ACETONE?? In the gas tank???

[Arkaign]

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/...e_your_gas_mileage_2x/

Cliffs : guy had 17mpg, did some various usual things, increased to 20-something. Guy then tries a small amount of acetone with 10 gallons of gas, and his mileage went up hugely. Weird.

Something about it doesn't add up to me, but who knows.

 

[Arkaign]

Ah-ha! Busted :

http://mythbustersresults.com/episode53

 

[Zenmervolt]

Pure BS: http://neubranderinc.com/blog/...ne-in-gasoline-busted/

ZV

 

[Xyclone]

Originally posted by: Arkaign
Ah-ha! Busted :

http://mythbustersresults.com/episode53

Haha, "the acetone was less fuel efficient."

 

[steppinthrax]

If anything the aceton with break down your fuel lines and anything that's rubber. FUEL LEAK

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: steppinthrax
If anything the aceton with break down your fuel lines and anything that's rubber. FUEL LEAK

That's why I was like WTF when I first read it. Didn't sound logical/feasible/safe to me.

OTOH, it's always interesting to look at wacky ideas. On my parents old '87 Taurus, we got bad gas one time, and our mechanic buddy told us to add some moth balls to the tank, and it smoothed it out. No idea if it would help mileage or whatever, but I was pretty surprised.

 

[jagec]

It doesn't help your mileage, but it IS one way to pass emissions on a borderline vehicle that you don't care much about.

 

[Zenmervolt]

It won't increase mileage, but you can add up to about 20% Toluene (available in 5-gallon buckets at paint supply stores since it is also used to remove paint) to your gasoline to increase the octane. Toluene has an octane rating of about 103, but cannot be used in 100% concentrations. If you blend it at 20% it's safe to use and will raise the octane of the entire mixture.

At 80% 91 Octane and 20% Toluene you would get a mixture that is 93.4 Octane after blending. In California where people typically cannot get above 91 Octane, this can be helpful. Obviously, use this at your own risk.

ZV

 

[Arkaign]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
It won't increase mileage, but you can add up to about 20% Toluene (available in 5-gallon buckets at paint supply stores since it is also used to remove paint) to your gasoline to increase the octane. Toluene has an octane rating of about 103, but cannot be used in 100% concentrations. If you blend it at 20% it's safe to use and will raise the octane of the entire mixture.

At 80% 91 Octane and 20% Toluene you would get a mixture that is 93.4 Octane after blending. In California where people typically cannot get above 91 Octane, this can be helpful. Obviously, use this at your own risk.

ZV

Interesting and informative

 

[The Boston Dangler]

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts56.html

MSDS

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts56.html

MSDS

In other words, it's no more toxic than any other paint thinner or anything else that contains petroleum distillates (like, oh, gasoline).

ZV

 

[Dman877]

You can buy toys from china and throw them in your gas tank too. The lead will give you mega octane boostage!!

 

[alkemyst]

For bad gas I never heard moth balls...alcohols though do tend to pull water out. I think most are isopropyl.

If you indeed had major bad gas (like water was flooded into it, or someone trying to reuse old gas out of their boat)...you are looking at a drain and replace.

 

[SilentRunning]

Originally posted by: Dman877
You can buy toys from china and throw them in your gas tank too. The lead will give you mega octane boostage!!

I thought the lead was to cool and protect the valves, not to raise the octane. When the lead was taken out engines switched to sodium valves.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: SilentRunning

Originally posted by: Dman877
You can buy toys from china and throw them in your gas tank too. The lead will give you mega octane boostage!!

I thought the lead was to cool and protect the valves, not to raise the octane. When the lead was taken out engines switched to sodium valves.

The main purpose of tetra-ethyl lead was as an octane booster, but since, like all lead compounds, it does have lubricative properties, it also served to lubricate the valves (though not to cool them). Engines designed for leaded gasoline lack hardened valve seats which results in excess wear when used with unleaded gasoline.

Sodium-filled valves are different and remain rather rarely used. Sodium-filled valves are used in engines that have high heat loads (commonly turbocharged engines) and are actually made out of traditional materials, except that the stems are hollow. The stem contains a small amount of sodium and as the valve cycles the sodium (which liquefies from the engine heat) "sloshes" within the hollow chamber and in doing so transfers heat from the valve up to the end of the valve stem. Because of the hollow chamber, sodium-filled valves are more expensive to manufacture and are also weaker for a given allow and stem diameter than traditional valves.

ZV

 

[Squisher]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
It won't increase mileage, but you can add up to about 20% Toluene (available in 5-gallon buckets at paint supply stores since it is also used to remove paint) to your gasoline to increase the octane. Toluene has an octane rating of about 103, but cannot be used in 100% concentrations. If you blend it at 20% it's safe to use and will raise the octane of the entire mixture.

At 80% 91 Octane and 20% Toluene you would get a mixture that is 93.4 Octane after blending. In California where people typically cannot get above 91 Octane, this can be helpful. Obviously, use this at your own risk.

ZV

I thought Toluene was glue, specifically the glue that glue sniffers sniff to get high.

I remember a "High Times" cover, from 30 years ago, with a Halloween motif that said "Happy Toluene."

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Squisher

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
It won't increase mileage, but you can add up to about 20% Toluene (available in 5-gallon buckets at paint supply stores since it is also used to remove paint) to your gasoline to increase the octane. Toluene has an octane rating of about 103, but cannot be used in 100% concentrations. If you blend it at 20% it's safe to use and will raise the octane of the entire mixture.

At 80% 91 Octane and 20% Toluene you would get a mixture that is 93.4 Octane after blending. In California where people typically cannot get above 91 Octane, this can be helpful. Obviously, use this at your own risk.

ZV

I thought Toluene was glue, specifically the glue that glue sniffers sniff to get high.

I remember a "High Times" cover, from 30 years ago, with a Halloween motif that said "Happy Toluene."

Toluene is a solvent, but yes, it's fumes do have toxic effects that have been used by people to get high.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toluene

Apparently I screwed up on the octane rating of Toluene. It should be around 114.

ZV

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Originally posted by: alkemyst
For bad gas I never heard moth balls...alcohols though do tend to pull water out. I think most are isopropyl.

If you indeed had major bad gas (like water was flooded into it, or someone trying to reuse old gas out of their boat)...you are looking at a drain and replace.

The reason why alcohol pulls water out is that water and gasoline isn't a soluable mixture, but water and alcohol is. However, to burn you need to have more alcohol than water.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: Squisher

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
It won't increase mileage, but you can add up to about 20% Toluene (available in 5-gallon buckets at paint supply stores since it is also used to remove paint) to your gasoline to increase the octane. Toluene has an octane rating of about 103, but cannot be used in 100% concentrations. If you blend it at 20% it's safe to use and will raise the octane of the entire mixture.

At 80% 91 Octane and 20% Toluene you would get a mixture that is 93.4 Octane after blending. In California where people typically cannot get above 91 Octane, this can be helpful. Obviously, use this at your own risk.

ZV

I thought Toluene was glue, specifically the glue that glue sniffers sniff to get high.

I remember a "High Times" cover, from 30 years ago, with a Halloween motif that said "Happy Toluene."

it's probably in some glues, but it's its own chemical.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Originally posted by: alkemyst

Originally posted by: Squisher

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
It won't increase mileage, but you can add up to about 20% Toluene (available in 5-gallon buckets at paint supply stores since it is also used to remove paint) to your gasoline to increase the octane. Toluene has an octane rating of about 103, but cannot be used in 100% concentrations. If you blend it at 20% it's safe to use and will raise the octane of the entire mixture.

At 80% 91 Octane and 20% Toluene you would get a mixture that is 93.4 Octane after blending. In California where people typically cannot get above 91 Octane, this can be helpful. Obviously, use this at your own risk.

ZV

I thought Toluene was glue, specifically the glue that glue sniffers sniff to get high.

I remember a "High Times" cover, from 30 years ago, with a Halloween motif that said "Happy Toluene."

it's probably in some glues, but it's its own chemical.

It's a solvent for the glues, it evaporates just leaving the sticky part behind.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth

Originally posted by: alkemyst

it's probably in some glues, but it's its own chemical.

It's a solvent for the glues, it evaporates just leaving the sticky part behind.

Yup. We have a bottle of the stuff in the lab next door for viscosity experiments. It smells EXACTLY like the glue that I used to use as a kid for my models. I have to say, I put together a wicked F-4 Phantom II back then...

 

[funkymatt]

so I tried this recently. Although it was a small distance- 92 miles and I only used 2.4 gallons- that works out to 38+ mpg up from 31. this is in a 97 honda civic. I'm going to keep it up to see if I can reproduce the results. The mixture I used was 2oz acetone to 10.145gal 87 octane. I also heard mythbusters got the portions wrong.

 

[Howard]

I heard toluene can be used to clean the injectors.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: funkymatt
so I tried this recently. Although it was a small distance- 92 miles and I only used 2.4 gallons- that works out to 38+ mpg up from 31. this is in a 97 honda civic. I'm going to keep it up to see if I can reproduce the results. The mixture I used was 2oz acetone to 10.145gal 87 octane. I also heard mythbusters got the portions wrong.

Facepalm... I got nothing else.

 

[mrblotto]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
It won't increase mileage, but you can add up to about 20% Toluene (available in 5-gallon buckets at paint supply stores since it is also used to remove paint) to your gasoline to increase the octane. Toluene has an octane rating of about 103, but cannot be used in 100% concentrations. If you blend it at 20% it's safe to use and will raise the octane of the entire mixture.

At 80% 91 Octane and 20% Toluene you would get a mixture that is 93.4 Octane after blending. In California where people typically cannot get above 91 Octane, this can be helpful. Obviously, use this at your own risk.

ZV

Thank you for the info ZV. When I was little, my father had a '67 Stingray with a 'souped up' small block him and his buddies built. I remember him saying something about adding Toluene and/or maybe Xylene? (sp), but never knew why.

Thanx again!