Acetone as a fuel additive

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OK, in my younger days I used to blend fuels for more performance, but these were in 2 stroke engines. Acetone (nail varnish remover) is good, but there are better additives. For example, 97 RON unleaded petrol with 10% Acetone (propanone) will give you 100 RON 5* petrol. In order to make use of this you will need to advance your ignition timing and slightly increase compression ratio - easy to do on a 2 stroke.

Depending on where you can get chemicals from, I used to blend 90% 4* (98 RON) with a 10% mixture of Butanone (MEK Durapipe solvent) and Methyl Benzene (friends dad used to get it for me). Fook knows what the octane rating was, but removed gaskets from engine, advanced ignition and it went like stink. Went through a set of pistons rather quickly, but they were cracked around the gudgeon pin anyway.
 
there is a whole **** load of stuff on tinternet about it.. after a relativly short period it ****s up most of yer rubber bits in the fuel line and that includes hoses
 
slob said:
there is a whole **** load of stuff on tinternet about it.. after a relativly short period it ****s up most of yer rubber bits in the fuel line and that includes hoses
Click to expand...

I worry about that aspect.
Acetone is a fearsome solvent. Most paint-strippers have lots of it in the mix.
The Disco TD5 fuel tank is black plastic! Bad news if the bottom fell out of it with £100 of diesel in it.

I will look into the aspects raised, and take heed of His Highness King Slob's warning.

But there seems no doubt about the fact that a small amount of acetone in the fuel, including diesel fuel, has the effect claimed. It's a plain and well known fact apparently. One doesn't suppose the fuel companies would be rushing to tell us.

CharlesY
 
it will rot plastic or rubber pipes as well as tanks. Plus it is not HMCR approved so is therefore illegal.
 
The only 'safe' way would be to inject it into the inlet manifold I suppose. But I'd be worried about reducing the upper cylinder lubrication and I'm pretty sure that nail varnish remover is diluted with water?
 
disco dan said:
if i remember right, acetone is paint thinners, you can get it in gallon cans from a car paint suppliers
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I don't think thinners is actually acetone as such.

Acetone isn't easy to get since the Moslem terrorists started buying it in bulk to make explosives with along with hydrogen peroxide hair bleach and battery acid. Google for TATP. Don't try it as it is a VERY dodgy process.

CharlesY
 
I wouldn't dream of running neat Acetone, but most winter pump fuels have a small percentage of Acetone to aid vaporisation in Winter, as a large bulk of aromatic compounds as knock inhibitors do not vapourise in cold weather.

Now, need to do some research on Diesel additives and exactly what they put in as cetane enhancers, anti-waxing agents and stabilisers...
 
ave just bin reading more on the acetone theory.. its seems that folk have put 'o' rings and other rubber seals into 100% acetone fer a week or so and noticed a lot of swelling. but putting the same items into less than 5% acetone solution and the parts remain ok.

any acetone mix fer fuel seems to be best at less than 1%, so yer rubber should be ok.

it also attacks cheap plastics with more virusity than expensive plastic, one would hope the parts in yer fuel system are of the expensive type rather than cheap ****.

next up, there seem to be an equal amount of splurge on whether its any good or not. some folk swear by it and others treat it as an urban myth.

so in my eggspurt arpinion, i'd say get some rubber plastic bits as used in yer fuel system and leave them in a 3% mix fer a couple of weeks. if the bits are ok then start using yer acetone.

most data seem to suggest somewhere in the region of 0.2%ish.. without working it out i think thats about 3fl oz per 10gal tank, but yer best get yer number cruncher out and work it out fer yerself.


finally the ones that swear by it say that using too much acetone will up yer fuel consumption rather than lower it so stick to the 0.2%ish figure
 
wunder y sumwun don't bring back the old steam injection? me dad had an old american thing with stream inj that ya used only on tha open road, and from wot i can remember he used ta get pretty amazing consumption.
 
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