Posted on 04/09/2006 2:21:07 PM PDT by rface
ATLANTA – Acetone can do a number of things. It can remove thick, ugly nail polish. It can be used as paint thinner. People can sniff the fumes for a quick high. In addition, if you believe the Internet, it can significantly increase the gas mileage of your car.
The idea of adding acetone to gasoline is not new. Racecar drivers began using it in the 1930s to enhance their cars’ performances on the track. Since then, there have been reports of people who have tried it with varying results. In an article for SmartGas.net, author Louis LaPointe extolled the virtues of acetone as a fuel additive.
“Acetone not only improves mileage but cuts pollution dramatically and gives longer life to engines,” he wrote in “A Study of Dimethylketone or Propanone”. He went on to say that, the addition of only one to two ounces of acetone per 10 gallons of gas could increase gas mileage by up to 35 percent. A blogger on the Chevrolet Impala SS Forum did not share LaPointe’s enthusiasm for acetone.
“It’s just an urban legend,” said the writer, who goes by the name Stonebreaker. “Last year it was mothballs in the gas, this year its fingernail polish remover. Next year it will be Vick’s Vapo-rub.” Vance Matherene, a former chemical engineer, believes the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
“I believe there is something to it,” he said. “But I don’t know of any definitive studies.”
I know there are going to be several "acetone will eat away the plastic and rubber in your fuel system"....comments - but I haven't observed any such event in over a year since I started using acetone.
I continue to use acetone in every vehicle I operate....about 2.5 - 3 oz acetone/10 gal gasoline.
An earlier FReeper thread:
Adding Acetone to Gasoline Update: Myth or Miracle and the “Check Engine” light.
One of my first jobs was with a solvent recycling operation. The boss used to have me put a gallon (maybe less, can't recall) of toluol in the tank of his big Ford wagon when he was taking the family away for the weekend...
Do you have any hard data on mileage improvement?
I hope you only used it for one tank. It raises the fuels effective octaine rather a lot. But causes detonation which will trash your motor in short order.
Toxic by inhalation, ingestion or by absorption through skin. Serious irritant.
There are mothballs and mothballs - one needs to check what is there. Naphthalene mothballs could turn 87 [or even lower grade] gasoline into 93 octane grade.
Do you know wht moth balls smell like
I didn't use mothballs.....I was kidding about that - but I am not kidding about my acetone. I use it everytime I buy gasoline....
Wouldn't that be dependent on the amount?
Geez, I just had a vision of a blond buying forty little bottles of fingernail polish remover and trying to pour it into her gas tank.
the data I use is found in the link provided in response #1 to this thread.
Toluene [aka toluol] is not that much of a deal. It is benzene which is carcinogenic. Besides, your gasoline already contains a bit of those lower aromatics, toluene included.
I buy a gallon of acetone at Wal~Mart for $11.00 and it lasts a long time. I use ~90mL for every 10 gal. gasoline, and there's about 4000 mL in a gallon
No//I couldnt get their little legs apart...lolololol
Put enough in to make it run like a bat out of hell and your engine will be done before the tank is.
Of course the last person I know that did this did it before modern knock sensors. Perhaps modern engines will retard their spark automagically and save themselves.
One of the chemical bogeyman of industry.
I thought raising the octane suppressed detonation.
“Last year it was mothballs in the gas,..."
Maybe it's the climate; but, here in Canada we don't have much of a problem with moths in the gas tank.
</sarc>
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