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Old 25-04-2005, 02:50 AM
uberfast uberfast is offline
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Location: Phoenix, AZ ** 1986 SAAB 900 Turbo ** 1993 Ford Festiva L
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Default acetone

My dad told me he was reading up on fuel-saving tips and tricks and one of them he came across said to add 3 oz of acetone to an almost empty tank and then fill the rest of the tank with regular pump gas (as a fuel additive). He was wondering what kind of effects it would have on naturally aspirated or forced induction engines (as far as the actual improvement in the fuel efficiency and performance). I was curious about acetone injection.
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Old 25-04-2005, 03:21 AM
hotrod hotrod is offline
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Default Acetone

Like many urban legends the idea of using Acetone in fuels has some small basis in fact and a lot of bad science or at least missundertanding of basic chemical and engineering principles.

Acetone is a Ketone CH3-CO-CH3, it is a very powerful solvent, used in paint/laquers, nail polish remover, and frequently used in industry to completely degrease components. It has very high cleaning power and will quickly degrade many rubber like fuel system components. In very small amounts it can help clean dirty fuel injectors due to its very high cleaning power.

That said, it is quite similar to alcohols in some of its characteristics. It is miscible with water, and is highly flamable, having a lower explosive limit than ethanol or methanol at 2.6%. The alcohols however have higher upper explosive limits and will burn at richer mixtures.

It was used in small quantities in some exotic fuel blends during the hey day of racing in the early 1900's. My best informantion is that it was added to increase burning speed of the fuel air mix and suppress pre-ignition in lean fuel mixture. I can't find any reliable info on its octane rating.

Snippets from a screen of several hundred google search results on the web

Quote:
the new 2.5 liter Formula for 1954 ... Maserati chose a straight six normally aspirated engine configuration. ... Fueled by a mixture of 50% methanol, 35% petrol, 10% acetone, 4% benzol and 1% caster oil the engine produced an initial 220 bhp at 7,400 rpm. The petrol was only rated at 80 octane but with the acetone the fuel mix would burn faster.
Quote:
The Mercedes M154 was built in response to the new formula for 1938 which specified a maximum capacity of 3,0000 cc for super-charged engines and 4,500 cc for normally aspired cars with a sliding minimum weight scale. The engine for the new car was a 60? V-12 with 48 valves, twin Roots superchargers and no less than nine oil pumps!. The engine used a special fuel mixture which contained methyl alcohol, nitrobenzene, acetone, and diethyl ether.
Quote:
Up until the end of 1957 it was possible to choose freely what fuel you used. Mercedes, for example, relied on the following recipe: 45% benzene, 25% methyl alcohol, 23% aviation fuel, 3% acetone and 2% nitrobenzene. The remaining two percent remain a secret until this day. The explosive mixture was so aggressive that remnants left over from training and races had to be drained off and the engine rinsed out with conventional petrol. This was the only way to prevent the engine from suffering damage overnight!
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I have run methanol in 2 stroke high output engines (single cylinder 500cc 128 hp) ... 10% acetone allowed leaning the engine further without damage and made more power.
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Acetone is known to stabilize the flame front in combustion engines, thus preventing knock and allowing higher compression ratios using lean burn techniques. At one time is was part of many obscure racing fuel brews, and up to 3% is still in use for alcy model airplane fuels, where it prevents "throwing the prop" in four strokes when they go lean..
Yes, it improves fuel economy a bit, and improves cold starting as well, though clearly it is not the miracle additive some would like it to be.

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I saw this about 3 months ago on another site. and I decided to test the theory of acetone on normal fuel line. I used 3/8 fuel line from auto zone. I hooked up 2 4 foot pieces of fuel line to a basic uni electric fuel pump avail at auto zone for 12.99 to recycle mixed 87 gas/and acetone out of a bucket for 3 days straight. After the test I left the fuel lines to dry for a day. I cut the fuel lines open and what do you think I saw? The fuel line went from 3/8 to about 1/32 in that short of a time. I would highly recommend not using acetone in your car. Thank you.
http://www.turbofast.com.au/racefuel.html
Quote:
WE now come to the use of additives for reasons other than power increase. In this chapter we will deal only with additives that can be of assistance to us in connection with Pre-ignition and the other problem of Detonation. ... Acetone in Petrol. Can be used up to 100 percent but with the nominal 10 percent will give an increase of 3 points rather than 5.
... Acetone in Nitromethane. Up to a maximum of 5 percent. This reduces preignition by raising the auto-ignition point and any small decrease in detonation is incidental.
Summary:

Due to its very high solvent cleaning action, it should not be used in large quantities in normal fuel systems due to possible problems with degradation of rubber hoses and seals / gaskets / O rings etc.

Acetone has a reasonable octane ( like the alcohols in the 100+ range) but has been used in some exotic racing fuels more to help control pre-igniton, and increase burn speed, than to contol detonation when running very lean fuel mixtures. (lean mixtures make good power and are important to racers who must make pit stops for fuel during the race. Reduced fuel consuption means less fuel to carry.)



Larry
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  #3  
Old 16-06-2005, 02:38 PM
janis janis is offline
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Found this on a volvo forum:

http://www.lubedev.com/smartgas/additive.htm

and

http://www.peswiki.com/index.php/Dir..._Fuel_Additive

Who's willing to try this
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  #4  
Old 17-09-2005, 12:53 PM
Thunderstruck Thunderstruck is offline
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FWIW, I tried 4 oz in my 14 gallon tank, 1996 Ford Mustang coupe, 3.8L V6.

No changes noted at all in regards to mileage or power. I put 206 miles each way in my commute to work and I know exactly what kind of mileage I get, 25 mpg, which is exactly what I get with the acetone added or without it.

So no improvement here.
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  #5  
Old 28-11-2005, 06:37 AM
uberfast uberfast is offline
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My uncle drove from long beach, ca to phoenix, az on one 12 gallon tank of gas in his VW Fox. He said he was never able to get that kind of milage ever. Tomorrow I am going to try 3 fl oz of acetone for the 10 gallon tank in my '93 ford festiva. I already get close to 40 mpg, but It would be nice to up that number. I am astill curious about using acetone for wi in my turbocharged saab. Say, instead of my 50/50 setup of water to alcohol, i'll add 0.75 fl oz of acetone to my 2.5 gallon wi resivoire. In my Saab I am looking for power gains, not necessarily milage. Just a thought
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  #6  
Old 29-11-2005, 11:48 PM
Rootzz06 Rootzz06 is offline
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Whats up uberfast?If you decide to try out the acetone,wich I was told to stay away from solvents,I forgot why but its in my old posts somewhere--anyway theres a fuel made for alchohol burning stoves called SOOT FREE BRAND wich has a little Acetone in it and is advertised to burn cleaner than straight Alky.Maybe they achieve this with the acetone.I bought some at one of those major marine supply stores.the cost was the same as regular Alky.just wanted to let you know about it.
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