Is anybody adding acetone to their gas; getting better gas milege with improved engine performance?
I'm always skeptical about additives, but I may try this.
Read about it here.

 

Acetone is the main ingredient in almost all fuel injector cleaners. Buying a gallon at Home Depot is a good way to clean the fuel injectors of all your neighbor's cars. Unfortunately, it won't improve gas mileage. It restores it.

Gummed up injectors will decrease mileage because proper atomization of the gas/air mix doesn't occur efficiently. Cleaning restores proper atomization and also restores (DOES NOT improve) gas mileage. In other words, you'll get the mileage you used to get or should be getting. There's nothing magical in acetone that will increase mileage.

 

Lugnut,

What about the claim that acetone lowers the surface tension of the gas, allowing it to atomize more effeciently and thereby provideing increased thermal efficiency per quatity of gas? Not true.

In the final ananlysis, do you think adding 2-3 oz. to 10 gal. of fuel will harm anything. If not, it sounds like an interesting proposition to test.

 

It won't harm anything. It'll just keep the injectors clean. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not necessary either. There's no advantage to eternally cleaning the injectors. They get clean, then that's it. They're clean.

If acetone really increased gas mileage, don't you think it would be general knowledge long before now? A lot of people have been using fuel injector cleaners with acetone for years but no one has ever claimed increased mileage, other than a restoration of mileage that was reduced due to dirty injectors.

If you want to test it, make sure your injectors are clean before you start comparing mileage.

Also, this may have more of an effect on a carb'd engine. I believe modern fuel injection systems can easily overcome the surface tension of gasoline. They have to be clean, however.

 

You bring up a good point, and one that has always made me skeptical of additives in general. That is, if the additive really worked, why wouldn't the major producers of the product (it is to be added to) include it in their forumlation. They could then plaster the container with NEW! and IMPROVED! claims and charge more.

 

injection time is controlled by ecu (3.2ms).

if too rich (accdg to O2 sensor), it will lean and adapt..vice versa.

i think they always label the can "cleaner" also.

if it can increase mileage, it can be true on indirect way.

 

Hi,
I'm skeptical but always willing to listen / learn. As an Engineer I'm with Sleepwalker. However I'm intrigued by the "Reverse Test" namely that gas mileage deteriorates once the Acetone is removed. This would to some extent undermine the position of the sckeptics if all other aspects of the test were controlled and constant.
So can we trust the reported results? I think NOT!
Why has the author NOT INCLUDED reports from the "Industry" that give results under controlled tests?
Since gas (95 RON) is 92.9p / litre here in the UK (motorway station) and has recently topped £1/litre (1 litre = 0.264 US gallon) i.e. 4.8 USD / US Gall I'm tempted to run my own test since any improvement would be welcome. BUT THE REAL TEST IS WHETHER THE IMPROVEMENT CAN BE SWITCHED ON / OFF WITH THE ACETONE.
I also have to say I am skeptical about cleaners in recent electronic injected vehicles since as Sleepwalker states the ECU receives feedback from the O2 sensors and adjusts mixture to a predetermined optimum condition many times a second.
However the prospect of a chemical change within the combustion or a physical change like improved atomisation due to reduced surface tension would be very interesting.
Problem is there are so many variables and it is not really possible to do a meaningful repeatable test whilst using the vehicle for normal transport duties since there are so many variables like different traffic conditions, temperature, terrain and of course the gas in the tank as well.
Suggestions of 30% improvement are just fanciful but a consistent 1 or 2% just might be possible??
I'd like to see a report from one of the major fuel companies on this topic since I cannot agree that the oil companies are trying to reduce gas mileage.
Here in the UK Shell have a fuel they refer to as Optimax which is linked to and allegedly used in Ferrari F1 cars. It appears that Shell are able to substantiate a claim of improved performance to our Advertising Standards Authority otherwise they woul not be allowed to run the advert. Apparently additives permit the ECU to apply more ignition advance prior to the system detecting Knock. Running with increased advance CAN lead to a "performance improvement" under controlled conditions. Mind you Optimax is sold at a premium. (more expensive than normal supermarket "cheap" fuel.)
Stuart

 

In the US, all major gasoline refiners add detergent of some sort to some extent.

Because of its name brand and aggressive marketing, I tend to believe Shell's gasoline is the best.

I think...if you put major name-brand gasoline in your modern EFI car, most likely your injectors are always clean. There are other areas that I would work on to make the car run better. For instance, I would change the fuel filter.

Fuel filter is something that you need to change more often than what the auto-makers recommend...I believe. Everytime I change the fuel filter in one of my cars, I cut it open....and found awful amount of dirt and gunk that you don't want to know. I don't know why they make the fuel filter more and more difficult to get to.

I also shake off the air-filter once a month.

One thing the gasoline merchants (dont u like that fancy name for gas stations?) do that I don't like is changing the formula.

You may already know, but YES THEY CHANGE THE FORMULA EVERY WEEK especially in winter. Higher alcohol content for cooler temperature! During the really cold days in Minnesota, gasoline smells like perfume. This high alcohol gasoline doesn't last as long as summer gas. If summer gas gives you 25mpg, winter gas gives you 15mpg. So if you notice a big drop in mpg during winter, no need to rush and buy the injector cleaner; neither would u need a tuneup. It's the formula of the gasoline that is playing trick on you.

 

Hi Fly Major Fly.

Thanks for your contribution. I did know about the change of gasoline formula and this is why it is so difficult to do any meaningful gas mileage checks "at home / on the road".
Many years ago I spent many hours testing cars for "Vapour Lock" in the Shell laboratories near London. For these tests not only did we have controlled environmental conditions and of course a dyno but we also used "Reference Fuel" since its volatility is different from the multitude of products which are dispatched to take account of environmental factors e.g. Hot / Cold weather but also refining factors like origin of the crude and the refinery setup (Gas / Diesel / oils etc yeild targets).

I'm sure one of the oil majors must have done a study on this proposition and countless others. Interesting if we could find it.

Stuart

 

Detergent additives don't clean like acetone does. Any brand of gas will form gum and varnish.