Putting Acetone in gas tank to increase fuel economy

[Matt Timion]

Backround: Some claim that a VERY small amount of acetone in the gas tank will increase fuel economy.

EDIT: I removed the link after a rather nasty email from the author of the article. I emailed asking for permission to use his article on this website and his response was less than nice. There was mention of him publishing a book and he repeatedly said "NO." Needless to say, acetone as a gas mileage enhancer can be read about on various sites throughout the internet. Contact the google gods for more information.

Others argue that this claim is ridiculous, and others claim that it will destroy your engine.

I propose we run an experiment to determine if acetone will in fact increase gas mileage as described.

We have heard that the mileage benefit may NOT be noticable until after the first tank of gas. Due to this, we ask that all volunteers do not begin recording their mileage until after you have been through one tank of gas.

5 volunteers are needed. Please reply to this thread if you are interested. Guidelines to be followed are contained in thread How to properly conduct an experiment (http://www.gassavers.org/node/3)

Matt

[SVOboy]

I'll definately work on this one pretty soon, just need to figure out my loops and find a gas station that will help me out by not topping off. Here in New Jersey we don't get that kinda control but I think it can be figured out. I'll start on my second tank running acetone and shoot you the numbers.

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

I'll definately work on this one pretty soon, just need to figure out my loops and find a gas station that will help me out by not topping off. Here in New Jersey we don't get that kinda control but I think it can be figured out. I'll start on my second tank running acetone and shoot you the numbers.

Very cool. One volunteer down and 4 to go.

[Diemaster]

i would volenter but my pride and joy is also my DD so if somthing went south i'd be fu*ked w/ no transportation for my handicap mom + no way to school. i'm most profeshient in electronics and wiring so i'll help there.

[john galt]

This subject has been covered extensively at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pes_acetone/

In general, the smaller and more underpowered the vehicle is the more MPG gain one _might_ get.

replacing OEM spark plug wires with Bosch premium will almost always give better results. OEM plug wires are good for maybe 50K then they start breaking down.

another good forum with lots of archived data is
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BetterMPG/


there is no magic bullet for significantly increasing MPG, the only thing that really works is driving less and slowing down.

[Matt Timion]

Thanks John. I am hoping that some of the folks at the yahoo groups can migrate over here. We have the ability to more fully customize the layout of this site to suite the needs of all of us wanting better gas mileage.

You said that acetone MIGHT affect gas mileage. Does this mean you have had unfavorable results? If so, please tell us about it.

[john galt]

<p>Compared with yahoo this forum is a slow, cumbersome pain-in-the-*** for anyone on dial-up access, I won't be back.</p><p>As for acetone, yes I tried it in my truck for many months.&nbsp; At first it gave a 3% to 4% increase, but then I replaced the spark plug wires and got a 10% increase.&nbsp; After that, acetone or not had no measureable effect.</p><p>&nbsp;Acetone is mostly a band-aid that masks more significant problems.<br /></p>

[bagpipe goatee]

xml might not be the MOST efficient way of doing things, but it's really easy to manipulate.&nbsp; (if you're even reading this anyway). &nbsp;&nbsp; so, i'd be interested in how acetone changes the chemical makeup, like, does it make it burn evener, or does it clean? &nbsp; &nbsp;

[SVOboy]

Some say it is good because it allows the molecules to vaporize more easily and others say it is just cleaning the injectors making it spray finer. I will test out my next three tanks with acetone and then let it go and see if the benefit (if there is any) stays or goes away, and if some more people share my conclusions then it should be resonably easy to say which side is correct.&nbsp;

[Scorn]

Yesterday I bit the bullet, said "**** it" and dumped 50ml into my gas tank (holding about 7gal at the time). I didnt notice anything at first, but after driving for about 15min, I looked down and realized that my engine temp was down and I was going about 70mph. Next light I raced and completley destroyed a stock silverado in my little 4banger toyota truck. How much it helps? I'm not sure, didnt measure exactly. But it definatley does make a differance. Right now I'm just waiting to see if my fuel lines melt or not, but if they dont, its definatley something worth doing.

[Matt Timion]

Originally Posted by Scorn

Yesterday I bit the bullet, said "**** it" and dumped 50ml into my gas tank (holding about 7gal at the time). I didnt notice anything at first, but after driving for about 15min, I looked down and realized that my engine temp was down and I was going about 70mph. Next light I raced and completley destroyed a stock silverado in my little 4banger toyota truck. How much it helps? I'm not sure, didnt measure exactly. But it definatley does make a differance. Right now I'm just waiting to see if my fuel lines melt or not, but if they dont, its definatley something worth doing.

Thanks for the post Scorn, and welcome to the site.

I have been in contact with a man who has soaked entire fuel lines in pure acetone, and mixtures of acetone and gasoline. He is also putting injectors that are split in half into his mixtures. to determine if acetone affects the internals of the injectors.

As soon as his results are ready I will be posting the results on this website.

[GhostHunter]

Tsikot.Com Acetone/Gasoline Test 2005 (Philippines)

The Car: 1999 Toyota Corolla 1.6 GLi A/T
Typical Milage: 5.5 to 6km/L all city driving with a/c always on.
Typical Destinations: Cubao, Makati, San Juan, Mandaluyong, Manila in the Philippines

Fuel Used: Shell Unleaded (approx 93 octane)
Gas Station: Shell @ Ortigas/Connecticut, San Juan, Metro Manila, Philippines


Status/Results: (as compared to 5.75km/L)

First dose results (60mL per 40L) = 6.44km/L (12% gain in fuel milage)
Second dose results (75mL per 40L) = 6.53km/L (13.56% gain in fuel milage)
Third dose results (90mL per 40L) = 6.05km/L (5.2% gain in fuel milage) *see below
Fourth dose results (90mL per 40L) = 6.1km/L
Fifth dose results (60mL per 40L) = 6.8km/L

April 07, 2005

Today I filled my tank with 60mL of acetone and filled the rest of the fuel tank with Shell Unleaded gasoline.

After half a day and 12km, there was no difference in how the car behaved in starting, accelerating or idling.

April 11, 2005

so far I have used up about 1/4 of my tank of acetone treated gasoline. Typically I get about 60 to 70km at this point with "normal" gasoline. I got slightly over 80km (83km to be exact). That is about a 30% improvement assuming the basis is 65km @ 1/4 tank consumed.

Note: At this point, the "gains" are unofficial because any car's fuel level guage can be relatively inaccurate. The official km/L will be when I fill up my fuel tank again. Based on current consumption, it will be at the end of the week.

April 13, 2005

Given my fuel guage is still above 1/4 line (fuel remaining), I went ahead to fill up my gasoline tank. My trip odometer registered 191.5km while 29.7L of gasoline was filled into my tank. That computes to about 6.44km/L fuel milage. Its an increase but not as much as I was expecting. Given the increase is only 12%, I cannot consider it to prove anything at this point.

When I filled my gas tank, I poured in approx 2.5oz per 10 gallons equivalent of acetone. Maybe a slightly stronger dose will give better results. I'll know in a week's time.

April 19, 2005

Finally, I went back to Shell @ Ortigas Ave to fill up my fuel tank. Current gasoline price is now around P31.50 from about P30.50 per liter. My trip odometer registered 223.9km while 34.3L of gasoline filled my tank. That is 6.53km/L fuel milage.

This time, I poured in the equivalent of 3oz (roughly 90mL) of acetone per 10 gallons gasoline. Hopefully this could get me a bit more milage.

A minor note, the car felt a bit more "energetic" at the 2.5oz dose level. But since its only a "seat of the pants" feeling, I can't really verify any real gains in terms of performance.

I bought my current supply of pure acetone from Unimart in Greenhills. Price is at P12.50 per 120mL plastic bottle.

April 25, 2005

I went back to Shell to fill my talk after nearly a week. Downside, I've been doing a bit more of "hataw" during this tankful, like late last night where I've been doing "Ferrari Tune-Ups". I guess it showed in my gas milage for this week which resulted with 6.05km/L. (I guess watching 2 Fast 2 Furious can have side effects on driving styles on certain people )

I'll try to do another week with 3oz concentration level to get more "accurate" results.

May 04, 2005

This would probably be my last update. Anyway, I've have had two fill-ups since my last update. Kinda weird result for the 90mL per 40L dose since I got a relatively low milage result (6.1km/L) with my normal/typical driving. Just to verify, I added enough acetone to adjust my fuel tank mixture to be around 60mL per 40L ratio (actually slightly over) and resulted in a 6.8km/L milage for that tank full.


May 25, 2005

An epilogue of sorts...

Just to test my car's milage WITHOUT acetone, I have not poured acetone in the last three fill-ups.

My last two full tanks without acetone had a milage of:
5.4 km/L
5.7 km/L


Sept 7, 2005 NEW!

In the quest for even better milage, I have tried increasing my tire pressure from my normal 30 psi to 35 psi on all tires.

My average milage with just acetone is 6.3km/L and I haven't stopped using acetone since the last update.

For my last two fill-ups with tire pressure @ 35psi & acetone (approx 60mL to 40L ratio) resulted in the following:
1st test (Sept 3, 2005): 6.50 km/L
2nd test (Sept 7, 2005): 6.76 km/L

It might be too early to conclude anything (with only two tests) but the early results is a good sign.

[dfoxengr]

id like to try this also.

the general concensus seems to be that theres about 10-12% increase in mileage from what i can see. not bad for the price of acetone.

whoever asked about toluene. i think it was on this thread.
toluene can be purchased at lowes, in the paint section. it is used as a paint thinner, but is also used in gasoline production as well.

certain F1 cars use it almost solely as fuel because of its characteristics.

lots of honda tuners use it as a backyard way to boost octane. there is a website that has the ratio's for what ocatane you will have after addig x fuel, and y toluene. but like someone said you can also calculate by [(gallons of fuel)x(octane rating)+(gal of toluene)x(116 octane)]/total gallons

im pretty sure thats it but correct me if im wrong.

you do not want to go over a 30% toluene mixture however or it could be harmful. so with 10 gal total in the tank, you shouldnt have more than 3 being toluene.

only benefit in toluene would be if you were tuning your car for performance and needed to advance timing more, or had higher compression resulting in knock.

[SVOboy]

I just bought a thing of acetone. 16oz, 100% pure, 3.49 + 6% tax. I'll fill up tomorrow to get the average I'll use for my baseline and add 1 oz. Then I'll go at least three tanks to work it into the system, all at 1 oz per 10 gallons, and then go from there as to increasing and seeing which mixture gives the best results. I'll also be testing on some cars of my friends in the near future.

[dfoxengr]

cool man. make a good graph and overlay your friends results on it as well. make sure to be accurate and precise too.

are nail polish removers 100% acetone?
3.50 for 8 tanks might not be as worth it...

[SVOboy]

No, I had to look especially for 100% acetone nail polish remover, but the drugstore had it so it's not like I had to go multiple places or anything. You can get it at drugstore.com for 2.75 and free shipping for 16oz, but I'll prolly end up just buying a gallon for a lot less.

[diamondlarry]

When I last bought Acetone, I bought a gallon at Wal-Mart for about $12. A gallon last a long time.

[SVOboy]

So hopefully when I buy it at not wal-mart it'll be 15-18.
:-)

[dfoxengr]

yeah and 16 oz at 3.50= 21.9 cents/oz
1gal=129oz at 12$= 9.38 cents/oz
thats more like it.

[SVOboy]

I started my acetone test today, I'm very excited about this. One thing I learned is you should use a container that pours well. My acetone jar poured like crap (into a medicine measuring thing I used to make one ounce) and I got a lot on my hands, haha. I'll just funnel the acetone into a different container.

First three tanks will be "break in" tanks where I will use 1 oz of acetone per 10 gallons of gas. The fourth tank I will assume the acetone is all mixed up and working, and use that for a number. Then I'll go up to two and three doing something similar, unless I do two and three at the same time with a few of my friends. My baseline number will be 38.5 mpg (all city/suburban < 50 mph), and we'll see where that goes to.

[squala]

Some tips on putting acetone:

1. Using something like a graduated cylinder or test tube to pour acetone is a good idea.

2. Always be careful of spilling on your car paint - it will definitely corrode with the finish.

3. As much as possible, try putting acetone when your engine is still cold to prevent any premature evaporation.

[Flatland2D]

Now that I've finished the tire pressure trials I'll be starting with acetone. I will be adding some soon (tonight or tomorrow) and will probably do a test run within a few days to see if there's any inital improvement. It has been reported that it takes up to three tanks to reach full effect, so I'll be conducting trials and tracking results as the acetone is taking effect.

I bought some science supplies to accurately measure the acetone. The large pipette is for getting precise amounts of acetone from the container to the test tube or specimen sample jar and possibly to inject the acetone right into the tank. The test tube has 0.5mL degradations for small accurate measurements, mostly for when topping off and I only need to add a minute amount to keep the ratio. The larger specimen jar is for adding enough acetone to mix with a full tank of gas. I will be using 1.5oz acetone per 10 gallons of gas. That is roughly 44.4mL.

I hope there's more to write about this experiment than the tire pressure experiment.

<img src="http://www.morlinos.com/delsol/acetone.jpg">

I didn't see anywhere on the can that says it's 100% pure acetone, but I'm guessing it's good stuff. I got it for under $5 at Wal-Mart. This is enough to mix with 213 gallons of gas or about 7,500 miles for my car.

[Flatland2D]

Just read a nice piece of information concerning acetone and how long it takes to take effect. Apparently the reason it takes a few tanks to work at its full potential is because the ECU is relearning the mixture. Disconnecting the battery (negative lead) for a few minutes will reset the ECU and it will immediately start learning the new mix next start-up. I plan on doing this before my acetone trials. I will drive around for about a day so the ECU can relearn with acetone, then I will conduct the first trial. Just thought I'd mention this to those participating. Hopefully it will speed up the results.

[Matt Timion]

Good call on resetting the ECU.

I plan on testing acetone on the trip down to vegas. I will drive to vegas without acetone (nearly 400 miles) and then drive back with acetone. There is a problem with the fact that I'll be going downhill one way, and uphill another way. Perhaps I'll monitor RPMs as well to determine a ratio and figure it out that way.

[dfoxengr]

youre using 6oz/10gal gasoline?

if you only use 2 oz/10 gal, then itll last you 640 gallons.

[Flatland2D]

No. If you do the math right you get:

(32 oz. / 1.5 oz.) * 10 gallons = 213 gallons

[dfoxengr]

thought you said a gallon (128 oz)


hammer on me

[SVOboy]

This is how I reset my ECU:

Just pulled that fuse you don't see there.

[Matt Timion]

On the way down to vegas from SLC I had 42mpg. This was without acetone, and with the A/C on most of the time.

On the way back to Salt Lake City my mpg was 37. This is with acetone and without A/C.

At first glance it looks like acetone hurt gas mileage. It may have, but I'm not totally convinced. This is mainly b/c the trip down to vegas is a very slight decline. The trip back to Salt lake City is a very slight incline. On both trips my target speed was 65mph at 3000rpm.

For some comparison, my last trip from Vegas to Salt Lake City yielded 33 miles per gallon. Since then my oil has switched to synthetic and my transmission fluid was changed, so too many variables have been introduced to determine if my mileage boost was due to acetone or not.

Looks like I'll have to plan a second trip (this time, somewhere flat) to determine the effects.

Wendover, NV seems to be the most logical choice.

[SVOboy]

On my first tank with 1 oz per 10 gallons I went up from my baseline of 38.5 to 41.7, so that's good, I'll run another tank to be sure, and then begin increasing stuff bit by bit.