Acetone or not to Acetone: The fuel mileage debate rages on....

[Stirton.M]

Saw a website that purports increased fuel mileage by using an ounce (20ml) of Acetone to 10 gallons (37l) of fuel.

There is plenty of anecdotes on the subject. Conspiracy this and hogwash that.

What got me to wonder was, is adding Acetone harmful. I mean, from a personal point of view, if it is not harmful to the car, I may try it for my own piece of mind. If it works for me or not is not the important question.

Has anyone else here heard of this and tried it? And better, have any of you who tried it noted any damage to the fuel system?

And of course, it goes without saying, what were your results?

[JustManuals]

Well, if you use it, don't spill it on the car. It will remove the paint down to the bare metal. I know from experience.

[OMD-227]

Why?

You'd have a fully maintained company vehicle surely. Why bother?

Similar story a few years ago was going around here..... Placing magnets in specific areas on the outside of the engine block was supposed to get better fuel mileage......

oooh yeah..... sure.

[blackcat4866]

I seem to remember something about water injectors for improving fuel economy. What ever happened with that? =^..^=

[zed255]

I seem to remember something about water injectors for improving fuel economy. What ever happened with that? =^..^=

Water injection is sometimes used in racing engines. It helps control combustion chamber temperature and provides increased peak cylinder pressure (read more torque). It also has the added bonus of actually helping clean an engine's combustion chamber and valves, no BS. Actually got that tidbit from my father, a mechanic of 30 years and he's even shown me the results, quite dramatic. I can't speak for effects on mileage, but I don't know if you'd want to do it continuously.

[Stirton.M]

Why?

You'd have a fully maintained company vehicle surely. Why bother?

Similar story a few years ago was going around here..... Placing magnets in specific areas on the outside of the engine block was supposed to get better fuel mileage......

oooh yeah..... sure.

Actually, I own the car. The purpose of doing this, according to what I had read, was to increase the fuel economy, in many cases from anecdotes of some people who commented on some of these sites was a significant increase. There is a lot of contention on the issue out there. As I said, some people swear by it, while others dispute it. Who is right and who is wrong, on the net, is sometimes hard to discern. I do not know any of the respondents on those pages. For all I know, one guy wrote all the pros and another guy wrote all the cons.

My curiosity is simply to know if anyone here tried this and what they might have experienced. If I can gain some fuel economy from this, great. But if not, I would like to know that too. But what I really want to know is, will it hurt the car. The experiences of others may shed light.

Incidently, placing a magnet on the oil pan itself, one of those rare earth ones, helps reduce the amount of metal floating around in the oil. I know this was of huge benefit to older cars. Wear and tear on the steel parts left floating debris in the oil. Magnets capture and hold the debris. I did this for my 92 olds sierra, on both the engine pan and the transmission pan. How much it benefited me is debatable, but I did get half a million out of both without major service. In fact, the car was still running great when I traded it in last summer for the new car. Mileage gain from this? I doubt that.

[Stirton.M]

Water injection is sometimes used in racing engines. It helps control combustion chamber temperature and provides increased peak cylinder pressure (read more torque). It also has the added bonus of actually helping clean an engine's combustion chamber and valves, no BS. Actually got that tidbit from my father, a mechanic of 30 years and he's even shown me the results, quite dramatic. I can't speak for effects on mileage, but I don't know if you'd want to do it continuously.

I heard about this too. Mileage was a minor benefit, but power increased dramatically. Perhaps a byproduct of the added torque is increased economy? In a racing engine, I would think the latter was of little consequence, aside from extending a fuel pit stop perhaps.

[Stirton.M]

Well, if you use it, don't spill it on the car. It will remove the paint down to the bare metal. I know from experience.

This I have read elsewhere. Also that acetone is pretty toxic, to avoid breathing it in. I recall my dad had some of this....he used to do janitorial work....good for dealing with gum apparently. I sniffed some, not knowing what it was...gave me a buzz for about a minute....

[fixthecopier]

I used to pour rubbing alcohol in my 67 SS Chevelle. Helped remove water from the gas.

[fixthecopier]

Of course I am not an example of what to do. I used to go to the local small airport and get airplane feul and mix with my gas in the heavy chevy. Talk about octane boost.

[fixthecopier]

That combined with a super charger torqued the motor so much, one of the rear wheels sheered its lugs and threw a tire at about 85 mph on a back country road. good times.

[fixthecopier]

Got pulled one time and the officer ask if I knew how fast I was going. I said no, and pointed to the speed odometer needle and mentioned that it was pegged out and stuck past the 120mph mark. He was not impressed, and wrote me for 20 over and improper equipment.

[jma676]

hey, I'm testing now acetone fuel in my Porsche 911 GT3 RS

[Jules Winfield]

Submit the idea to mythbusters and let them try it out. Don't guinea pig your own car...

[Stirton.M]

Mythbusters apparently did it in the exploding pants episode. I never saw it, but I am sure that rerun will show up eventually.

Along with the many opinions, there was mention about the mythbusters doing just this.

Granted, they can come up with some pretty good stuff, but over the years of seeing this show, I have learned that they sometimes do not do the tests correctly or take too much leeway.

I'm more interested in knowing someone who tried this first hand and what they may say, though the conversation is still open to opinion.

The following speaks about basic additives commonly seen...

And this video shows one experiment using acetone. I have issues with the test, the guy did not do a controlled test with the right ratio, but it still illustrates an interesting result.

Though not enough for me to want to have a go of it.