Quote:
Originally Posted by piers.singer
Mech, I can understand the addition of acetone and alcohol to petrol, but I'm curious: what exactly is the advantage of adding veggie oil? I am reminded of rotary engine enthusiasts who add two-stroke oil to their petrol, although I assume that this is much different.
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To be quite honest, not too much different. It does add lubricity to the upper cylinder and I suspect gives a longer burn. I know adding it when my engine is running rough brings immediate results I've never seen with any pour in the tank additive.
What made me think of it was when I was part of a diesel forum the straight veggie oil enthusiasts always talked about how starting to use veggie oil in any form always clogged the filters in an older vehicle til the tank was clean. So I figured, hey, cheap bio-gas tank cleanser. So I tried it with a quart of the cheapest veggie oil I could find in my Explorer when it was running particularily rough. Within 5 miles of driving it ran smoother, seemed to have a touch more oomph, and idled great. And I've seen it happen with my Maxima too; the engine would start running rough, so I would put in the rubbing alcohol (very similar to HEET and cheaper) the veggie oil, and the acetone (a chemical known to help other chemicals break up in the mix.) When I was in college chem, we used acetone to help cleansing test tubes after messing with organic compounds especially. After messing with the stuff quite a bit, I knew it was great stuff for dissolving organics and making them easier to deal with. And old school nail polish remover is mainly acetone with a couple other chemicals in small amounts.
Basically I can go into nearly any small town grocer and get all the ingredients, usually for less than $5, and it works within a couple miles, and keeps working after the tank is emptied. What value it would have to a newer engine I'm not sure.
I also am a bit of a cheapskate (having 5 kids will do that to you) so just throwing out used motor oil or veggie oil seemed a waste. So I would strain the stuff and slowly add a bit into the tank til it was burned up. And having a bit of the used stuff makes for free and guilt free lube for drilling into metal, or lubing up the odd door hinge, or getting the bicycle chain operational again.
Another favorite additive of mine is used tranny oil. It burns very nicely in the tank and usually does much the same as veggie oil, but I don't change tranny oil that often
For the curious, here is a link to the thread where others talked about their experiences messing with veg oil in gassers.
SVO in gas engine-1st hand exp.