Acetone=better MPG

[FIGJAM]

I've been reading about adding 2oz of acetone to 10gal of gas or diesel is adding 3 to 20% to MPG.

OTR truckers report going from 4 1/2mpg to 6 1/2mpg.

No ill affects after 100's of thousands of miles!

Anyone heard about this?

With the long haul to BM I know I want to know if this works.

[ygmir]

my information is that it does not work.
doesn't hurt, but, when testing realistically, is no help.

[mdmf007]

Sounds fallacious. If such gains could be realized by a simple thing as adding acetone to your fuel it would have been done years ago.

What I just read sounds no more promising than all the other gas saving devices in the popular mechanics classified section.

[RingO'Fire]

From a thermodynamic point of view, addition of acetone should actually lower mileage.

From the wikipedia page on "Heat of Combustion" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_of_combustion)

"The heating value or calorific value of a substance, usually a fuel or food (see food energy), is the amount of heat released during the combustion of a specified amount of it. The calorific value is a characteristic for each substance. It is measured in units of energy per unit of the substance, usually mass, such as: kcal/kg, kJ/kg, J/mol, Btu/m^3

The quantity known as lower heating value (LHV) is determined by subtracting the heat of vaporization of the water vapor from the higher heating value. This treats any H2O formed as a vapor. The energy required to vaporize the water therefore is not realized as heat.

Most applications which burn fuel produce water vapor which is not used and thus wasting its heat content. In such applications, the lower heating value [LHV] is the applicable measure.

The LHV of acetone and three common liquid fuels are:

Acetone = 28.58 kilojoules per gram (kJ/g)
Diesel Fuel = 45.0 kJ/g

Ethanol = 29.8 kJ/g
Gasoline = 47.0 kJ/g

Acetone has less energy content per unit mass than diesel fuel. Therefore, thermodynamically, it is impossible that addition of acetone to diesel fuel would boost mileage. In fact, it should have the opposite effect.

Similarly, ethanol has about 2/3 the energy content of a comparable mass of gasoline.

[Ugly Dougly]

Pure acetone will melt most plastics.

[Dr. Pyro]

If I add pure acetone to my mai tai, will that make a better cocktail?

[FIGJAM]

My understanding is that the acetone weakens the molecular bond of the diesel or gasoline resulting in better vaporazation, thus a more affective burn of the fuel.

A guy that works on alot of small ic engines tested with and without acetone said the heads on the engines running regular gas showed carbon deposits and the ones running the mix had none.

Would'nt this indicate a better burn/fuel aficiancy?

Some of the things ive been reading were by old time mechanics that have been doing this for years.

[Mojojita]

If I add pure acetone to my mai tai, will that make a better cocktail?

Yeah! I'm in. You go first....

[pinemom]

Ditto!

[FIGJAM]

This is where ive been looking.

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=n ... el+for+mpg

[ygmir]

If I add pure acetone to my mai tai, will that make a better cocktail?

you'll never want another...............

[knowmad]

According toTom and Ray of Car Talk it's bogus

Tom and Ray are like Car Gods. I listen to them every week. Both are graduates of MIT and have a life long love of cars. If they say it's bogus, believe them.

[Ugly Dougly]

This is where ive been looking.

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=n ... el+for+mpg

If it's on google it must be true?

[theCryptofishist]

I just want to get fingernail polish off my chiuaua. What will work better?

[The CO]

Acetone in gas has been disproven many times over!

Windmills do not work that way!

<snipped from another thread to remind folks about critical thinking>

This is a quick summarized version, full version http://homepages.wmich.edu/~korista/baloney.html
This is NOT Carl Sagans bit on baloney detection, which is an equally good read.
Well worth reading the full version, it's a couple pages, well written, and helps explain peer review and scientific method. I just don't want to clog up the thread.

---

Baloney Detection
How to draw boundaries between science and pseudoscience
By Micheal Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine

10 questions to ask when encountering any claim.

1. How reliable is the source of the claim?
-Some page on the internet. You be the judge.

2. Does this source often make similar claims?
-The internet(not you FigJam)? All the time.

3. Have the claims been verified by another source?
-Not so far. Been shown not to be true though.

4. How does the claim fit with what we know about how the world works?
-Not so well. See RingOFire explanation above.

5. Has anyone gone out of the way to disprove the claim, or has only supportive evidence been sought?
-This claim has been disproven many times.

6. Does the preponderance of evidence point to the claimant's conclusion or to a different one?
-Different. No repeatable evidence of it working, much repeatable evidence of it not working.

7. Is the claimant employing the accepted rules of reason and tools of research, or have these been abandoned in favor of others that lead to the desired conclusion?
-I'm calling it after 6 questions.

8. Is the claimant providing an explanation for the observed phenomena or merely denying the existing explanation?

9. If the claimant proffers a new explanation, does it account for as many phenomena as the old explanation did?

10. Do the claimant's personal beliefs and biases drive the conclusions, or vice versa?

[oneeyeddick]

Acetone doesn't make your gas work better but it does make your meth go faster.

[pizzamancer]

Acetone has less energy content per unit mass than diesel fuel. Therefore, thermodynamically, it is impossible that addition of acetone to diesel fuel would boost mileage. In fact, it should have the opposite effect.

Similarly, ethanol has about 2/3 the energy content of a comparable mass of gasoline.

That has nothing to do with an internal combustion engine. High octane gas burns less efficiently than regular. The only difference is that it ignites at a higher pressure.

But acetone in gas is worthless anyway. If you really want better gas mileage, then look into hypermining. The easiest way to get a 20% increase in gas mileage is to just start slowly and slow down earlier (before stop lights/signs...)

[thisisthatwhichis]

I use the Vulcan mind-meld with my truck (or the "That was Easy" Button)....... Seems to get me home when it's on E........

[FIGJAM]

Im too skeptical to believe anything I see or read till I can varify it through 2 or 3 other sources.

Moonrise mentioned it in a pm so I got curious.

It was brought up on one site that a blind study needed to be done so this guy snuck it into his wifes car to see if she would notice the differance.

She could'nt figure where the extra 10 mpg was coming from,

I listen to The Tappet Brothers all the time and trust thier judgment, but I dont think they tested this themselfs. I read that they asked a major fuel company about it and repeated what they were told.

I may still try it on my 98 chevy 6.5 turbo diesel.

Thanks for the replies guys.

[mdmf007]

My understanding is that the acetone weakens the molecular bond of the diesel or gasoline resulting in better vaporazation, thus a more affective burn of the fuel.

A guy that works on alot of small ic engines tested with and without acetone said the heads on the engines running regular gas showed carbon deposits and the ones running the mix had none.

Would'nt this indicate a better burn/fuel aficiancy?

Some of the things ive been reading were by old time mechanics that have been doing this for years.

No, its a good indicator of dissolving carbon.

[thisisthatwhichis]

I was joking around, Figjam.... but, be careful of the corrosive affects on your plastic gas tank and fuel lines..... They may be OK, but it might be worth testing b4 throwing it in your gas tank.

[FIGJAM]

My understanding is that the acetone weakens the molecular bond of the diesel or gasoline resulting in better vaporazation, thus a more affective burn of the fuel.

A guy that works on alot of small ic engines tested with and without acetone said the heads on the engines running regular gas showed carbon deposits and the ones running the mix had none.

Would'nt this indicate a better burn/fuel aficiancy?

Some of the things ive been reading were by old time mechanics that have been doing this for years.

No, its a good indicator of dissolving carbon.

That makes sence.

I guess that why there's acetone in some of the fuel system cleaners that are on the market.

[Elorrum]

According toTom and Ray of Car Talk it's bogus

Tom and Ray are like Car Gods. I listen to them every week. Both are graduates of MIT and have a life long love of cars. If they say it's bogus, believe them.

Love 'em. Don't drive like my brother.

[FIGJAM]

Not bogus.

It's booOOooOOooOOgus!

[Kinetik V]

If I want to dissolve carbon it's called a bottle of SeaFoam. I wonder what the next suggestion is going to be...dumping mothballs in your tank to boost the octane rating? Hell why not put both Acetone and mothballs in your tank and be done with it. Oh and make sure and put one of those Tornado air intakes on your car too...

Anyone recommending this crap is likely the one who tries to buy muffler bearings or blinker fluid.

[theCryptofishist]

We all know this is nonsense.

But my friend had an uncle who invented a carburetor that ran on water. General Motors bought the patent, but never made it, and my friend swears they had his uncle killed.

I Want that Carburetor!

[knowmad]

We all know this is nonsense.

But my friend had an uncle who invented a carburetor that ran on water. General Motors bought the patent, but never made it, and my friend swears they had his uncle killed.

I Want that Carburetor!

Ever notice how it's always "somebody's friend", or "My ex-roomates Brother-in-law"?

Gonna have to go with the CO's Baloney detector on this,

on a related tangent; Whats to this myth I hear about water injection into the Carb? Theory is?

[oneeyeddick]

My RV has a reservoir for windshield fluid that is actually tubed into the quadrajet carb.
it calls for propylene glycol to be added to the mist, supposedly it makes the gas combust more effeciently.

[knowmad]

My RV has a reservoir for windshield fluid that is actually tubed into the quadrajet carb.
it calls for propylene glycol to be added to the mist, supposedly it makes the gas combust more effeciently.

and you've done this?
glycol? if my memory from organic chem serves me correct is mainly used for antifreeze, and the remainder is mainly used as a precursor to polymers.

in other words it's labeled for exactly what it was put there for. and when mixed with free form hydrocarbons (Gasoline) produces Plastic.

Now I'm not one to tell a fella what and what not to stick his flaming penis into but....

[ygmir]

My RV has a reservoir for windshield fluid that is actually tubed into the quadrajet carb.
it calls for propylene glycol to be added to the mist, supposedly it makes the gas combust more effeciently.

I could see it calling for isopropyl (or methanol) alcohol (some call it isopropanol) to be added to the water.....but not PG.

the water mist is, IIRC, a fairly well documented power booster.
It was used in WWII fighter planes, to boost power in "emergency" situations.
It needs to be atomized into the intake air stream, to work.
I think it also lowers EGT's, and catalyzes the fuel burn.

*it's been a long time since I read that stuff*

((edit to add this link, to show how bad my memory is))
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_inje ... engines%29