Will acetone improve gas mileage

Answer 1

There are two visual experiments that answers this:

1) No. There was a recent episode of Mythbusters that tried it. Gas mileage was actually reduced by 30%. 2) Yes. This has been tested by a user on MetaCafe and proven in his eyes to work.

There is a lot of speculations as to whether Mythbusters has received some sort of kickback from oil companies as well as questions to how they performed their test. That is, using too much Acetone can not only degrade mileage, but can hurt your car's metal/computer components.

There is documentation all over the internet that describes how the chemical properties of Pure Acetone combine with gasoline to help evaporate the gas easier; this, in turn, yields a more efficient system. The question though, is does it work? I am going to test it in the coming weeks and report back.

The recommended amount is 1-2oz of "Pure" Acetone per 10gal of gasoline (any grade). This should minimize any negative impact on the car's metal, as well as provide a 10-15mpg increase in performance. I have an older car (2001), so I don't recommend trying this on a newer one.

Let's say you have a 10gal tank that gets 30mpg. Total distance would be 300miles, with the Acetone it should be 400-450mi, to put things in perspective. So you're saving 3.33gal (100mi/30mpg) overall. 3.33gal x $4 per gallon =~ $13.33 USD

Pure Acetone can be bought at $7.50 per quart (32 fl oz). So if you used 2oz per 10gal, that would be 16 tanks per bottle. $7.50/16tanks =~ $0.47 per fillup. So you'd be saving $12.86 total every time you filled your gas. If you fill your 10gal tank, once a week, you'd be saving $668.72 a year. I don't think the savings is completely correct, because I didn't factor in all the variables, but it is a good starting place to show how much this could affect you. If there was really a 10-15mpg increase, it would save a lot of people a lot of money.