hey everybody
ive recently bought '97 5.4 2wd F150 with 122,000 on it. right now im averaging abt 14 mpg. I've read conflicting reports all over the net on the addition of small amounts of acetone to a tank of gas, and i think im gonna give it a shot. 2 oz of acetone for every 10 gallons of fuel cant really do any harm right? has anybody on here ever had any success on with this?

 

i would never. i work with acetone everday it eats up alot of stuff and i dont wanna turn my truck into a science experiment gone $wrong$

 

Um, can you give us this article you read about this? I would never attempt that. I see no good in putting acetone into your gas tank..

 

my brother in law swears that by putting 3-6 mothballs in your gas tank every month. your engine will run smoother, and you'll get more miles per gallon. he's a curier, puts 300.000 plus miles on his mini vans. i have never done this, but it does make me think. he also does'nt do tune ups.

 

Thats odd, I dont know if this has been done in the past, but we should start a thread of "random odd ball things people do to maintain their trucks". similar to the mothball and acetone theory. I would start it, but i dont have anything to contribute.

Personally I can see how acetone would help in getting rid of gunk, but it can also eat away at..... well everything. I wouldnt do it. ill stick with injector cleaners and name brand additives.

 

OK,
Both the mothballs and the acetone are old ways of boosting the octane rating in your fuel. The active ingredient in mothballs is Napthylene that in its liquid form has an octane rating of roughly 95. WELL....back in the days of old when a high grade fuel had an octane rating of about 70, adding in mothballs gave you a slight bump up. BUT, Now with 93 and 95 octane fuels being readily available, adding mothballs and acetone is only leaving other harsh chemicals in your fuel system that aren't meant to be clean-burning and may seriously damage a well tuned engine.

 

why would basically raising the octane level of your fuel help with anything?

 

Interesting.. very interesting.

 

A higher octane will burn cleaner and in most cases raise HP a little and give better gas mileage..

 

OK....a little lesson on Octane ratings....(not to steal this thread or anything...sorry)

The higher the octane level of a fuel, the more stable burning the fuel is....
By that I mean that the higher the octane level, The more precisely you can measure how long it will take to burn a set amount of fuel.

I.E.(and these numbers are strictly for explanatory purposes, they're nowhere near actual stats)
If you have 10 gallon of 87 octane fuel and you lit it on fire ONE gallon at a time, the times it would take each gallon to burn may very from 50 seconds to 1 min 10 secs.
HOWEVER, if you were to use 110 octane race gas in the same test, your times would be closer grouped together i.e. times ranging from 50 secs to 53 secs.

WHY DOES THIS MATTER?

The more precisely tuned an engine is, the more precise you must be in knowing how much fuel will burn with the air that you're taking in and have the car/truck run at it's optimal performance. This is the reason why you can't run low grade fuel in high performance vehicles. It won't burn at a stable enough rate for the engine to run properly.