Today I followed a link to this video which claims if you put acetone in your gas tank, you can almost double your gas mileage. This link explains why it works in a little more detail, and claims the acetone will not harm your engine in any way. They both agree on the mix: 2 oz of pure acetone per 10 gallons of gas.
There are a number of detractors, of course, including this guy who talks about a Mythbusters episode that debunks the acetone claims.
It’s one of those things that sounds too good to be true and probably is. If anyone out there has tried it, I’d like to hear what you found.
on May 27th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
I put acetone at a concentration of 2.5 oz per 10 gallons in my 2003 Grand Am yesterday. I made a chart to track mileage over the next few months of testing.
Something I noticed right away, I mean, within minutes, was my engine seemed to smooth out. Something I always disliked and complained to my mechanic about was that I felt my idle engine noise was much higher than other grand ams. Acetone in that tiny concentration seems to have quieted my car down. The peddle seems more responsive too.
Now, I admit, those are very subjective and hardly scientific. I made a change and hoped for results so my subconcious maybe is providing them.
But I my driving is fairly consistent and reserved. I will give acetone mix a month, and then a month on pure gas. The acetone crowd insists you may not see improvement in mileage the first few tanks due to the “cleaning affect” it can have. An affect a licensed mechanic friend of mine confirmed. I also found that alot of commercial fuel cleaner additives contain, guess what, acetone. So to me, that pretty much dismisses concerns that acetone at such a small level is going to hurt my car.
The acetone crowd also insist that you need to try different combinations to find the ideal ratio for your car. To much will greatly reduce the mileage and they not only admit to that, but strongly warn about it. As far as I know, mythbusters did not try differing ratios, and instead just tried the standard 3 oz per gallon, which may have been to much for that particular car.
In any case, to really disprove the myth they should have tried a few different ratio mix levels, as well as following the advice to let the car run a few tanks of mixxed before expecting results. Neither of those two things, that are part of the “myth” were performed, so I cannot consider the myth disproved by mythbuster methods.
As with anything, I think we should either 1) Try it ourselves and be prepared to test it for ourselves and accept the consequences either way, or 2) Give it a pass and think no further on it
Honestly, the people screaming about how it is a myth strike me as being just as crazy as the pro-acetone gas conspiracy guys. Acetone is an ingredient in all kinds of commercial fuel additives and cleaners that people use every single day. And when you use those you are using acetone in a much higher concentration than you would adding 2 or 3 oz per 10 gallon of gas.
I see other people scream about how this thing disolves paint, why put it in your car? Well, for years my dad was a painter and plasterer and he used …. GASOLINE as paint thinner. I fail to see how this property alone rules it out as a potential fuel booster.
One more thing I will point out is that acetone and ethanol do not play so well together, especially if some water gets in the gas. So I think if you are using (which sadly, many of us have to) ethanol blended gas, you will not see so much of a boost, or perhaps no boost, compared to what you might see using ethanol-free gas.