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

[Shadow1]

The water injection idea does work, but you have to rebuild the engine to take advantage of it. If you increase the compression ratio in an engine you increase the horsepower output and efficiency, but the side effect is preignition - commonly called engine knock, and it will destroy a gasoline engine. There are various methods of changing compression rations but all involve changing the pistons and/or heads, and require pretty much a complete tear down.

The more you compress the fuel/air mixture, the hotter it gets - if it gets too hot it will ignite before the spark plug fires when the engine is ready for it. This places huge stress on the engine, and gasoline engines are just not designed to handle this.

Diesel engines are different - that is how the fuel is supposed to ignite in a diesel, and its one of the reasons why they run so much more efficiently. It is also one of the reasons they last so much better, because they MUST be designed much tougher. Gas engines rarely have a compression ratio over 11:1, while diesels won't even start if they have anything less than 16:1 and can range as high as 30:1

Injecting water into the mixture helps keep the temperature low enough so engine knock does not occur, but allows you to run a much higher compression ratio.

Other fuels also have a higher ignition temperature, and therefore can run at higher compression - an engine optimized for propane can run up to 14.5:1

So technically the answer is yes, water injection can increase your fuel economy, but only if you modify the engine to take advantage of it.

[blackcat4866]

Thanks Shadow. That explains a lot. =^..^=

[Black lung]

One ounce of acetone mixed with 10 gallons of gas. Doesn't 10 gallons equal 1280 ounces? I cant see how the one ounce would do anything helpful or hurtful considering the mixture ratio. But I'll let someone else try it first =)

Second official day on this site...great place so far. Was glad to see there is a place for off topic stuff.

[Shadow1]

Diesel engines have been using propane enrichment for years to improve efficiency at rates much lower than 1280:1. Propane acts as a catalyst to ignite the fuel more efficiently. It really doesn't matter how much acetone you mix in depending on what it's supposed to do to improve your economy. I don't know the theory behind what it's supposed to do, so I can't say.

I do know Acetone is very toxic, and even exposure to small amounts are supposed to increase your risk of cancer. I'm not messing with the stuff.

[Stirton.M]

Yes. Acetone is pretty toxic. Odd that manicurists use this stuff fairly regularly...or at least, a diluted variant to it.

Apparently, acetone is supposed to to gas what you say propane does to diesel.

The following link is where I first stumbled upon this...it gives quite a detailed explanation. Unfortunately I did not take chemical engineering, like a fool I took electronics engineering instead.

Acetone In Fuel Said to Increase Mileage

[Robert Sveinson]

Apparently, acetone is supposed to to gas what you say propane does to diesel.

There was a time when it was believed that adding "moth balls" to a tank of gas.
No measurements were given, so a hand full might do.
I didn't try this one nor know any one who did.

I did use acetone, or lacquer thinner to clean carb parts, holding my breath!

[Stirton.M]

Looking up the mothball thing, this site calls it as no good.

Car Talk

I suspect that this myth, being so old, may have had something to it during the period before gas became unleaded. But since gas is no longer leaded, testing this myth for validity is virtually impossible. Not to mention, as that site states, one class of balls can change into hydrochloric acid. Not a good thing to have in your tank and fuel system.

Looking further, that same site talks of using acetone.

Car Talk

So it would seem that I'll not be trying this method any time soon.

And during researching this myth, I had come across a few other sites that all debunked those gas additive things one sees in every gas station. Octane boost, power boost and so on, so forth....all do not deliver as promised, and in some cases, actually reduce mileage. In other words, wasted money in the tank.

So it would seem I need to find some high protein power shakes for the gerbils to grow some muscle mass if I want better mileage.

[jma676]

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.

hey ....Stirton.M , the guy's car ... are you?

[Stirton.M]

am I what???

[jma676]

The Boy of the car?

[Stirton.M]

uh....no

[jma676]

ahhhh hhhooooouu , ok really I thought you were doing the test in your own car?

and ... you konw .... 75 Ave?

[Shadow1]

Moving on now...

[Stirton.M]

Moving on now...

Exactly.

[fallguy]

This happened in 2001, One of my coworker driving a Ford Windstar ran out of fuel about 4 miles from the gas station, he was on an isolated road at the time, he emptied one pint of Xerox Film Remover into the gas tank and that took him to the gas station, of course you guessed it the car was not his, belong to Xerox.
He told me that he felt the car drove better that it did with gas, he drove the same car without any problem until it was traded in in 2004.