Adding Acetone to Petrol to improve MPG

[manwithtool]

Well I saw a short video clip on one of the video web sites....I think it was break.com ?
Anyway the guy added a couple of cup fulls of "pure acetone" to his tank and claimed to get an extra 10mpg or so....claims it helps the petrol burn.  Obviously this all seems way to good to be true.  Any chemists out there can confirm any of this...?  and will it ruin your catalyst or valve seats ?

I'll try and find the link...then try and post it !!

[manwithtool]

Ok this isn;t the clip I referred to above..but this "magic" pill seems to do the same thing...independatnly tested...it seems

All seems to good to be true..

http://my.break.com/media/view.aspx?ContentID=251471

[Ivan]

Sounds too good to be true, but there seems to be a lot of data backing it up.

'acetone reduces surface tension causing better atomisation and therefore better economy' according to one site - maybe, but the petrol companies know that better atomising fuels work better Fuels have fantastic cocktails of additives designed to do this and a lot of other jobs, mostly for improving economy and improving engine life/wear. I did a few years research in fuel additives, and it is a huge industry.

There are a few things going against it - 1.)acetone is toxic 2)dangerous - vapour can very easily - it's now a controlled substance. You used to be able to obtain it easily for paint spraying, but now you need to be a registered sprayshop to get hold of it  3.)acetone evaporates very quickly

Certainly with diesel fuel, you can improve the mpg slightly (15%) by improving the percentage of fuel burnt (eg 'fumigation' with propane) - sometimes referred to as a catalytic effect - basically burning the diesel at a higher temperature, but you need to have at least 15% propane to achieve this effect (by hotter-burning). I would doubt that the tiny amount of acetone they are recommending (0.05 to 0.1%) would be enough  for this effect.

Certainly worth a few experiments, but I think people often drive more carefully to obtain a good result - often unconsciously. We did some informal experiments with an additive, and drivers were reporting significant gains. We did a 'proper' experiment on a fleet of lorries, some drivers were getting additive, some weren't but they didn't know (ie a 'blind' experiment), and there was no significant difference.


Ivan

[kristen]

"the petrol companies ... have fantastic cocktails of additives"

I heard a BP (I think) advert on local radio the other day saying that a tank full of their fuel would give me X% more miles-per-tank ...

I believe that is quite common in USA - i.e. brand-loyalty amongst customers based on a perception of better engine life etc.  Maybe they have lots of rubbish Brand-X fuel over there ...

... mind you Tesco petrol has been an engine-life-shortening experience for many over here!

Kristen

[paul]

My mechanic in the U.K. warns all his clients not to use tesco petrol or diesel.  He's seen the results! Once he showed me a can of tesco diesel taken out of my fathers van, it melt more like paint than diesel!  He's allways having to put system/injector cleaners through cars that have run on tesco fuel for even just a few months as they soon start to run rough.

Paul

[Paulh_Boats]

He's allways having to put system/injector cleaners through cars that have run on tesco fuel for even just a few months as they soon start to run rough.

Ditto. Daughter filled up Mum's Daewoo Matiz with Tesco fuel last month and it ran rubbish, misfiring a lot. Dad messed around testing the injectors, looked like injectors 1 and 2 were rough (not much fun on a 3 cylinder! ). Dad chucked in some fuel cleaner, slight improvement.

Then the tank ran down, filled up with normal petrol and soon it ran smoothly again. 

-Paul

[manwithtool]

Well I use an Astra 1.4 petrol for my journey to work...it's a 1995 with about 85k miles.  I regularly get 40 mpg.  I monitor it all the time allways filling up and making a note of the miles....Sad I know !  I think I'll take the plunge and bung some acetone in....See what happens....I'll report back !
I'll also see if I can get some of those "magic" pills.....Test those as well.
Keep watching !

[Paulh_Boats]

manwithtool

Good luck with the Astra! Being that old it might not have a fancy fuel computer, in which case the acetone could really help for the reasons Ivan outlined. There are reports that modern fuel computers that meet very tough Californian and EU laws are so clever the benifits of acetone are marginal.

I get 42 mpg average in my 1998 Mondeo 2.0, but most of that is motorway. They say the fuel computers constantly adjust to a lean mixture [high mpg] if you drive gently on the throttle, easing off now and then and definatly accelerating slowly.

-Paul

[Amaterasu]

man with tool

Exactly what sort of magic pills were you looking for!

You know that we cant condone illicit behaviour on this forum 

[lightfoot]

Not sure how relevant this is as I'm no chemist, but back in my biking day's we would use acetone (among other things) as a octane booster. 

Raising the octane will make the fuel more stable, something to do with free radicals if I remember but it's a bit of a blur......basically it makes a engine run cooler thus allowing us to advance the timing and or increase the compression for more power without resulting in the dreaded detonation (most of the time!)

Lightfoot.

[Smooth Hound]

I believe that if you put a bit of acetone in with deisel it improves the way the injector fires the fuel in the cylinder, it gives it a better dispersal, so more of the fuel burns. I red a report on a guy who uses it in his microlight, if that not confidence then im not sure what is I have been using it in my outboard and it runs nicely and seems to use less fuel as well, but the best thing is is that the spark plugs stay lovely and clean, as it is a 2 stroke i used to get a bit of oil on ther plugs when i was idling for half an hour or so, so then i would have to give it a thrash for a minute to burn it off, well that doesnt happen with acetone in it, i put 50ml in a 2 gallon can, thats all, and i buy it in 50ml botles from the chemist , i think that ciost just under the pound. Been using it all yr with no problems occuring, But there is a right amount to put in, if you put too much in then it doesnt acheive any better results, and obviously if not enough then it wont make alot of difference. The more worn your engine is the better the results youll achieve.

[County 4x4]

For use in diesel fuel, the recommended amount of acetone is around 1.5ml per litre of fuel.

It is easily obtainable - in small bottles over the counter at a chemists - which is pricey.

From ebay in 5 litre containers - no problem with carriage either - cheaper. That's where I got my last 5 litres.

From glass fibre supplies outlets - they use it for cleaning tools amongst other things - cheaper still.

There's an article on the subject at:

http://pesn.com/2005/03/17/6900069_Acetone/

Note that using too much acetone will decrease your mpg PAST the original starting point. Less is more etc!

Hope this is some help!

Andy (from the Transit Forum same as Smooth Hound )

[byways]

It puzzles me why it hasn't been done by the Oil companies if it does improve mpg.   This must raise a question mark over it's use:-
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showpost.php?p=1478498&postcount=63


Chris

[County 4x4]

Presumably the oil companies would end up selling less fuel and making less profit if everyones mpg went up.

The reports don't mention the concentration of acetone in the fuel, but it sounded as if it was quite high if they were planning on diluting it down to 0.2%. As mentioned previously, too much acetone has a negative effect on mpg. The "damage" could be purely in terms of mpg, or could only occur in old vehicles using natural rubber parts- the report didn't go into specifics.

It can cause problems with some rubber seals and parts, but most vehicles manufactured in recent years are not using natural rubber bits any more - they've moved to synthetics and Viton and what have you which are not affected. There are some details on testing various seals etc in the report I mentioned - and it should be borne in mind that these tests were conducted at concentrations far higher than would be encountered in use in a vehicle.

As with many of these ideas and additives - it's a case of suck it and see at the end of the day. Some people have reported finding no difference at all in fuel consumption using acetone as an additive, and many others have said that they would never go back to NOT using it because it makes a hefty difference to their motoring costs. The only way forward really is to ignore it or give it a go. The concentrations are very low at less than two parts in a thousand, and personally I can't see that such a dilute mixture could have much of a damaging effect on your engine. I use it, as does my father in law (4x4 Transit and Pajero respectively) and we've both achieved better mpg. I'm currently running a tankful without it to see if the mpg decreases again, after which I'll use another tank with it added. The only difference I (thought) I noticed was that the engine seemed to run more smoothly and quieter at tickover. Power (or lack of it) seemed the same as with straight diesel.

Cheers,

Andy