Directory:Acetone:Honda:Del Sol:Robert
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I commute from San Diego to UCLA (Santa Monica/Westwood) to attend the best film school and graduate screenwriting program in the world. (Totally unbiased opinion :-))
With a round-trip of exactly 287 miles, I was most interested to try adding acetone.
When I first started going to film school, I hadn't heard of using acetone. Having made the 287 mile trip many times provided a good benchmark. Without acetone, my Del Sol could make the round trip on a tank, using (with small fluctuations, probably due to speed, traffic, etc) about 9.7 - 10 gallons or so, for an average of about 29 mpg. Seems I remember getting 28 mpg (even 27?) on some occasions. Anyway, the gas needle was always on the empty line when I got home.
Now, using acetone, I definitely get better results.
I'm always fine tuning and experimenting, adding about 2.5 - 3 ounces after fill up. Since fall of 2005, I've been running the experiment on almost every fill up, which comes out to well over 30,000 miles as of a year later.
So what are the results?
First of all, now when I get back from UCLA, I don't even need to fill up. There's enough gas for plenty of driving the next day -- say 40 miles.
As I slowly adjusted the amount of acetone I used, my average climbed from 29 to 32 mpg, and then 33 mpg.
MORE FINE TUNING I recently added another refinement:
When doing my last oil change, I followed the following recipe from *Lubedev (http://www.lubedev.com/articles/faq.htm) -- the site that inspired me to start using acetone in the first place.
What combination of oils should I use in my car for good mileage? Start with four quarts 20W-50 Torco or Torco super diesel 15W-40. One quart of Torco synthetic 20W-50 is enough. I add one bottle of Torco EAL (Engine Assembly Lube) for long-long engine life followed by one bottle of Torco Magnetic Friction Reducer for even longer engine life. Always request MPZ.
RESULT
I cracked 35 mpg. Woo hoo!
You can get this stuff from *Torco (http://www.torco.com/)... and also check *Froogle.com (http://www.froogle.com)
There are other refinements the author suggests, such as a special kind of air filer and spark plugs, which I haven’t tried yet. But he stresses that you’ll only get maximum results when you do everything in concert. (And he *doubled* the mileage on his Dodge Neon, so I suppose he should know.)
Admittedly, LA traffic sucks, and I do occasionally get caught in a jam, which probably affects results -- though not necessarily negatively, depending on the speed of the traffic flow.
I tend to drive fast (say 75 mph on the low end to 85 mph on the high), so my results would undoubtedly be significantly better if I slowed down.
A WORD ABOUT ETHANOL
Be sure to test different brands and octane ratings. For example, in my area, I tend to go with the 87 octane Arco. But I seemed to get slightly better results going with the Chevron higher octane. Now, the cost was also more, so it ended up being a wash, but the added power of higher octane was noticeable. I'll see if the 87 octane at Chevron is worthwhile. Exxon results were about the same as Arco. They're a few cents more, but that's also a wash because I usually use a card to pay, and Arco charges a 45 cent fee = a 4.5 cent/gallon increase per fill up. Shell in my area definitely adds ethanol to their gas and I got HORRIBLE mileage the one time I "splurged" on their expensive gas. Despite acetone, my average dropped from 34 to that 28-29 mpg I got without acetone. That's a reduction in range of about 60 miles.
Important note: Ethanol added by the stations who use it will neutralize your acetone mileage gains. I don't know if this is because it reacts with the acetone, or, more likely, for the following reason:
Ethanol, which can be created by growing sugar, rather than drilling for oil (a good thing), does have one disadvantage. It has less "energy" per gallon, so you need to fill up more often if you're running on ethanol. But if you're also paying less, it can come out to a better deal, depending on the numbers.
But some stations add ethanol and charge the same (or even more), which, at least financially, is a bad deal for you. Especially if you're using acetone.
- From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_fuel)
Fuel economy (miles per gallon or MPG) is directly proportional to energy content [12]. Ethanol contains approx. 34% less energy per gallon than gasoline, and therefore will get 34% fewer miles per gallon [13] (see also "Alternative Fuel Efficiencies in Miles per Gallon" [14]). For E10 (10% ethanol and 90% gasoline), the effect is small (~3%) when compared to conventional gasoline, and even smaller (1-2%) when compared to oxygenated and reformulated blends [15]. However, for E85 (85% ethanol), the effect becomes significant. E85 will produce approximately 27% lower mileage than gasoline, and will require more frequent refueling. Actual performance may vary depending on the vehicle [16].
The lower mileage should be considered when making price comparisons. For example, if regular gasoline costs $3.00 per gallon, and E85 costs $2.19 per gallon, the prices are essentially equivalent. If the discount for E85 is less than 27%, it actually costs more per mile to use. For USA price comparisons, see here.
A WORD ABOUT LIARS
I like the guys on the PBS radio show Car Talk. But I don't like lies. They addressed acetone, saying they asked an “engineer” who works for a major oil company to tell them the truth. He said there was no increase in mileage. So they believed him and went on to say that in addition to having no benefit, acetone will also eat up your gaskets and seals. See *CarTalk (http://www.cartalk.com/content/columns/Archive/2006/January/08.html)
I guess I must be on crack when I calculate my 25% increase in mileage with acetone. Then, if I ever am unable to add my acetone and my mileage drops 25%, I’m off crack.
Big surprise that a representative of an *oil company* said that acetone doesn't work. As we all know, big oil has fuel efficiency and our best interests at heart. Don't believe me? See the new documentary, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" The EV1 was getting the equivalent of 300 miles a gallon (a hundred miles on $3 worth of electricity = a fillup for $10 ... what are YOU paying to fill up?) GM made the EV1 so that they could get a legal loophole to begin producing the Hummer -- which started the whole SUV craze. As soon as they had their loophole in place, they KILLED the EV1 even though people were lined up to get it. Ever wonder why you never see an EV1? Because GM REPOSSESSED every single one from every single owner. They then took them out to the desert, piled them up, and CRUSHED them. See *their website (http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/)
People, if we’re ever going to *change* anything, it’s going to have to be a *fight.* A war. (Going to war for oil we know how to do. Now we’ve got to go to war to get away from oil.) There’s way too much money at stake for the oil companies. They’ll do whatever it takes to protect their profits. They have a hundred trillion dollars of oil still to be sold, and if we try anything to keep the money they see as their right to get from us ... it will get very nasty. Don’t trust them. Don’t believe them. Don’t give in to them. Demand change. Rant over.
By the way: Car Talk is right about one thing. Don't get acetone on your paint. If you do, just wash it off right away and you shoudl be fine.
ANCELLARY TIPS
By the way, always fill up first, then go home and add your acetone (unless you keep it on your car. Don't know about the safety of that, though.) Don't add your acetone to an empty tank and then drive to the station. You'll burn up most of your acetone and what's left probably won't mix well.
Also, I get my acetone at Wal Mart, where you can buy a gallon for something like $9. The lid is hard to work, though. You'll learn not to close it TOO tight or it's a pain in the butt to get back open. Use pliers if necessary. A good way to do it is to find a good, safe container that is smaller, and refill it as needed from the big gallon container. So you get your 2-3 oz acetone from the small container and refill that container every month or whatever.
I have a calculator in my N-gage cell phone, so I calculate my mileage on every fill up, and I add into memory any new “high scores.” Makes it kind of like a game or a contest to beat my last mileage high score. Everytime you finish filling up, you hit mileage reset on your trip meter. Then, the next time you fill up, you divide the number of miles driven by the exact number of gallons (to as many decimal places as possible) it just took to refill your car. Always fill till the nozzle cuts off so that you know you're always filling to the same amount. That way you know your math is consistent.
By the way, a special word of thanks to *Coast to Coast AM (http://www.coasttocoastam.com/), an awesome radio show for expanding your view of the world. It was because of a guest they had on one night, *Mark Mccandlish (http://www.markmccandlish.com/), who shared his experiments with acetone, that I began researching the subject. You can *LISTEN HERE to a clip about acetone (http://www.coasttocoastam.com/shows/2005/09/27.html).
NON-RELATED CELL PHONE PARENTHETICALS:
By the way, the N-Gage from Nokia is the greatest phone ever. I know some people think it’s lame. But if you like gaming, this is the phone for you. No, it’s not a PSP. It’s a phone. But it’s a phone that is designed for gaming and has a layout like that of a game pad, so you can actually *play* comfortably. The Symbian operating system and my 1 GB memory cards allow me not only to play all the great N-Game games, which blow other cell phone games out of the water, but I can also: watch full-length movies or episodes of the Simpsons, whatever, with the Smartmovie program from Lonely Cat Games; listen to the radio or MP3s; play hundreds of Sega genesis games for free using the PicoDrive emulator and the Genesis roms you’ll find all over the internet; play all the Super Nintendo games using those roms with VSun and VSUn Plus emulators (one has sound, the other runs faster); play all the Game Boy games with the VBoy emulator; play arcade games with EMAME, the MAME emulator for Symbian, play old Commodore 64 games with emulators like Frodo. There are thousands of apps out there, like e-book readers and word processors that will even read text aloud to you!
Also, the N-gage has an offline mode which allows you to game without radiating yourself. Very cool. And when you are talking, I suggest getting an RF3 Headset which conducts the sound signal via an air tube (like a doctor’s stethoscope), thereby allowing you to keep the phone away from you, and preventing radiation from traveling up the wire and straight into your head, as it does with conventional headsets. I know it works great because I used to feel sick and nauseated after using my cell phone for any extended period of time. That’s now vastly reduced. *Buy it here. (http://store.unical-estore.com/rf3-anti-radiation-headsets.html)
If you want an N-Gage, it’ll take some doing, as they’re ceasing production. Try Ebay, etc. I got two that way. However, in the future, all Nokia phones will have N-Gage functionality, so you’ll be able to play all-new N-Gage games. No matter which Nokia you get. But unless they develop a phone that “plays” like the original, I won’t be switching! Trying to play any kind of serious game on a standard cell phone is a total joke.
Just wanted to share!
