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A little confused various data all over the place. Is there a collective agreement to use or not to? I'm a total noob to all of this . Thanks for your help in advance.

I would say don't bother. First learn how to drive the car so you can get a max MPG. If you want to experiment with it after that then you might be better able to tell if it does anything for you.

In a month or two temps will start warming up and everyones mileage is going to improve. If you tried acetone at this time you might be fooled into thinking it is doing something when in reality it is just warmer temperatures.

Hi CoasterToasterXB:

___A resounding NO coming from me. It has never proven itself to do anything other then possibly messing with non-metal components in a negative fashion.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Some people swear by it. Others say it doesn't help.

Something tells me the people that it works for had problems to begin with and this is fixing the symptoms but not the engine's problem.

I tried it with my Accord prior to finding CleanMPG. The only thing I ever saw was worse fuel economy. The science behind acetone is extremely weak IMO. It is touted to increase the combustion efficiency through modification of the fuel's volatility, but the truth is that there is practically nothing left to gain in a modern FI engine. All of the fuel that goes in is burned, and efficiency is determined by engine design and the driver.

I think that those who swear by it are either victims of the placebo effect or else the acetone (highly caustic) cleaned enough junk out of the fuel system and/or combustion chamber to make a difference. I don't think there's anything to be gained in a newer car like yours.

Yeh,...what ^they^ said.

See our collective sigs.

Randall

Don't do it. Enough said.

As far as I'm concerend, all people are seeing is the placebo effect.

It doesn't do squat in a prius -- yup, I tried a tank or
two. It may have helped some engines back in the carburetor
days, but it doesn't have any effect on modern closed-loop
fuel injection systems.
.
If you find all kinds of "evidence" over at places like peswiki,
don't buy into it. They're a bunch of nutcases.
.
_H*

This is a very typical response to any kind of gas mileage improver. You will get a lot of
"experts" that have never tried it and have no experience with it but aren't afraid to voice there opinion on the subject. I try almost anything that comes down the line if there advertising sounds at least a little reasonable. I have been using acetone for almost two years now in four cars; a 2000 Honda Insight, 2004 VW Golf TDI, 1983 GMC Suburban, 1955 Morris Minor. I would say with out a doubt that all of them have shown an improvement. That said, this is the improvement that I have noticed. The Insight gets about 1% better mpg (.8 - 1.1 mpg) and I don't push it enough to tell if it has any more power or not. The VW gets about 3% better mpg (1.5 mpg), less smoke, and again We don't push it hard enough to tell if it has more power. The Suburban has shown the most improvement with maybe 10% better mpg (1 mpg), much smoother running, and noticably (but not huge) more power. The Morris isn't driven enough to check the mileage, but it runs smoother and has more power. The Honda and VW are relativily new low mileage cars, so saw no clean up of the combustion chamber, and therefor no improvement in power or smoothness. The Suburban and Morris are both old high mileage cars and saw a marked improvement. The Suburban used to miss and studder at idle and hesitate on initial acceleration but now runs fine. I did a complete tune up on the Burban twice trying to clear up the problems with no improvement. I haven't had the heads off but I expect that the combustion chambers are now cleaned out and that fixed the miss etc. None of the four cars have shown any signs of distress from the acetone.

Most people are afraid of gas mileage improvers and rightly so, there has been a lot of junk come down the line. On the other hand there has been a lot of legitiment improvement over the years. Lets compare Suburbans for example. My dad has a 197? Suburban with a 350 in it and it gets about 8 mpg. New Burbans get about 19 mpg, thats more then double even though the new Burban is bigger then the old one. Many of the things credited with the improvement used to be labeled as witchcraft, sorcery, fraud, fake, impossible, etc. Now we call them fuel injection, free flow exhaust, synthetic oil, v tec, radial tires, high energy ignition, hybrid, etc, etc. Mankind will never know everything there is to know. There is always room for improvement.

In conclusion, look for improvements. Do your homework before buying or experimenting. Don't belive everything you read or even see. Don't be afraid to try new things. Don't expect too much from one thing. Be honest about what you find. Expect disbelief and discreditors. If you are looking for a quick mpg improver, driving technique is far more effective, cheaper, and quicker then any mechanical mpg improver. Mecanical improvements are probably best left to the big buck R&D departments of large corporations, but then also consider who invented the first successful airplane, two bike mechanics. Acetone will help, but not much.....Louis

I would say with out a doubt that all of them have shown an improvement. That said, this is the improvement that I have noticed. The Insight gets about 1% better mpg (.8 - 1.1 mpg) and I don't push it enough to tell if it has any more power or not. The VW gets about 3% better mpg (1.5 mpg), less smoke, and again We don't push it hard enough to tell if it has more power. The Suburban has shown the most improvement with maybe 10% better mpg (1 mpg), much smoother running, and noticably (but not huge) more power.

I have to respectfully disagree that your findings are significant. With the exception of the Suburban, those fuel economy improvements are well within the experimental noise unless you are operating inside of a literal laboratory. There is just no way to isolate one independent variable running on the street. This includes long-term testing, as there are long-term effects that may be working their way into your numbers. For example, if I were comparing numbers from the previous 6 months fom now to the same period of last year I would probably see some kind of improvement due to the difference between average temperatures alone.

As for the Suburban, 1mpg = 10% implies that you were getting on the order of 10mpg, now 11mpg. That's reasonable since we are talking about a relatively old, well-used truck. But then you bring in the potential cleaning effects. With respect, I believe that there is plenty of room for doubt and there will be until we see repeatable peer-reviewed results from somebody with the equipment to get good data. Acetone is the wrong place to start for a newcomer who would like to see improved fuel economy.

Please note that I used to think otherwise about acetone and other "fuel economy improvers." I had to perform my own trials before I came to this conclusion. I also have good reason to think that other options may prove worthwhile, such as injecting small amounts of hydrogen into a gasoline mixture. I have seen that done on an instrumented engine in a university lab and the effects on NOx emissions were astounding.

No improvement in a 93 Del Sol.
No improvement in a 92 Civic VX HB
No improvement in a 04 Prius
No improvement in a 97 Outback

Yes, I have tried them all, each several tanks. Also, no improvement with Ethos fuel/oil additive.

Improvement in a 1993 Honda Accord
Improvement in a 2000 Pontiac Grand Prix

I took the acetone out of my Honda once and saw my highway mileage drop considerably. How much did you put in? Are you using ethanol? How slowly to you accelerate?

I've found that the acetone works best int he lower RPM range, doesn't work with E10, and works best with about 2.5 oz of acetone per 10 gallons in my experience.

Hi Repete86:

___Welcome to CleanMPG. What I would like you to do is to peak in terms of maximum FE and then it is time for some blind tests. Let you wife or friends do the additions without you knowing if you are driving with or without. This is one of the ways that Brick was tested and the results were 0.

___Peaking means maximum tank FE w/ little change in temps, weather, and commuting traffic conditions. Usually it is found in the 40 - 50% above your cars EPA in winter temps for most. 4 to 6 blind alternating tanks will show you one way or the other.

___Remember you are viewing comments from some of the most fuel efficient drivers in the world that know where the peaks lye. We do have to work on Louis for some blind testing as well however as he has just recently possibly peaked himself.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

I cant see the stuff doing any good. Just think about how fast it flash's off. I bet most of it gets caught in the evap. system.

psy