atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information Do you want to get better fuel mileage? Try this.

Add Acetone to your fuel.

Google “acetone as a fuel additive” and see what comes along.

I have just tried the acetone thing on my work van and went from 17.1 mpg to 19.0 mpg. I went 498 mi and burned 26.2 gallons of gas and about 2.5 oz of acetone. Acetone is about 10 cents per oz. I'm going to keep a running record to check this in case this is a fluke. So I save 0.59 gallons of gas every 100 miles. At 2.90 per gallon that comes out to $1.71 per 100 miles. The cost for the acetone has been $0.01 per gallon of gas.

From what I have read, you have to tweak the concentration of acetone. Start at 2.0 oz per 10 gal of gas and move up to 2.5 oz and 3.0 oz and check your results. If you put much more than 3.0 oz per 10 gal your mileage starts to go down. I went to an auto parts store today and found acetone in some of the gas additives for sale there.

I used to mix acetone in the gas of my snowmobile when I was racing, it give a good kick but you had to be careful because the pistons burned up.

What was the ratio that you used. I use 2 oz per 10 gal = 1/640. From what I read, that won't hurt things. I don't know about 2 cycle engines.

Yeah… I also heard that isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) was a great substitute for gin during prohibition. Desperate time call for desperate measures, right?

Makes about as much sense….
:rolleyes:
Acetone any several types of OEM gaskets, seals and lines associated with the fuel system do not mix very well. That would be a little too desperate of a step for me to save a few bucks a week in gas money!

Acetone not very good for equipment and I run a lot higher ratio but when racing sleds replacing pistons is expected I could go through 2 or 3 sets in one weekend.

The Acetone breaks down the polymers in the fuel molecule chains. This makes it vaporize better because the molecules can separate easier. The better the vaporization the better the combustion efficiency. The Acetone is not used as a combustible but as an aid to the fuel combustion. This makes the fuel burn more efficiently so you get more energy per unit volume. Less unburned fuel goes up the pipe and more torque goes to your drive train. Acetone is a common ingredient in fuel additives that you pay 7-9 dollars for. You can buy it at Home Depot for 10 cents an ounce.

Fuel system parts have been soaked in 100% pure reagent grade acetone for long periods of time with no adverse effects. 1:640 ratio won’t hurt anything, (my opinion). I drive a lot of miles and spend a lot for fuel and I do like to take chances. You know, sort of like the phone business.

About the rubbing alcohol thing. I think you have to strain it through a slice of bread first..

I was working on my racer last night which put my mind to thinkin’ in the engine performance world and honestly I came up with that gasket and seal failure that I mentioned yesterday, would be the least of your worries if tryin’ this acetone thingy …

First… I’m not a chemical engineer but I know when guys I race with try to dope their fuel (cheat) by adding methanol to their race gas, a mixing agent has to be added to allow for the schtuff to create a humongous mixture. In other words methanol and gas will separate unless properly mixed and a correct amount of a mixing agent is used. Maybe acetone will mix okay, dun-no fir shor… but I think it would act a lot like the methanol in that regard.

Second… telman3756497 is absolutely correct when stating that acetone would increase combustion efficiency. That in itself sounds like a great thing when considering the price of gasoline. You’d THINK that getting a complete and 100% burn out of each and every compression cycle would be a good thing when it comes to the cost of the gas you’re burning. One problem with that though… With the acetone you’re creating an extremely lean condition in the engine. In racing we say “lean is mean” and when tuning a race engine the trick is to get it as lean as possible without burning it up. What it means to go “too lean” either with too small jetting (fuel delivery) or too much advanced timing or in this case by adding a chemical agent, is that too much fuel is burnt during the combustion cycle… Gasoline engines DEPEND on there being some unspent fuel to help cool the combustion chamber. I’ve seen spark plugs with the ends completely disintegrated off due to the heat of a lean condition… exhaust valves MELTED due to running lean… and like Merritt has said twice now, a hole can be burnt strait through the top of pistons if you have an engine that’s too lean. These were all results of pretty small errors in tuning the engine.

I’d think for all ya’ll driving a chit-load of miles in service vans and trucks you could look at fuel cost saving methods like a LP (liquid propane) convert or even a computer performance upgrade such as a Super Chip (or other manufacture) modification.

Thanks,
Bryan
Owner/Driver
Cars –n- Guitars Racin’
Dirt’s for racing… Asphalt is for getting there!

A lot of the Jeep guys I run with add 4oz of Acetone per 10gal of gas. Not sure what grade of gas they run but most have had positive results with no issues over the last few years. The others say they haven't noticed a difference. I haven't added to my tank yet but probably will soon just to test it out.

Thats what I'm doing. "Just testing it out." After I go about 2000-3000 miles I will pull a plug and see what it looks like. That would give me a good indication to whats happening in the combustion chambers. I have read that if too much is put in then it will not have the same conservation effects. More is not better in this case.

I don't think I am making the mixture too lean. I am only adding 0.17% acetone. That is less that 1/5 of 1%. A slightly dirty air filter or a change in humidity or even a change in altitude could make the mixture change as much as this does.

I did notice that I don't have to apply as much accelerator while crusing along from job to job.
Maybe just my imagination. My van is more responsive and runs up hill better. No ping only power.

Acetone and gas does mix, and acetone absorbes water. Another benifit.

I will let you know if I see a bunch of parts following me down the road in my rear view.

There is a lot of info on the web about this.

same topic, different method. Go easy on the accelerator. Every time you leave a stop sign or red light how fast you accelerate makes tons of difference in MPG. I had a 85 nissan PU used to get about 18 mpg/ 220 miles to a tank of gas.My clutch started going out and slipping so I had to minimize the acceleration. Gas mileage shot up 25%. For reals! I thought my gas gauge was broken till I filled it up.