Acetone in the fuel tank

[Robert Noble]

Has anybody tried mixing acetone in the fuel, a number of my coworkers are adding acetone and they say they get 8% to 10% better mileage. I went on line and read a few articles supporting their claim. I'll give it try and report my results, hopefully positive:blink:

 

[P1ps dayz]

hmm sounds weird, but post them when u have them!

 

[Kevin Palmer]

First I have heard of it....

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Acetone, Isopropyl Alcohol and Dry Gas are all about the same thing, no? I understand their chemical makeup is different, but they share about the same combustion properties, no?

 

[A K]

Bill B is actually trying this. I encourage you to hop over to www.explorerforum.com/forums and check for his post in 'Everything Under the Sun.'

 

[Ben Poche]

i have run m.e.k.(methal Ethel ketone) in my 1966 12 second mustang back in the early 1990's it made a difference in performance do not know about mpg it got 5 mpg so i was not looking for a gain in that department.

 

[Bill Ellis]

Here's an article.

 

[Bill Ellis]

Here's another article about the results an individual has recently had with a Ranger 4.0 V6. Very interesting and significant fuel economy improvement. Think I'll give this a test since I have the data for every bit of gas I've put in my Trac during the past 16 months.

 

[Dreman]

First I've heard of it. How could this work? It sounds like so much smoke and mirrors, but I will keep an open mind on it. Let us know what you find.

 

[Bill Ellis]

According to the articles one should see a step-wise increase in mpg, not a gradual improvement. I need to gas-up this afternoon and I have some acetone at home. My normal mpg driving around St. Louis is about 18.3. From the graphs it looks like 2 oz / 10 gal is a good starting figure with additional acetone showing marginal gains above that amount. So, I'll put 5 oz in the tank before I fill and that should bring it up to about 2.2 oz / 10 gal given that the 22 1/2 gal tank plus the filler tube really holds about 23.5 gallons. I'll do this for the next 5 tanks of gas and see what it does.

 

[Frank Marano]

So instead of spending lets say $40 a tank roughly to fill my Trac, I have to spend $40 plus whatever a bottle of this stuff costs......in reality I am not saving money, pretty much spending more.



People just drive your Tracs, there isnt much you can do to gain any major benefit in the mpg category.

 

[Fer Echegaray]

truc, how many mailes on your ST?



I get 18mpg mixed driving, about 20 to 21 in highway. At first my mpg was about 13, but improved as the mileage increased, and has stayed about the same since the 20K miles (currently 32k)...

 

[Will Bonds]

Acetone and isopropyl alcohol are NOT the same. Acetone IS the old style fingernail polish remover. Both very flammable, acetone much heavier, and hence acetone vapors can linger and be flashed by remote ignition sources. Don't dribble the acetone down the side of your Trac while pouring into the tank..... very bad for the paint job.

 

[Robert Noble]

With regard to the cost of acetone, the cost is about $5.00 per gallon at Wallie-World and you only mix 1-2oz. per 10 gallons of gas. So in reality you could be saving $'s.

 

[Bill Ellis]

These Dodge guys are way ahead of us here. Also report being able to run chip in performance mode with 87 octane gas. Lots to read here but it is informative.

 

[Fer Echegaray]

Acetone does have one attractive property, however. It is extremely hydroscopic, meaning that it attracts and absorbs water. In the old days, the McCulloch racers knew this and used to mix acetone with their alcohol to help suspend the moisture that the alcohol attracted and put it in a more combustible form. It will do this in gasoline as well and, since water is not soluble in gasoline at all, but acetone, even acetone that has absorbed some water, is soluble in gasoline, it's a good way to deal with water-contaminated gasoline. But there's no power advantage to be had here and, if you're having a problem with water in your gasoline, you don't need a chemical to fix it. You need a better gasoline supplier. By the way, ketones like MEK and Acetone are also really hard on rubber and plastic parts, like carb diaphragms, etc. In concentrations of less than about 15 percent by volume, it is impossible to see any change in the combustion process, while anything over 10 percent may dissolve your metering diaphragm before the day is done. Sounds like a bad bargain.



Taken from: http://www.foxvalleykart.com/fuel4.html

From the listed dodge site above...

Corrosion could be an issue...

 

[Teddy GreeneII]

Keep us posted, so intresting but seems a little sketchy too..........maybe just because I'm not in the know but the idea is really neat

 

[TomT]

I'm a little skeptical. If it was that easy then why wouldn't car manufactures advise it? I can see the gas companies not wanting to tell us but car manufactures, especially domestic, would want any kind of improvement possible in their performance.

 

[Jeff C]

I believe the mileage ratings of 16 and 21 are set at the gov't standard of 40mph on a continuous drive. So when you're doing nearly double that, a little mileage drop could be expected. I'm averaging around 420 a tank right now on my 87octane tune from WFoy, and most of my driving recently has been interstate, very little city.