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Old 29-11-2006, 05:59 AM
hotrod hotrod is offline
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Join Date: Oct 2003
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Toluene is getting hard to find at consumer outlets due to it being a common chemical needed in some illegal drug manufacturing.

Both Xylene and Toluene work about the same. They have very similar octanes the major difference being that the xylene does not evaporate as quickly as the toluene, so it should not be used in high concentrations and in cool or cold weather as it will end up not burning in the cylinder but after the exhaust valve opens a fair portion of it will get blown into the exhaust manifold while it is still burning.

Xylene works ok in hot weather though. Most high octane unleaded fuels have a fairly large fraction of toluene in them anyway ( if the MSDS sheet lists a high percentage of aromatics that is probably toluene upto a max of about 45%) As a result adding toluene or xylene to these high octane fuels does not net you as much improvement as it does in lower grade fuels that do not have a significant portion of toluene. Xylene is usually held to low concentrations in commercial gasolines due to the slow evaporation issues mentioned above and the fact that it produces compounds that help form some types of smog, so it is not a prefered component of consumer gasoline.

Larry
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