Creating power inside an engine at its core is simple; bring in as much oxygen and fuel as you can into the cylinder bore to generate horsepower. Now, this may be a basic explanation, but a big part of it is the oxygen portion of the equation. Besides a bigger induction system, you can introduce more oxygen into the engine through oxygenated fuels that help create horsepower during the combustion process.

Oxygenated fuels were born from the need to have a fuel that would help reduce emissions in areas of the country where pollution was an issue. Known as reformulated fuels, the addition of more oxygen into the mixture would cause the air-fuel ratio to lean out and assist in burning all the fuel more efficiently. Like so many other products, racing fuel companies saw these fuels as a way to boost horsepower and performance at the track.

In a racing environment, oxygenated fuels allow for more oxygen and fuel to be added to the engine — this creates a larger amount of heat energy inside the cylinder. Just like in the reformulated fuel format, the oxygenated fuels have a much better burn rate that is more efficient. The additional fuel that can be brought in with an oxygenated blend helps the engine create more power, but it requires more fuel to be delivered to the engine to prevent damage.

Oxygenated fuels do help create more horsepower overall, but that usually isn’t seen at the peak of the power curve. These fuels generate their power on the low to mid-range of the power curve and will give an engine a bump in the amount of torque it produces. This power generation needs to be taken into account when designing an engine to use oxygenated fuels by your engine builder.

According to Ron Finney from Renegade Race Fuels, engines with power adders can see a bump in performance from an oxygenated fuel, too.

“While these applications typically do not need oxygenated fuels since the power adder is capable of delivering much more air to the engine, they still can be of benefit in the combustion process. As we know, making maximum power is the result of burning as much fuel as possible in a given period of time. This is where the oxygenated fuels help.  Due to their higher oxygen content, they combust more efficiently than non-oxygenated fuels resulting in more of the fuel being burned in the cylinder which results in more power to the wheels.”

Make sure to check out the Renegade Race Fuels website to learn more about oxygenated fuels and what is right for your application.