Adding Acetone to Gasoline Update: Myth or Miracle and the “Check Engine” light. – vanity -

vanity update | 7.26.2005 | RFace

[pageonetoo]

Hey, any of you guys wanna buy an '88 Volvo? It's a real runner.....

Nah, my '87 740 turbo wagon just got a new fuel pump. It has a little over 250k. No other KNOWN challenges.

I bought a 2004 XC90 last spring., kept it for about three months, and sold it. I already own a 4wd Exploder, and it goes for the same money, more comfartably.

I drive the wagon on trips out west, for fuel mileage, but around here drive a Towncar, for me and Spot!

I'm heading for Wally World for some acetone...

[krunkygirl]

save

[frgoff]

Acetone as a solvent makes gasoline look like a noble gas. Acetone will dissolve stuff in minutes that gasoline could sit in for years. It's particularly good at dissolving oils, including the oil that lubricates the walls of your cylindars.

[GOPJ]

Isn't that acetate that removes nail polish?

I think the stuff you get at the hardware store is a higher concentration...

[-YYZ-]

Since it is the gas fumes that burn, not the liquid, anything that helps more gasoline get into the vapor state in the carbeurator would improve engine efficiency.

I agree, and improving vaporisation in some way is the only way that I can see it improving mileage. Well, actually it could also be increasing octane and letting the engine (equipped with an knock sensor) run at more advanced (and fuel efficient) ignition timing. In any case, if it is the former it points to the fuel delivery system of the vehicle being in rather poor condition to start with, as modern engines' FI systems, once the engine is warmed up, typically have no probelm delivering fully vaporized fuel to the cylinders.

[jonno]

bump for later read...

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

"...I have to wonder what it's doing to rubber fittings though..."

Any rubber components that the fuel contacts should be resistant to the acetone added to the gasoline. There are materials in the gasoline itself that are much harsher on rubber, and the rubber compounds used are designed to resist these materials.

[PajamaTruthMafia]

Interesting discussion here on this subject in the chemicals forum:

http://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?board=5;action=display;threadid=2517

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

"...I'm just not buying this..."

Does the acetone improve mileage on new engines as well as on older engines? I am thinking that the acetone might be cleaning the fuel injection system and making it more efficent. 0.25% acetone in gasoline (10ml/gal = .33 oz/128 oz 0.25% acetone) is, I would think, insignificant in terms of energy effects, unless there is some synergism going on that we don't understand.

[rface]

well, then I wonder why carberator cleaner, which contains a great deal of acetone, "will not void the warranty" on your automobile?

anyways......I have over 20k miles running the Explorer with acetone.....but I have decreased the mixture a bit. I am running 9 mL acetone / gal. gasoline. Nothing adverse to report, excet that the "check engine" light came back on about a week after I started this thread.

It is true that acetone is a very effective solvent....especially with oil, but 9 ml acetone in a gallon of gas is such a small ratio, that I have to suggest that your concerns are inflated about the ability of the acetone to remove the lubrication on the cylinders.

9 mL acetone / 3600 mL gasoline = 23 drops of acetone / 1 coke can full of gasoline

[rface]

Does the acetone improve mileage on new engines as well as on older engines?

I am also running a 2003 KIA, with 45,ooo miles on it. It gets 32 mpg w/out acetone and 35+ mpg with acetone. Not a big change, but a measurable change. My working theory is that the small effecient engines don't see the big benefit of increased milage as much as larger engines.

also.....I don't think the increase is due to cleaned injectors, because the Explorer that I am running never did get 20+ mpg....even when new.....but I regularly get 20+ mpg using 9 mL acetone / gal. gas.

[headstamp]

So will Blackberry Brandy.

[NonLinear]

The refiners have caught on to this trick, they're now pumping extra oxygen into the gasoline like a kid at the soda fountain blowing down his straw.

If you weigh a gallon of gas now it would weigh less than last year, and as a bonus you get to pay more!

Ok, I'll bite. How's that work?

How are they keeping this oxygen that they are pumping into the gasoline from bubbling right back out?
The solubility of oxygen in gasoline is quite low.

Perhaps they are making a froth?
That would not last for more than a few minutes after they quit "pumping" the oxygen.

I'm not sure how the safety guys would feel about them pumping oxygen into the gasoline either. Generally they are trying to keep the oxygen concentration well below the level which supports combustion. They tend to lose money when the refinery blows up, you see.

[norraad]

...actually, that trend is reversing.

Look at the recent mine "disaster".

There we're 208 safety violations there, all we get from the presstitutes is heartstring circle jerks.

Yeah, everyone agrees oxygen is dangerous mixed with gasoline("unless it makes money, then will try it until something blows up, then when it blows up we can put in the new design we're working on now that's even more profitable")

[NonLinear]

Yeah, everyone agrees oxygen is dangerous mixed with gasoline("unless it makes money, then will try it until something blows up, then when it blows up we can put in the new design we're working on now that's even more profitable")

That's just crazy. Refineries cost multiple billions of dollars and several years to build. When you blow one up, you lose money for the several years that it does not run. Multiply $2.00/gal x 1200 gal/min x 60 min/hr x 24 hr/day x 365 day/yr x 5 years and you get an idea of the lost revenues. Multiply that by 0.10 and you get an idea of the lost profits. Then you spend billions to build the new one. You cannot make enough money lowering the density of gasoline by "pumping" oxygen into it to remotely justify the risk.

The "new design that's even more profitable" would decrease operating costs by some minor percentage. If there were a major profit available, the unit would be retrofit with the design to take advantage of the profits.

Ignoring the fact that you cannot "pump" enough oxygen into gasoline to affect the density, blowing up the old refinery unit is not a profitable plan.

[norraad]

& yet, that's what happans, crazy, ain't it.

[TFMcGuire]

Urban myth is mistaken.

Table sugar partially dissolves and forms a gel in the carburetor. The engine won't run right as the carburetor has difficulty regulating fuel flow.

Gasoline is a nonpolar solvent and Sugar is a polar molecule.

Everything that gets to the engine would obviously burn up and cause no problems.

I personally rebuilt a 2-barrel Carter on a '76 Fury with this problem. I saw the gelled sugar.

Am uncertain what it would do to injector pumps and fuel injectors.

Hope I never find out.

[Sometimes A River]

21.8 mpg for the trip

As opposed to? 15-16 mpg?

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

And so what did you do with frozen earthworms? Save them til the next spring's fishing time? ;-)

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

when I see a red light 400 yards in front of me, I start coasting, while others fly by me rushing the red light.

You'd never make it driving around big city suburbia where there are stop lights every 100 yards, esp. on the streets loaded with strip malls ;-).