Acetone as a fuel additive

**Pixie** · 30th July 2005, 01:47

Originally Posted by Zapf

when you burn methanol you get water.... good like with all the steel in your engine and exhaust system

When you burn any hydrocarbon you get water and C02,and that includes heptane,hexane and octane (petrol).So I don't think it's a problem unless your motor is made of sugar.

**zadok** · 30th July 2005, 10:31

There was quite a bit about this in the news some time ago here. Some service stations were blending it with their petrol. Caused a huge outcry. Apparently it isn't good for the motor, especially in too higher ratios or something.

**speedpro** · 30th July 2005, 11:05

My bike runs on a mixture of methanol(75%) and 100 octane(25%). To that I have to add about .5L of acetone to get it to blend. The fuel mix stays foggy till you get just the right amount of acetone and then it suddenly goes clear.
Acetone is great for cleaning bits and for that really stubborn dirt I find a soak in Tuluol will eventually get rid of it, along with your cleaning rag and "any" oil on/in your skin. Actually I've found it good for cleaning carbs that have been left for a long time with fuel in them.

On that note, I have about 15L of Toluol in the garage if anyone has a use for it. I've changed the fuel mix and don't use it any more. Couple of beers would be fine.

**thehollowmen** · 30th July 2005, 12:48

Originally Posted by zadok

There was quite a bit about this in the news some time ago here. Some service stations were blending it with their petrol. Caused a huge outcry. Apparently it isn't good for the motor, especially in too higher ratios or something.

Good call.
They also used xylene for that (nasty stuff that - disolves plastic and rubber worse than acetone)

Anyways, petrol stations were buying 91 in bulk and adding combinations of Xylene, alcohol, methanol and acetone to help anti-knock the mixture and were selling it as 96 and higher.

This didn't sit well with a lot of old roadsters / hot rods / classics where the fuel lines and seals were plastic or rubber (rubberised cloth?). You'd fill up the tank and that night everything would leak out as the fuel line and seals disolved.

The float diaphram in some things would also disolve. They're worth a shitload.

I may be speaking crap, this is what I remember from my neighbours (hot rodders) getting all up in arms and my working with xyelene and a fuzzy memory.

**scumdog** · 30th July 2005, 12:59

Originally Posted by zadok

There was quite a bit about this in the news some time ago here. Some service stations were blending it with their petrol. Caused a huge outcry. Apparently it isn't good for the motor, especially in too higher ratios or something.

Yep, when unleaded first came in it caused the carb O-rings etc to swell - had to cut a pice out of the float-chamber ring and superglue the ends together to get it back in place.
Also shagged the fuel line and other fuel related bits on my hot-rod truck - and it pinged like crazy even though the "Super' was meant to be the same octane - and still does to this day, argh!!

**thehollowmen** · 30th July 2005, 13:05

Originally Posted by scumdog

Yep, when unleaded first came in it caused the carb O-rings etc to swell - had to cut a pice out of the float-chamber ring and superglue the ends together to get it back in place.
Also shagged the fuel line and other fuel related bits on my hot-rod truck - and it pinged like crazy even though the "Super' was meant to be the same octane - and still does to this day, argh!!

Sorry to hear that :-(

Can anybody confirm that the new BP 98 is oxygenated? (less than 10% etOH or 5% mtOH)

**speedpro** · 30th July 2005, 15:02

The octane number stayed the same with the switch to unleaded, BUT, the method used to determine it was changed. Unleaded 96 is actually a bit lower octane, as determined using the same method, than the old leaded 96. Or so I've heard.

I have to agree with everyone who thinks modern fuel is dodgy. If you have a reasonably modern car with a knock sensor, sometimes theres a definite performance change after a fill up as the engine management makes adjustments for fuel variation. For this reason if you are racing you should use either 100 octane or some other verified racing fuel. It can save a lot of heartache if you're engine is tuned on the edge.

**pritch** · 30th July 2005, 15:18

Originally Posted by speedpro

I find a soak in Tuluol will eventually get rid of it, along with your cleaning rag and "any" oil on/in your skin.

A word of caution perhaps as youngsters read these pages:

We should be careful what we clean our hands with. Some of those things, eg methanol, may get your hands clean but are poisonous and are absorbed through the skin. The effect is also cumulative.

All the aforementioned chemicals should be treated with considerable respect

**speedpro** · 30th July 2005, 20:26

The label on the tin says it all, as if the smell wasn't enough to tell you. Nasty stuff.

**pete376403** · 31st July 2005, 22:46

Originally Posted by Zapf

when you burn methanol you get water.... good like with all the steel in your engine and exhaust system

When you burn petrol you get water, too. Where else does all that water vapour you can see in cold exhaust gases come from? Fortunately, when the motor and exhaust system get hot, the water is boiled out.

**scumdog** · 1st August 2005, 01:27

Originally Posted by pete376403

When you burn petrol you get water, too. Where else does all that water vapour you can see in cold exhaust gases come from? Fortunately, when the motor and exhaust system get hot, the water is boiled out.

Most of the water comes from the air, after all a lot of the time you are running a ratio of 14 parts of air to one part of fuel (give or take a bit) and as air contains a lot of moisture (especially at this time of year) it stands to reason a lot gets flung out of your exhaust - you can't 'burn' it after all.

**thehollowmen** · 1st August 2005, 08:18

Originally Posted by scumdog

Most of the water comes from the air, after all a lot of the time you are running a ratio of 14 parts of air to one part of fuel (give or take a bit) and as air contains a lot of moisture (especially at this time of year) it stands to reason a lot gets flung out of your exhaust - you can't 'burn' it after all.

Can't burn water oooohohahahahhhha that's a good one
I need to show you a trick with burning Aluminium sometime.. strips the oxygen right off the H2O and because water is more oxygen rich than air you make a big explosion.

*raises eyebrow*
My bike is all aluminium... uh oh.

**vifferman** · 1st August 2005, 09:04

Originally Posted by zadok

There was quite a bit about this in the news some time ago here. Some service stations were blending it with their petrol. Caused a huge outcry. Apparently it isn't good for the motor, especially in too higher ratios or something.

I was actually in Perth when this hit the news. I was flabbergasted at this, because they were prosecuting service station owners there for doing EXACTLY the same thing as our gubmint condones the oil companies here doing.

**zadok** · 1st August 2005, 09:21

The synthetic petrol plant near Waitara has been churning out synthetic petrol from natural gas for years now. Apparently that is blended with the imported fuel. Sounds like a brilliant idea to me and I've wondered for a long time now why there haven't been more plants built. Natural gas seems to be in abundant supply. We have masses off the north west here. The oil companies wouldn't like it but. My heart bleeds for them, not.