Anyone get the feeling that OzarkDave is a distributor for acetone?

 

What is all this yada-yada about carbon? Isn't the PRIMARY argument for acetone the fact that it helps get more OXYGEN into the combustion chamber? The more oxygen, the more energy released, the more power, the better fuel efficiency, etc? It's the O2 thats is the benefit. While it may help get more oxygen, there has been no proof that the cost/benefit is there. Acetone is cheap but it does still have some cost...

 

What is the optimum acetone to gasoline ratio:
1%
2%
5%
10%
20%
50%
100%

I checked for the heat of combustion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_of_combustion

47 MJ/kg - gasoline
28 MJ/kg - acetone

Near as I can tell, the optimum ratio is 0%.

Bob Wilson

 

I agree that acetone is very unlikely to improve fuel economy, but I do not like your % carbon argument. Comparing equal masses, methane (75% carbon) has a heat of combustion 64% higher than graphite (100% carbon).

Another example, n-butane and isobutane, both C4H10 and 83% carbon, have different heats of combustion.

There are many other factors to consider other than just carbon content.

 

You are quite correct.

I was trying to keep things simple and avoided the complex nature of the subject. Because Acetone, Gasoline and Diesel are all combustable liquids with roughly the same density, the simple carbon comparison works - though incomplete. Also works for the Ethanol issue.

In the end energy density is the key but is quite complex. For example Nuclear Fission (U-235) has an energy density of about 90,000,000 MJ/kg many orders of magnitude greater than Gasoline's 47 MJ/kg. But U-235 won't combust in my car's engine nor would I wish to risk a critical mass event. (It would be sure to make the neighbors unhappy.)

Acetone may provide some benefit beyond placebo effect gpsman1 mentioned. It could clean out the injectors or other fuel system components and boost efficiency because restores correct engine performance. That's why acetone is used in the OTC products to put in your tank to clean injectors etc. Any benefit from acetone should remain after it's use is discontinued.

 

Funny you should mention this since last night I cleaned my throttle plate using the Toyota cleaner. One of the active ingredients is acetone.

I could see someone using acetone in a tank; the fuel system gets cleaned; and the car starts running better. Not realizing it is just an annual maintenance issue, they continue to use acetone thinking it is required to keep the car running good. Worse, if they stop using acetone and anything else happens to make the car appear to run slowly, they'll be hooked.

Oh well,
Bob Wilson

 

Pound for pound, gasoline has slightly more energy (less than a percent I believe) than diesel. However, diesel is about 18% denser and ultimately yields about 17.5% more energy than an equal volume of gasoline. As for carbon composition, I'm not totally sure on this, but I think they are pretty close percentage wise. The average formula for diesel (C12H26) is 84.7% carbon. Octane (C8H18) is 84.2% carbon.

 

MMM... surprised to see that nobody has mentioned the basic mechanism that increases fuel mileage using Acetone - it is surface tension. Surface tension is a property of liquids that describes the cohesive forces pulling the liquid together (why aren't raindrops smaller?).

By adding acetone... you are not trying to make the fuel more combustible... you are simply offsetting the surface tension properties of fuel and allowing the fuel injectors to spray finer particles. This allows a more complete evaporation of fuel thereby increasing the power per combustion cycle.

So, despite the more expensive cost of acetone over fuel (someone mentioned), you are only adding 2-3 ounces per 10 gal of gasoline (only ~0.2% or your tank or 26ml/10L). This may increase your fuel mileage substantially... however, it might just end up cleaning your injectors (it is also a solvent).

Although there has already been many tests that suggest this is not harmful for your engine (and many commercial additives already use it).

Edit: after testing for about 6000 miles, turns out the added mpg is marginal. For the added cost and trouble to be measuring and adding acetone at the fuel pump, it is not the boasted $ saver.

the attached photo shows
A/B/C - three gasoline vehicles
D - one diesel vehicle

 

Acetone has not been shown to provide ANY fuel economy improvements, much less the fictional 20% that aaronhahn777 has proposed (too bad he didn't research this even a bit). But don't take my word for it, just read any of these references from respectable sources (snopes, the car guys, etc)...
http://wiki.robotz.com/index.php/Acetone_in_Your_Fuel
http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/u...0;t=000594;p=1
http://www.cartalk.com/content/colum...anuary/08.html