turning the ignition on/off which starts the pump to pour the gas out of the fuel line I disconnected. I just can't get a hose in the tank to siphon it out.

RBob

iTrader: (1)

Easier then that, under the hood, on the firewall, look for a short red wire with a spade type connector on it. It is usually located exiting the harness near the cluster of relays by the booster. It may be on the passenger side of the engine compartment.

Once located run a wire from it to the + terminal of the battery. That will run the pump, key-off.

Just be careful of fumes and sparks when opening the connection.

RBob.

redneckjoe

i remember having a hard time siphoning gas out of mine too. IIRC i had to use a length of small vacuum line? its the only thing i could get to fit in there. took a long time to siphon, lol. maybe try the suggested method above first.

Bubbajones_ya

Awesome thanks RBob and redneckjoe. I'll definitely do that later today. I'm currently trying to figure out why my Bronco's IDM keeps failing.... it's gone through two since I put the powerstroke in it last month so I bought another one but it's getting expensive....

I have some spare gas sitting at home that I pulled from the Bronco before my swap I'm going to throw in the Camaro as well. I hope that will take care of the drive-ability issues. I'll then have to diagnose why the instrument cluster fuse keeps blowing and see if I'm still getting erratic gauges readings on the What's Up Display. I suppose if something happened to this PCM, I still have my old one and I can try swapping the EBL to it.

Bubbajones_ya

Just an update,

I finally got around to pumping out the gas by bypassing the fuel pump relay. After pumping as much as I could out without fearing on burning up the fuel pump, I put everything back together and poured in some leftover gas I had from my Bronco's tank (I had it sitting around because I converted my Bronco to diesel.) My gauges still were blowing with the octane boosted gas so I couldn't tell what level the tank was at.

After initial hesitation/ and terrible throttle response issues from the initial gas in the lines was run through, the camaro seemed to start idling normally. Just for shiats and giggles, I popped in another fuse for the gauges. The gauges turned on great, and have no issue functioning now.

I drove the camaro to the closest gas station to fill up with gas then drove back (about a 10 mile round trip on the highway.) The camaro runs perfect again and I'm having to electrical issues.

It really doesn't make ANY sense how the octance booster would cause electrical issues, but from everything I did, it seems to have been the culprit. Adding the octance boost caused my car to die upon giving throttle and not want to stay idling, as well as blow the fuse to my gauge and give the EBL weird readings.

After I got the octane boosted gas out, the camaro runs great as if nothing ever happened, and I have no electrical issues.

It makes no sense, but I'm just saying what actually happened. I'm just glad my car is running great again and all I had to do was siphon out the gas!