I have posted a thread asking about acetone, but i guess i couldn't find it so i decide to post another one.
I have been researching about acetone (not a lot of research but to the point where it gets my brain). Acetone may be harmful and dangerous to engines as stated by some certified auto technician or mechanic or so but there's really no proof though. Although acetone was experimented in the show "Mythbusters" and it fail to show improvements on both car but it takes a while for it to occur after 2-3 refill tanks. However, results may vay in many ways.
Its said to dissolve gaskets and injector o-rings and fuel line but there's no report or evidence that it can.Besides there was several experiment soaking rubber gasket and rings in acetone for days/weeks and nothing was dissolve and looks same as it is when put in.
In my opinion i don't think it can dissolve rubbers in th engine compartment since only little acetone about 1-3oz will be added in for every 10 gal, so acetone wouldn't be able to have the strength to dissolve anything especially when it is mixed with 10+ gallons of gas.
Not to be rude, but the information given in the article is not scientific, nor the methods used. I have never understood some peoples capacity for self deception.
Reading further , its not just self deception going on here , but you guessed it ,someone is making money off this crap .... How do people live with themselves?
I used Acetone (3oz per 10 gallons) for a very long time. I got better mileage over time, and I was up to 45 MPG. Acetone is an octane booster. In addition, the acetone acts as a very good cleaner, so it really eats all the junk out of the system. In fact, too much junk from my engine lol. It blew oil smoke all the time cause the rings were shot, and there was no more build up holding back the oil. I stopped using acetone so that I could pass emissions lol. I'm not really sure it was worth the effort though, I mean, it was fun to get good mileage, but it got old eventually :/
Acetone is an unusual compound, works as an octane booster, strong solvent, has a relatively low energy density, and a very low flashpoint. Acetone was an racer's trick to help gasoline vaporize more readily (ie, drop its flashpoint). Also tended to act as a octane booster in some conditions. It turned out that its higher solvency tended to clean off varnish and some internal gumming, that seemed to boost fuel economy. If you haven't had a change to look up the MSDS sheets on lots of fuel additives, acetone is a pretty common additive for some manufacturers.
Will it work for you? Hard to say. On a modern, well running engine - more than likely will not help you. Each engine is unique - some will see huge mileage gains, some see the exact opposite. Most will see parity or no change at all. Quality of gas will also influence if this will work or not, how you drive, quality of the acetone, etc. etc. Might see gains in one tank and not another. Making gasoline more "volatile" is no guarantee that it will increase power or fuel economy.
As for acetone being corrosive/destructive to the fuel system in the car - yes and no. Yes that it will eat most plastics and rubber/polymer composites, but no that in the concentration of acetone to fuel - you'd likely dump the car before it gets to that failure point. Some acetone has been pre-buffered with water - so check the label of your acetone source.
Acetone fell into that junk science, pseudoscience, shaky research trap. There are some information that is true about what acetone can do in an internal combustion engine - but with all this BS floating around the web, hard to see what is real and what is crap. Add to it, that acetone generally works best with pure gasoline (not gas + ethanol + variable amount of water in fuel), makes it that much harder to get consistent results.
Why are there more rigorous scientific testing? They've already done some testing in the 60's and 70's, but there wasn't as much improvement as they have hoped. That also started the rumors of Big Oil crushing any further research, etc. Bottom line - think for yourself and try it. If it kills the car, oh well - $hit happens. If you get mega-mileage increase, great - keep using it. If you don't see any increase or it drops, great - stop using it.
In my case - only one car got consistently better mileage - that was a 1972 Dodge Dart with the 225cu.in Slant-6 engine. Car was purchased with 80K miles and we ended up putting over 400K miles on it (died just shy of 500K miles). Got about 15% better fuel economy with the 3oz acetone per 10gallons than without. Why did the engine die (if you ask any MOPAR fan, the Slant-6 engine is known to be close to bulletproof - 300K-500K miles is nothing) - all the rubber seals rotted out only the fuel system (pump, hoses, carb, etc)!. Rebuilt the carb, replaced the rubber parts - but the car never ran the same since, eventually it started to loose compression to the point of not running - turned out little pieces of plastic completely scuffed up the cylinder walls (got jammed into the rings). That ended my play with acetone.
Acetone is a powerful solvent - it will eat those materials given enough time and high enough concentration. Depends on if you want to risk it. Like they say - your mileage may vary. If you had a heavily deteriorated part, adding acetone might be enough to kick it over the edge and immediately fail. If your parts are in good condition, at the low concentrations - it might eventually eat it, but will take time.
Ethanol they add to gasoline is pretty corrosive itself, at typically found in most gas stations in 10% concentrations with gasoline. Add in oxygenates and other additives for wintertime - that is a lot of potential stuff that could react in a bad way with other additives. Don't forget that gasoline itself is a pretty good solvent, even gas "safe" rubber hoses will eventually soften and deteriorate in the presence of gas.
Easy - if you don't want to risk your fuel system - don't add acetone. If you want to experiment and see what it does - just do it, if something bad happens - just say nuts, I won't do that again.
Actual glass is probably OK but keep in mind it will run down to the rubber or plastic. And I know it's not safe for a lot of plastics. You may wind up with real 'fog' lights. (If it fogs the plastic lens.)
Well the reason i asked is because i painted my fogs yellow a long time ago and didn't turn out good so i was thinking to smear some acetone on the glass lense to make the yellow paint go away so it will be clear again so that i can repaint it better this time.
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