Acetone in gas to improve mpg

Has anyone heard about or actually tried putting acetone into their gas to increase their mpg. I guy I work with said a friend of his swears by doing this. He says he adds 2 to 3 ounces of acetone for every 10 gallons of gas and has been doing this for a few years and says he gets about 5 more mpg. I did a internet search and found quite a few pages about it. Supposedly the acetone decreases the surface tension of the gas and it all gets burned. I found quite a range of results being reported from significant increase to no difference to decreased mpg. On one of the sites somebody was explaining that the acetone acts as an injector cleaner and removes water from gas and this was why some people saw good results. Some information said that the acetone can damage plastic or rubber if too strong. Obviously information posted on these sites is not all to be trusted but just wondered if anyone here had any experiences with doing this. Here is a link to one of the sites I found which also contains many links to more info.http://http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Acetone_as_a_Fuel_Additive

I doubt that 1 or 2 ounces per tankful is going to do any harm, but if fuel line and injector cleaning is what you want, I would recommend using Techron Concentrate Plus by Chevron. Plus, I want to buy stock in the company that makes a pour-in product that will actually increase mileage by 5 mpg.

Hrm...chemically...acetone couldn't really do much to the gas.  The vapor pressure of gasoline is already so low (think how easily it evaporates when sitting out)..adding acetone (which has a simillar vapor pressure) in such a small quantity like rriddle said, won't do much.  I wouldn't waste your money.  On top of that, the ability to actually obtain concentrated acetone that you would need (not the stuff you buy off the shelf at lowes)...yea just buy some Chevron with Techron.

I not looking for a fuel injector cleaner, in fact I have a can of Sea Foam in my current tank of gas. I was just wondering if anyone else had heard about this or actually had tried it. Just interested if this really worked and anybody got improved mpg.

sounds like bs to me.

I did a bit of research.  Acetone is not a fuel.  It does not burn like a fuel.  Acetone does however, have a much lower vapor pressure than gasoline, so what will happen, is that as the acetone vaporizes and explodes (Explosive concentrations of acetone are a mere 1.4% in air, where as Chevron regular unleaded is 2.4% in air), it does indeed break up the surface tension of the gasoline at the molecular level.  This lets the gasoline fully combust. 

So acetone does not improve preformance on it's own, it simply helps the engine acheive more complete combustion = better MPGs.

So i'm going to retract my previous statement.  However, I will not be the first one on the forum to try this

I have used acetone in my 1993 chevy van , and found to have no problems in using it, The only weird thing i did notice was the smell of the exhaust....  it def a has a noticable difference... The van has 170,000 miles on it so i figured why not give it a try ... I put 1oz to every 10 gallons... I have a 33 gallon tank in it...  Look back at my rec post about marvel mystery oil, there was someone who posted being that they were a mechanic and have also used acetone in their vehicles and never had any probs...

haha did the exhaust smell minty fresh?  Whenever we use acetone to prep and clean lab stuff in organic lab everything gets realllll minty  

What do you use scented acetone, the stuff I use in lab stinks like acetone, lol. So like 90x your old style nail polish remover. What was said prior is correct, the acetone will clean the engine, alothough it melts many types of plastics so yah that might be bad if its highly concentrated. Also for the gain in MPG you would get you will most likely spend on the good acetone, so it may pointless. Since a gallon of 99% acetone is around $15.

Nah we've got super concentrated acetone that we use in the dessicating chambers.  And the natural mint smell of acetone is just amplified.  I couldn't identify the smell at first, it was just strong and nasty, but the MSDS for it lists it as 'mint'.

Also acetone is pretty much paint stripper...so if you spill a bit while trying to get it in your gas tank...it won't be good..

This has been around long than the internet.  There are those who swear by it and those who say it is a myth.  I tried it a while back in a half ton Chevy and didn't really notice any difference.  Didn't hurt anything as the truck now has close to 300K miles on it but didn't help anything either.  Go ahead and try it, maybe you'll be one of the ones that swear by it.

quote:

ORIGINAL: WolfPack

I did a bit of research.  Acetone is not a fuel.  It does not burn like a fuel.  Acetone does however, have a much lower vapor pressure than gasoline, so what will happen, is that as the acetone vaporizes and explodes (Explosive concentrations of acetone are a mere 1.4% in air, where as Chevron regular unleaded is 2.4% in air), it does indeed break up the surface tension of the gasoline at the molecular level.  This lets the gasoline fully combust. 

So acetone does not improve preformance on it's own, it simply helps the engine acheive more complete combustion = better MPGs.

So i'm going to retract my previous statement.  However, I will not be the first one on the forum to try this

You are 100% correct. I have used acetone for years. On the newer vehicles I have found an increase of about 1.5 MPG. On old school stuff like my 86 F250 4x4 460 I notice NO difference. My wife gets 24 MPG on her 93 Lumina with a 3.1 V6 with acetone. Without it she gets 22.5-23 MPG. On an 04 Trailblazer 4x4 freeway driving 70 MPH with acetone 21.5-22 MPG, without it 20-21 MPG. As for a noticable performance difference I have not seen anything that really shows that. One of the biggest things I DO NOTICE is having to change FUEL FILTERS. I drove that Trailblazer to 80,000 miles and never changed a fuel filter. The Lumina hasn't been changed in 4 years that I know of. My F250 4x4 hasn't had a filter changed in about 6 years. So it does keep the fuel system clean. Now if you have a messed up fuel system acetone will clean it but you may need to change fuel filters for awhile.
In the 1930s Acetone was used in the Indy 500 cars.
I'm giving you my experience of using acetone for over 10 years in diferent vehicles we have owned.

Myth Busters already disproved this myth
in fact i remeber it causing alot of problems

I thought on Mythbusters they ran straight acetone?

Yeah, they did and that FOR SURE will cause problems.  They didn't mix it to the appropriate levels.

also mythbusters used an older engine. i beleve it had carbs on it. acetone might work differently in fuel injected.