The acetone test
 

Well enough of this a-b-a and scangauge speculation as to whether or not Acetone works in improving MPG's. I decided to tackle this problem the old fashion way. I filled my wife's 4-runner up today and secretly added Acetone to the mix. I won't tell her and as you can see by the fuel log, the 4-runner is consistent to within a mile in either direction. A spike in mileage in either direction should put my curiosity to rest, and hopefully yours too ...

My mix is currently 1mL per gallon.

Thanks for trying it out. Enough testing by honest people attempting empirically-sound comparisons should eventually pay off. I'm betting there is no "ace" in acetone.

Well I need to put my own curiosity to rest too. I did see a spike in my mpg's when I did it, and no other mod has delivered such a change since. I muddied my test by adding different mods and practicing known techniques, that why this should be an honest test.

waiting to see :thumbup:

Unless weather conditions are different.:p

No matter what the weather, that truck has hit 18-20 mpg consistently since we bought it ... the 20 comes from hwy driving, obviously the 18 in the city. My wife drives real consistent, I just haven't shared any techniques with her yet. So there at least is no chance of a placebo effect with this tank.

thats why i'm waiting to hear :thumbup:

1mL per gallon? That dont sound like much to me... Ive heard of people dumping in whole cans of the stuff.

The guys over on the Explorerforums were talking about Acetone awhile back. Here's a link to the post in question.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/...hlight=acetone

Which is why not many are getting results, my initial dose for the vibe was 1 mL per gallon and it got me a 4mpg boost supposed ... after doing a ton of research on volume the most I had heard and still getting gains was 1oz per gallon which is like 30mL. So i figured I would start off safe and see what the results tell me. Because of its corrosive nature to much acetone in the mix will not only be wasted because it can no longer bond with gasoline (Supersaturated mix) but then could easily begin corroding anything and everything that can be affected by it.

I drive the same route day after day, and just a change in wind direction can affect my mileage that much.

4mpg ,,,,how much wind is that :(

Wind that pushes against the side and front of the car in the opposite direction is much worse than wind coming directly from the front or rear. Of course, wind on the same day coming directly from the rear improves FE. So going in one direction has the exact opposite affect from going in the other direction. A headwind that takes away 2 mpg can add 2 mpg in the opposite direction, depending upon the Cd of the vehicle. The difference, then, is 4. But possibly much more or less depending upon the strength of the wind.

If you understand the affect of wind resistance on FE at high speeds, you can understand the affect at low speeds with high wind. The wind resistance at 60 mph with no wind is the same as 40 mph going directly into a 20 mph wind that is going in the opposite direction. Easily 4 mpg lost in FE.

If he's going to do an A-B-A test, the wind shouldn't play much factor.

From the OP I don't think he's planning on doing A-B-A. He's just blind testing with tank to tank variation on the wife ride.

I started using acetone in my '96 regal 3.8 last summer and kept tight logs on it. It is a very shaky science as I watched it go from about 30mpg to about 33 mpg avg. I got lucky twice with the right gas, from the right station, with the right mix all in one happy tank . the two highest MPG's I was able to garner was one tank @ 35mpg, then once more a few tanks later @ 36mpg. This average was about 3 oz. per 10 gallons. Very hit or miss, and a fun experiment of which I have had no adverse affects. I have to say that there were almost NO improvements with winter gas (one to three mpg), which is another topic on it's own! How can you justify the ecological benefits of winter gas when you burn much more of it in the process?

36mpg in a 3.8 v6 is pretty good sounding, especially since regals arent the smallest lightest car ever.

Has anybody tested this with a hybrid?

I did that last summer, but traffic would be good some days and just death (15 minutes to get on the freeway less than 3/4 mile from work!)...

I put in about 4oz per 11-12 gals. I found a site that some guy made, he had charts and all that good stuff, now its just a matter of finding it again since my old computer died and I lost all my bookmarks. He seemed legit so I'll start a search for it.

In older cars I would refrain from using a bunch since it would probably (if used consistently) eat through the gas line. That's just what I've heard.

You can't compare tank to tank. Who goes exactly the same number of miles on the exact same route under the exact same conditions from tank to tank? Can't be done unless he's driving indoors.

^I think I know waht you are talking about. In addition to the mentioned, he also soaked some rubber hoses and other parts in a strong percentage of Acetone and did a before and after finding that there wasn't any wear. I don't remember too clearly because this is from a while ago (one of those bored at 2 in the morning cuz cant goto sleep researches). But there are also reports of fuel injectors crapping out. But I would like to see what happens to the OP's testing or anyone else that does an A-B-A-B sort of testing as well as an prolonged usage testing.

Good luck.

Not to sound like an a$$ hole, but an A-B-A test IS an average of tanks of fuel under many varying conditions. I drive the exact same miles to and from work, the only change is usually weather, and traffic, which is averaged throughout the tanks of fuel. Also here's the latest link found by Louis LaPointe....
http://www.pureenergysystems.com/new...00069_Acetone/

I have to respectfully disagree. Accurate A-B-A testing is done with instrumentation done in the same day with a minimum of weather deviations and not tank to tank testing.

One of the reasons testing fuel and oil additives is almost impossible for the average bear. Unless the increase is so large it blows away the normal FE static.

Wind is a huge factor out here where the land is flat and theres huge fields of nothing to stop it.

Don't get me wrong, I agree that definately you need a guaged A-B-A test, but for basic ecopimps like me, My tests consit of "tank-flush-tank-flush tank" testing. "A" being the first non-modified, "B" being modified, "A" being non-modified. The variables are infinite, but I always seem to get improvement when testing a modification throughout these tanks of fuel.

Well either way .. take "My" testing with a grain of salt, my wife is the typical grocery getter with the baby and all the gear that goes with it. She makes 1 80 mile round trip drive a week and does not deviate from her driving style. Furthermore our weather for the time being has remained stable, so I doubt that a 4000lb + vehicle will show such a large swing in mileage by wind. Especially when for the past year this vehicle has consistently yielded 18.5 - 19.0 mpg. I started a log for her and asked to collect the info so I can start helping her. I told her to drive normal this whole month to get a realistic average for the vehicle. She and it has not dissapointed me yet.

***Update*** I snuck into the car last night and checked the onboard mpg compute the vehicle has and to my surprise it was reading 22.9 @ the 3/4 tank mark. So for now it is looking promising. More to come by Wednesday.

BTW, she doesn't know the car has one .. yeah it's silly, but true ...

3 mpg seems to be the standard gain with acetone. I had some work buddies try it, and they gained around 3mpg as well (with the right mix)

That actually sounds about right, it's what I got in the Vibe with 1mL per gallon and not until now am I experimenting with the mix. But if I do not see a marked improvement with the 2mL per gallon mix, then a 3mpg boost for next to nothing is awesome ...

just be careful with a newer vehicle, I've heard varying things... I use it in all my older vehicles, the newest being a 1999..... give the link a good read and make your judgements from there http://www.pureenergysystems.com/new...00069_Acetone/

^^^ Kevlar thats great, it was actually the last source I read before Ibegan testing on my Vibe. The vibe is now up to 2mL per gallon, which still doesn't equal 1 ounce, I may have to take the leap of faith and increase by a full once and see what the differences are ... Looks like up to 3oz !! per 10 gallon and you still get benefits ...

Only time and mileage will tell ..

I would say grocery getter modding is still an acceptable way to test, when the operator doesnt know anything has changed. Our own bias to be able to put better number into the garage can skew everything, no matter how "scientific" we are trying to be.

My acetone tank went right back up to the tank when i bought the car that had acetone in it. Its still within deviation. I could have shut the engine down coasting a few more times and picked up 3mpg. The weather has warmed up as well.

Don't destroy your credibility by using LaPointe as a resource.

Well either the acetone works or it does not. While the explanation of HOW/WHY it works may be wrong, that does not affect the outcome.

Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while, and a stopped clock is right twice a day.

:D

Don't care WHO wrote it. I read it, tried it, and so far... knock on wood(or light plastic), it works. Not all the time, but more than half the time. BUT.... seeing the most recent pages from him, I believe he's sold, re-sold, and sponsored himself and his stories. There were a lot of ads promoting H2O stuff which I still don't see, or haven't seen proven.

I'm sold on the acetone thing. Some say it only benefits city and low speed driving. GREAT it's a delivery car. It's a double bonus when you didn't purchase the acetone, no math to figure out when it's paid for itself :)

I'll sneak a peek at the mpg meter when I get home tonight, she should be @ the half tank by now ...

the excitement is building fast!!!!!:p

Update on Acetone 1mL per gallon
 

Ok, well today was the day she made her trip down to Miami, about 95 miles round trip ... So I snuck out to check the truck while I walked the dog and ....
..........
..........

HOLY CRAP !!!! 24.1 !!!! on the mpg in car meter. She is exactly at the half tank line, which means nothing, but we will see if it holds for the rest o the tank.

Anyhow no matter what you take away from this it has an effect on FE, mind you for this test I just used 1mL per gallon for a total of 20mL which is less than an ounce ...

I will have a ghetto a-b-a test coming because I leave for Tulsa tomorrow night and while I am gone she will likely cycle through a tank. So we will see if the mileage tapers off or drops to confirm even further ...

was she drafting ;)

Wow.:eek:

You got me convinced to try it. Next week I have a 250 mile road trip (all highway). I always fill at the same gas station with same pump whenever i go onto this trip. I usually get 18.75-19.5 mpg on this drive. I think I'll try it for 1mL per gallon as well.

If I were you, id put acetone in the next three tanks. On Toyota ECUs it usually takes three whole tanks before it reprograms itself to any changes that you have done.

Quick stupid question I have. Where and what can I somethin get that will measure in mL?