Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Performance Mods Very interesting article about fuel

Acetone in my fuel?
I'm thinking of giving it a try in on of my older vehicles to see if it really makes a difference.

Have a look, What do you think? Acetone in fuel said to increase mileage

That is interesting. I never would have guessed you could use finger nail polish remover in your tank.

Who'd a thunk?

I checked around and it appears this might actuall work!

Here's one of the better corroborating sites:

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

cough cough bs bs....
been disproven as snakeoil many times in the past.

Come on guys, and fill, if it did work, don't yu think it would be used everywhere?

Wanna buy a bridge?

I had to search REALLY hard to find anything negative and of that, all I found was one page (Car Talk) and it contained hearsay evidence at best.

I will have to check deeper but I want more that someone going "spoke to a fuel-systems engineer who works for one of the major oil companies" to de-bunk this...

Quote:

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been disproven as snakeoil many times in the past

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Any data/links/etc?

A friend of mine uses the Acetone in his VW and swears he gets better gas mileage. Personally I have not tried it but have considered it.

I used acetone in my dragster fuel years ago, as I tried mixing about 50-50 gasoline and methanol. Acetone is a great binder for fuels that normally don't mix well, or at all.

It's a common ingredient in octane boosters.

On the down side, acetone is hell on syntheic rubber parts, like fuel line, Viton tipped float needles and the occasional o-ring.

The way it boosts your fuel mileage is that it lets the spark timing be advanced more. Cars these days have knock sensors that will retard your spark when they sense ping, thereby killing your mileage (and overall performance).

Lets submit it to Mythbusters.

They already have it:

http://community.discovery.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/9701967776/m/5241986808

With the huge number of plastic bits used in modern fuel systems, acetone could cause some real problems.

Some trivia to amaze your friends:
In the early 40's, a mysterious inventor called the department of the navy claiming to have a formula to convert water to motor fuel. He convinced them to let him demo the stuff and they provided a low compression 3 cylinder launch engine. He poured a couple gallons of water in the fuel tank, a pint of his "secret formula", and with a little carburettor adjustment, the engine ran perfectly. He ran the engine out of fuel, said he would be in touch when he made some more and was never heard of again.
Eventually, they figured out that his "secret formula" was acetone. The water was just to thin it out to a mixture a gasoline carburettor could handle.

Mythbusters had this on tonight under controlled circumstances.

Mileage actually went DOWN slightly....

Myth busted!

I saw that too...nothing they tried worked

But the used cooking oil used straight up in a diesel car was pretty cool though...

Assuming there are no "plastic" fuel system parts that will disolve, adding acetone to gasoline should INCREASE mileage - but only if you take advantage of its octane boosting ability and advance the spark timing in your engine.

What's so difficult to understand about this?

The only understanding difficulty I have is why you're busting my chops. I posted what was on the show, not whether it's factual or not. Didja see the smilie?

Sheesh....

Take a deep breath, Breath slowly, now, you feel a little better??
Couldn't resist!!!
Have you seen what STP and the GUMOUT are putting in their Carb/Fuel injector cleaning solutions. They say its Jet Fuel.
These so called Chemist are just trying to steal money from the public.
Jet fuel is just Hi grade Diesel fuel. Makes a gas engine smoke real good.Cleans carbon out thou.
Remember way back in our child hood, Phil, Marvel Mystery oil was used and still is. It is Aircraft Hydraulic fluid (Mil-H-5606)Back in the 50s it was transmission fluid.
So Acetone and all those so called booster chemicals and cleaners are ther just to take your money. My wife used acetone the other day and the house still stinks.
Are you feeling better now, please don't get too upset, That's my job I'm not a mod!
Steve

I also think the show was testing it from an average joe standpoint, one who is not going to mess with timing, etc. Just the old dump n go.

You are right Benny, most of us here are not Average, Look at BonnyUSA!!!!
Steve