Question on a potentially deadly situation??

[BruNgoLD]

Ok, so heres the happs:

I got a bunch of car stuff at the local Kragen (Jumper cables, Octane Booster, Terry cloth towels, Armor All wipes, Fuel Injector cleaner, etc) a little while ago, and left it in the trunk.
The octane booster's bottle openned and emptied out into the bag.
The towels took care of most of it, but everything in the bag has some of the octane booster on/in it.
So what im asking is,
Is it still safe to use the jumper cables that might have this octane booster on it?

And would it help if i tried to wipe it off as best i could?

I would think the octane booster is combustable, so that wouldn't really be good if i was to be using the jumper cables to, say, jumpstart a car, right?

thanks guys, you might be saving my life!

 

[Electric Amish]

Let them set out for a bit. That stuff will evaporate off pretty easily.

amish

 

[Jfrag Teh Foul]

Octane booster is going to do the same thing gasoline would do if you spilled it on booster cables... it has a very fast evaporation rate and after you let the cables dry out you will be just fine... they might still smell so I would prolly just clean em with soapy water.

 

[BruNgoLD]

sweeet thanks guys

yea, it still smelled, so i didnt know if it evaporated as quickly as gasoline does

 

[Electric Amish]

Actually it probably evaporates faster than gasoline because it is more volatile.

amish

 

[Viper GTS]

<< Actually it probably evaporates faster than gasoline because it is more volatile.

amish >>



Actually, wouldn't pure octane (presuming that's what octane booster is?) be less volatile than gasoline from a pump? Considering that odds are it's 87-octane gas...

Viper GTS

 

[fatalbert]

yep,

that will evaporate quick, then just wash it off to get rid of the smell

 

[Electric Amish]

<<

<< Actually it probably evaporates faster than gasoline because it is more volatile.

amish >>



Actually, wouldn't pure octane (presuming that's what octane booster is?) be less volatile than gasoline from a pump? Considering that odds are it's 87-octane gas...

Viper GTS >>



AFAIK Pure Octane, like Hexane, Pentane, etc. would be more volatile because it is pure and not mixed with the other less volatile components that are in gasoline.

That's why it is used as a power boost in combustion engines since it becomes a gas so readily.

amish

 

[Viper GTS]

<< AFAIK Pure Octane, like Hexane, Pentane, etc. would be more volatile because it is pure and not mixed with the other less volatile components that are in gasoline.

That's why it is used as a power boost in combustion engines since it becomes a gas so readily.

amish >>



I think you have it backwards:

The name "octane" comes from the following fact: When you take crude oil and "crack" it in a refinery, you end up getting hydrocarbon chains of different lengths. These different chain lengths can then be separated from each other and blended to form different fuels. For example, you may have heard of methane, propane and butane. All three of them are hydrocarbons. Methane has just a single carbon atom. Propane has three carbon atoms chained together. Butane has four carbon atoms chained together. Pentane has five, hexane has six, heptane has seven and octane has eight carbons chained together.

It turns out that heptane handles compression very poorly. Compress it just a little and it ignites spontaneously. Octane handles compression very well -- you can compress it a lot and nothing happens. Eighty-seven-octane gasoline is gasoline that contains 87-percent octane and 13-percent heptane (or some other combination of fuels that has the same performance of the 87/13 combination of octane/heptane). It spontaneously ignites at a given compression level, and can only be used in engines that do not exceed that compression ratio.

From here

Maybe I'm not thinking clearly, but it sounds like they mix octane with more volatile structures (such as heptane) creating gas that is less volatile the higher the octane percentage.

Or is the pressure at which it spontaneously combusts not a reliable indicator of its volatility?

I'm confused.

Viper GTS

 

[rgwalt]

Gasoline has a whole slew of stuff in it... you would be really surprised. As I understand it, many times octane boosters are actually acetone, or have quite a bit of it in them. At any rate, let the cables sit out on your back porch for a week and they'll be fine. If you are still worried about them, try lighting them on fire.

Ryan

 

[BruNgoLD]

<<

<< AFAIK Pure Octane, like Hexane, Pentane, etc. would be more volatile because it is pure and not mixed with the other less volatile components that are in gasoline.

That's why it is used as a power boost in combustion engines since it becomes a gas so readily.

amish >>



I think you have it backwards:

The name "octane" comes from the following fact: When you take crude oil and "crack" it in a refinery, you end up getting hydrocarbon chains of different lengths. These different chain lengths can then be separated from each other and blended to form different fuels. For example, you may have heard of methane, propane and butane. All three of them are hydrocarbons. Methane has just a single carbon atom. Propane has three carbon atoms chained together. Butane has four carbon atoms chained together. Pentane has five, hexane has six, heptane has seven and octane has eight carbons chained together.

It turns out that heptane handles compression very poorly. Compress it just a little and it ignites spontaneously. Octane handles compression very well -- you can compress it a lot and nothing happens. Eighty-seven-octane gasoline is gasoline that contains 87-percent octane and 13-percent heptane (or some other combination of fuels that has the same performance of the 87/13 combination of octane/heptane). It spontaneously ignites at a given compression level, and can only be used in engines that do not exceed that compression ratio.

From here

Maybe I'm not thinking clearly, but it sounds like they mix octane with more volatile structures (such as heptane) creating gas that is less volatile the higher the octane percentage.

Or is the pressure at which it spontaneously combusts not a reliable indicator of its volatility?

I'm confused.

Viper GTS >>



so does this mean that 87 octane gas is BETTER thank 89 or 91?

also, i heard Arco gas is bad, because it is a mixture of all the leftovers of all different "brands" of gasoline, ie Shell, Chevron, etc...
anyone hear this too?

 

[Electric Amish]

Hmmm... interesting.

I thought Octane would evaporate faster than Hexane. I've used Hexane before and it evaporates almost instantly. Maybe the longer carbon chain makes it more stable.

amish

 

[Viper GTS]

so does this mean that 87 octane gas is BETTER thank 89 or 91?

It self combusts at a much lower compression, so it's bad if you have a high compression engine.

As for Arco, I have no idea. My dad has noticed markedly worse gas mileage when using Arco gas vs. Chevron, & he finally decided the cheaper cost of Arco gas wasn't worth the drop in gas mileage.

He knows someone who owns an Arco station, though, & the owner claims the gas comes from the same trucks as all the other stations get theirs.

Go figure.

Viper GTS