Video tells you how to double your gas mileage (adding acetone, etc) B.S.?

[skipos]

I don't know anything about cars. Is the acetone thing true?

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/524517/double_your_gas_mileage_2x/

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

1. Some of the stuff makes sense

Just going through the effort of keeping records will probably increase your mileage.

Acetone? I have no idea, but I'm not going to try it. If you do, don't spill it. The video says it's bad for paint, just like gasoline. No, it's way worse than gasoline for paint. It will remove the paint real fast.

[qnr]

2. Especially if you painted your car with fingernail polish.

Sorry, couldn't resist. :)

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. That's the Mary Kay company cars

Bright pink Cadillacs etc.

It takes a lot of effort to repaint a car with those little bitty brushes ...

If we talk about MY car, well if the paint got messed up I don't think it would be all that noticable. First the acetone would have to get through some layers of dirt to reach the paint.

[lildreamer316]

4. Used to do this very thing in high school..

but it was in a VW Bug.Damn thing would run on Everclear; too.

[Maraya1969]

5. I'm afraid that my gas tank with explode if I put acetone in it. Tell me it ain't true.

[MadHound]

6. I'd be very, very cautious with this,

Acetone is a powerful corrosive, and it could start eating at your various rubber and plastic components over time. This would include fuel hoses, O rings, and probably most important, your fuel injectors.

At the very least you are going to have to change out your fuel filter more frequently for the initial year, since acetone will break loose the scale covering the inside of your fuel lines, much like ethanol blends do, and thus clogging up your fuel filter more frequently.

I've seen some research people have done where over time this has eaten away at other plastic and rubber parts in the engine. Probably not a real good idea.

[Maraya1969]

7. Yea but does the gasoline reach all those components of the car?

I GOOGLED it and almost all the sites said it works.

[MadHound]

9. Yes, there are many rubber and plastic parts on the trip from tank to piston

The rubber fuel lines, various rubber gaskets or O rings in the injection distribution system and rails, plastic and rubber O rings in the injectors themselves. Not to mention various sensors along the way, any of which might give the wrong readings to the car computer due to the presence of acetone. I could easily see, since acetone is supposed to help in the vaporization of gasoline, the O2 sensor being fooled, thinking that the mix is too lean and thus actually causing the car to burn too rich, thus negating any mileage benefits.

Rather than relying on dubious, urban myth type solutions to increase your mileage, keep your current car well maintained, including the tires inflated to proper levels. This will keep your mileage up there, as will driving in a sensible way, ie not jackrabbit starts, drive at fifty-five-sixty mph on the highway, etc.

Finally, we you get your next vehicle, look at hybrids, Smart cars, or better yet, get a diesel vehicle and run if off of biodiesel that you either buy or make yourself(the process for doing this is really easy).

I've gone through this before during the oil crunch of the seventies. All sorts of crackpot products and theories were proposed, including acetone. The vast majority of these were essentially snake oil products, not doing the job at best, and actually harming your vehicle at worst.

[cobalt1999]

8. I think the Mythbusters did an episode on this...

proved it to be BS.

[Maineiac]

10. I googled the Mythbusters test

and their research showed no improvement. The other stuff in the video is just common sense. Keep you car tuned up, properly inflate your tires, don't use the AC or other things that add load to your engine and lighten your vehicle. In addition to the corrosive properties of Acetone, I'd also be concerned about the combustion temperature of it. If the exhaust gasses get too hot, it will scorch your valves and all that money you didn't spend on fuel you wuill spend on a valve job or an engine overhaul.

[Maineiac]

11. Another bad thing about Acetone

is that it might kill some of the sensors that make your anti pollution stuff work and when those die, your car runs like crap. If you look at STP Gas treatment or any of the other commercial blends designed for your car, they contain chemicals that do what Acetone supposedly does, plus contain things to clean your carb and fiel injectors. I add it to each tankfull and my 10 year old, 6 cylinder Lumina with 160,000 miles will get 26 MPG on a good day.

[The Traveler]

12. Danger Will Robinson

It will definitely hurt your car for reasons outlined above in other posts. If nothing else I suspect the O-rings in your injectors would degrade rather quickly. It would also, I expect, mislead the instrumentation that drives an OBD-II engine management system ... driving your emissions up thereby.

Engine management systems rely on a detailed model of the volumetric parameters of the engine and the chemical behavior of the combustibles (presumed to be gasoline and air). I would expect that adding acetone would change the "ideal" fuel/air ratio for proper combustion making it unlikely that the "brain box" will be able to establish the correct settings for a given RPM and engine load. Further, O2 sensors are not designed to be resistant to that mix of contaminants ... I imagine they would soon be giving incorrect readings.

I would want to see a lot of positive test results out of a reliable SAE certified lab before going with this suggestion.