I seen some stuff about putting acetone in gas (about 3 ozs to 10 gallons) will make for better gas mileage and more power. Its been a sticky thread at RCC so I would think its legit but doing searches of it brings up plenty of people that say dont do it cause itll rot away yours hoses and stuff. Im leaning towards it will be ok but Id like to get yalls opinion on it. Especially if anyone has tried it.

 

Before I even googled I thought the same thing:
http://www.chemicalforums.com/index.php?topic=2517.0

 

I've tried it, and in my experience, it does work, but its not the 50% power and mpg gain some people have claimed.

I did some experimentation a few winters ago, and found a small but consistent mpg increase of 5-10%.

As for power, that's where things got interesting. I felt as though my part throttle response was better, and I had a little more low end torque. I unscientifically tested for pinging by flooring it up a long and steep stretch of hill both with and without the acetone, and noticed no difference. (slight pinging after 10+ seconds floored up a steep grade at 3000-5000 rpm with either) However, WOT acceleration felt about the same. Maybe a little better, but not drastic.

I did this all about 2 years ago, and have had no fuel system failures before or after that. I did change my fuel filter about 9 months ago, but just for kicks and giggles. I noticed nothing unusual, just some normal rust.

I haven't used any recently, because I haven't been driving my truck every day. Even though I haven't had any issues, I still don't know how I feel about letting it sit in my tank for 2 weeks at a time. If I were about to go on a 200+ mile trip, or drive my truck exclusively for a week, I'd consider using it again. I have a half-full gallon of it behind my seat in case I feel the need.

Getting it IN the tank and not ON the truck is the hard part. It likes to eat plastic!

 

Im leaning towards trying it

on a side note, what dooes engine ping sound like? how do I even know if I have it?

 

Diagnosing Ping the Exciting Way: Volume 1

1. Find a big long hill.
2. Stop at the bottom of the hill.
3. Floor it.
4A. If you hear VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRM, then you are good.
4B. If you hear VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTRRRRRTRTRRRRRTRRTRRRRM, then you have pinging.

It sounds a lot like rocks or marbles bouncing around. It happens most when your combustion chamber is most hot. For me, that means warming up the carbon deposits with high load driving. You can have slight inaudible ping.

All that really means in regards to acetone is that it didn't increase the octane enough to stop my motor from pinging. But there are others things to worry about than octane rating. My mpg stays the same with 87 and 91 octane, but I run 91 when I'm towing, since I don't want to beat up my pistons.

 

is the VRRRRRTRRRTRRRT. a technical term? LOL to have a true double blind test you will have to have someone else put the acetone in the tank.

 

lol. I put about 8 ozs in this morning. Didnt really notice anything driving to and from work. I almost think i did but it was probably just my head. Real test will be once I fill up and check my mileage

 

I have head of this, but in my experience, acetone evaporates extremely quickly. I had figured that the acetone, which I assume to be lighter, would float on the top of the gas, and evaporate off. I have no science behind my reasoning, just initial thoughts. Anyone agree?

 

We keep acetone in squeeze bottles at work. I don't know how that compares to a gas tank, since only the acetone in the straw would be exposed to outside air.

Like so

 

I would think the rate of evaporation would be much more in a gas tank, being as the exposed surface area measures in the 2 or 3 square feet range. I know that if I buy a new tin of acetone, and forget the lid open, it will be at least 1/3rd low by morning.

Possibly if you knew that you would be driving a longer distance in a short time, it could be beneficial. The sloshing of the gas/acetone would keep it mixed, and the rate of consumption would be far greater than the rate of evaporative loss.

On the other hand, if you knew that your truck would be parked for a day or two with the acetone in the tank, I would guess more of it would dissipate into the atmosphere than would be burned in the engine.