Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

Hi all,

I just stumbled on this link, thought it may interest you...

http://www.lubedev.com/smartgas/faq.htm

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

Has any one tried acetone in the gas?

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

That website has to contain some of the most hillarious and absurd information I've read in a long time. Seriously. While I've read more convincing explanations of why it may (or may not) improve fuel economy, that website's claim that it's because the car companies want your engine to explode in order to sell you a new one is right up there with saying the government is hiding UFO's and Canadians claiming that the inventor of the 100mpg carburetor was assassinated by the CIA.

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

I must agree with AZCivic, everything about that website smells like "government/industry conspiracy". Usually websites made up out of long "text only" pages are set up by people who don't have anything to say, and hide that in the longness of their texts.
I once discussed with the owner of such a site who was building a "free energy" device : he had litterally pages full of text describing how he slowly but surely was getting "over unity". It turned out he didn't know the difference between a volt and an amp.

They're giving away the recipy, gas sells at 3 dollars/gallon : there must be at least 100 million people willing to give it a try, we should have the results in a week or two

;)

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

Heh

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?-Fair amount of BS
 

His Q/A is interesting,and some of it is even correct,but he repeats some absolute BS that makes me think his "acetone" idea is probably more BS.
1)Ethanol takes more energy to produce than it produces.Wow,those Brazilians must be real morons not to have tumbled to this after 15 years of running(currently) 1/3 of their passenger vehicles on ethanol from sugar cane.
2)"Car companies could improve mpg easily,but this would cause much less engine wear ,so the vehicles wouldn't wear out quickly enough."Unadulterated BS.Does anyone really think a mpg fanatic company like Honda would leave mpg on the table for this reason(which has resisted producing V-8's despite the obvious marketing disadvantage the lack of a V-8 has caused).The vast majority of cars aren't sold because the old car is worn out;they are slod because the consumer "wants a new car" simple as that.
3)40wt oil is best for mpg???Right!!
Oh well.I have heard the acetone mpg "idea" before.Heck,I might just give it a try-I don't think 1/400 would hurt anything,but in very hot south Louisiana,I doubt that the motor is having trouble vaporizing the fuel.Thanks.Charlie

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

I'm in the process of trying it, I've heard lots of good stuff about it around random places, but my little honda's injection system is built oddly so I wouldn't qualify my results with the others. On 1 oz per 10 gallons I saw no change except my engine ran much more smoothly, and I'm still waiting on 3oz per 10 gallong results.

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?-Fair amount of BS
 

Maybe the acetone thins out that heavy oil and really does improve mileage:eek:;).

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

here we go again with the acetone threads...

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

How about vodka instead of acetone?

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

I have run acetone in my 2000 Insight for the last 6130 miles and have averaged 91.62 MPG. Comparing my milage from a year ago during the same period, I traveled 6278 miles and averaged 86.83 MPG. That is a difference of 4.79 MPG or 5.5%. To be fair I also had a new battery pack and modules with no recalls durring the acetone run where a year ago I had the old pack and regular and often recalls.....Louis

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

I've using Acetone for months, and it works! I use 1oz. per 5 gal. in a Dodge Caravan 05. On flat road at 60 mph, went from 21mpg to 29-30mpg. For those that think it's BS, TRY IT- YOU'LL LIKE IT!!

Regars, Dave

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

There is only one additive that is known to improve vehicle performance. That's the stuff that comes out of the end of the fuel nozzle at the gas station. Without that one everything stops.

Acetone, C3H6O, is roughly 62% carbon by mass. Gasoline is complex but say, C10H22, is 85% carbon. Since almost all the energy generated in a engine is a result of the oxidation of carbon C + O2 = CO2, the fuel with more carbon produces more energy.

That's why diesel,(yet more carbon), can get better mpg than gasoline and why acetone as an additive to increase mpg is a scam.

Lots of talk sometimes about, catalyic reactions, complexing chains, yadda yadda... With less carbon in the fuel there is less energy available for our engines. Period.

Observe the proven cowboy method of doubling your money. Fold it over and put it back in your pocket.

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

I agree that acetone is not as flammable as gasoline. That is why you should not use more than 1 1/2 oz. per 5 gal. of gasoline/diesel fuel.

The ACETONE lowers the surface tension of the fuel so that it forms smaller droplets! Thus burning more completely in the cylinder. That gives better MPG (for me about 20-30%) and less pollution.

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

Sorry Dave, but since the fuel burning in your engine is vaporized by the injectors, surface tension has no posible impact. If you don't believe my simple analysis, check out this link:

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...cetone+in+fuel

Or, as an alternative, do what you want to believe is true and enjoy the bliss. But don't encourage waste of other's money or worse potentially damage their engines.

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

I ran into a few people in my life that say: " it can't be done". I did it anyway an now the industry follows. That was in another area. I have used this for several months, know it works fine. Google ACETONE in FUEL, and you will find both sides. As for me the car has never run better. And the savings helps at the pump. If pride keeps you from trying something new, that's your problem. Maybe, you have more money to wast, or don't care about cleaner air. Or, do you work for the oil companies.

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

Hi Dave,
What type of car is it?

Bob Wilson

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

If there was 20-30% unburned fuel going out the exhaust you'd at least have the potential, but that's just not the case. If that was the case you must have been spewing heavy black smoke out the exhaust prior to the acetone.

A typical fuel injected vehicle has less than 1% unburnt fuel in the exhaust. That is the available fuel that the acetone could help burn.

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

05 Dodge Grand Caravan, Bosch quad platinum plugs and upgraded ignition wire. This was done before I started adding ACETONE to the gas. Before ACETONE, I was getting about 21 MPG, now (w/ACETONE) on same stretch of road (20 miles, fairly flat) at same 60 MPH (legal) I get 28-30 MPG all the time. Some times with AC on!

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

Acetone works, and you know why? It's called the Placebo effect.

Because you put acetone in your tank, you THINK you should get better mileage. You EXPECT to get better mileage. Thus, even if subconsciously, you are now driving more gently; more efficiently.

So hey, if the cost is low, and the effect positive. Use it.

If you put a magnet on your fuel line to align the atoms, you will also get better mileage.

Anyone have a sugar pill? I've got a headache.

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

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

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

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...

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

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

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

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.

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

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.

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

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

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

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.

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

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

Re: Acetone in Gas Helps Mileage?
 

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