I watched a TV show the other night about adding acetone to gasoline . . . on to two ounces to 10 gallons . . . increasing mpg. Anybody ever tried this? Rocketman
Sorry . . should say “one to two ounces per 10 gallons of gas”.
No reason it should work. Acetone is a solvent, nothing more. If there are deposits to be cleaned I’ll use a bottle of Techron. Otherwise, acetone would be added by the oil cos. and used to claim major mpg increase.
Never tried…and NEVER will.
Was it a TV show you watched or an infomercial.
Its only possible benefit would be as a detergent for the fuel system, something the gas station has already added.
It was a tv show on cable . . . some nerdy guy shows how to build stuff . . . he’s like Bill Ney the science guy for adults. Can’t think of his name, it’ll come to me. He did a show on increasing mpg . . . his suggestions were pretty basic until the adding acetone thing . . I never heard of that. He suggested that you should pump your tire pressure up to 38-40 psi, remove extra weight including your spare and jack, advance timing a few degrees, new plugs and wires, just basic stuff. But he claimed that the acetone added a lot more mpg. Why not? Rocketman
Raising tire pressure can compromise traction and jar the spine.
Removing the spare and jack can have frustrating consequences.
Advancing the timing isn’t useful on cars less than 20 years old.
Plug wires are fading away, like CRTs.
Well, when somebody claims something amazing, instead of ‘why not’, I ask ‘why’. And the answer is, there is NO reason acetone will increase mpgs in a clean engine.
It’s a simple hydrocarbon, just propane with an oxygen bonded to the middle carbon instead of 2 hydrogens: CH3-CO-CH3 instead of CH3-CH2-CH3
It’ll burn fine, but may degrade plastics/rubber in your system if you use too much. Nothing about it is unusual or special.
Acetone is highly flammable, but it’s also a powerful solvent that attacks most plastics and synthetics. Do you really want to put that in your fuel system, with all its seals, O-rings, tubes ,floats, EVAP components, and plastic parts.
The acetone bunk appeared on this forum some years back and led to a pretty volatile discussion. Some time later I was going on a road trip and volunteered to use my Lincoln as an acetone guinea pig.
My fuel mileage during the entire trip, both ways, did not improve one iota.
I’d add that the guy who seems to have got this acetone ball rolling on the internet was not using a miles driven/gallons used method. He was using a Scan Gauge and that can be interpreted however you want.
It’s similar to the Message Center in my Lincoln with the Fuel Economy readouts, and which I play around with quite a bit while on the road.
At some points in deceleration and at certain speeds (around 65 MPH especially) my Lincoln will get an honest 99 MPG. It may actually be higher but 99 is as high as it goes.
Is that real world mileage? No, it only occurs for a second and in the big picture means nothing but I could honestly claim my 4.6 Mark gets 99 MPG couldn’t I?
One of the biggest problems with claims like this is the placebo effect. I could hand over a bottle of plain old gasoline and call it a “miracle gas mileage improver” and someone eager for results will cruise a little slower and drive more smoothly and possibly not even realize he’s doing it, and lo and behold, his gas mileage increases so my “miracle gas mileage improver” works!
Hmmmmmmmm…
B.L.E., you’ve just given me a business idea…
Here’s another gas mileage improver.
Step 1: Replace the muffler on your car with a straight pipe.
Step 2: Drive without getting stopped for excessive noise.
Getting better gas mileage? Straight pipes work!
I liked your other idea better. Less work involved.
Yes, but the mouse milk and snake oil market is already saturated with competition.
Years ago a regular customer left his truck for service with a bottle of #50 miracle treatment to be included in the oil. Somehow the additive was left out and I didn’t notice until the truck was gone. The customer called me the next morning from 400 miles away swearing how great the additive was. He had calculated his mileage and it was more than 2 mpg better than he had ever seen on that particular route and he was sure that the temperature gauge remained somewhat lower than it had in the previous months. I congratulated him on his great find and at his next service added the magic elixir but heard no great results after that. The engine on the truck ran until about 350,000 miles and he was certain that the longevity was due greatly to the additive What could I say?
I remembered the guys name . . . Kipkay tv. I don’t believe that I would introduce a solvent into the fuel system of my vehicle due to the possible damage it might do, just wondering. Thanks for all of your comments! Rocketman
I researched this topic a few years ago and found some information that may be of some use. A fuel additive was sold in the past for farm equipment that had acetone as it’s base. A warning on the container stated that this fuel additive was not to be used for cars or trucks because damage could occur. The acetone additive was later found to damage farm equipment as well and the company was sued out of existence. Acetone should never be used in the fuel tanks of anything and does not increase fuel mileage.
Thanks for the chuckle Rod. It shows the power of positive thinking. More powerful than an actual additive.
The acetone bunk appeared on this forum some years back and led to a pretty volatile discussion.
I see what you did there. . .