Octane, compression ratio, boost, timing, octane boosters and other additives

[Sirdeuce]

Alcohols, toluene,xylene, benzene, acetone, mothballs. What have you heard of or tried to increase the usefulness of your fuel? I can remember when you could get your hands on Benzene as an additive, what a frikken difference that made! What cleaners have you used? liked? disliked? What does it take to run 11 to 1 compression on 91 crapoline?

[Sirdeuce]

By the way, mothballs are napthalene

[BigMike]

I gave this Acetone article a read: http://www.pureenergysystems.com/news/2005/03/17/6900069_Acetone/

Very interesting. I'm gonna have to try it in my 2 to compare mileage to and from San Jose

[Sirdeuce]

Oh yeah, got to try it! Take note what was written about water in the fuel. If you fill up at a station that just got a new batch of gas you get a free bonus with that fresh new gas! That free bonus is all the sediment in the storage tank gets stirred up! Yep, you get free crap in your tank! Wooohooo! Along with that, the fresh new gas stirs up the condensation that settled to the bottom of the tank! Yee haw, free water injection! I'm sure you've heard of 'bad gas' because of excessive water. No, the didn't turn the sprinklers on, just never got the condensation pumped out of the tank. The good gas stations actually do this proceedure every few months to a year. So do put in a little alcohol in your fuel every so often when they don't put any in at the manufacturer.  A good source, my favorite, is Berrymans B12 chemtool(holding up a can so everybody can see it, wearing a cheesey smile). Not too sure if it still does, but they used to put toluene in as a cleaner, and what a cleaner. Best fuel system cleaner I've ever used! Going out to get a can of acetone tomorrow! See how it does.

[Sirdeuce]

A few thoughts on using acetone.
1) A/F ratio, Might be where the milage increase comes from. Since the atomization of the fuel is improved you get a better more complete burn. More fuel burned means more oxygen used. Does the O2 sensor read this as a rich mixture and lean accordingly? I can't think of any other way to increase the mileage. Even if the fuel is burned more completely, injecting the same volume of fuel per event will render the same consupmtion. Think about it, when the injectors are not working properly, atomization is poor, droplets are larger than normal. The larger droplets don't allow for a complete burn, leaving a surplus of oxygen in the exhaust. The O2 sensor reads this as a lean mixture and increases the fuel volume.

2) Power, better atomization means more efficient combustion, more efficient combustion means more POWER! But if I'm right about the O2 sensor leaning out the mix, would we be back to the same power output as before?

3) Flame front, smaller droplets burn faster and have less space between them. Faster flame front, more expansion from heat closer to TDC. A few more degrees of crankshaft rotation to use the higher pressure. The increase in degrees of crank rotation mean better power. The increase in pressure means better torque.

4) Inlet air temp, smaller droplets absorb heat faster. Would we actually get a denser A/F charge? I don't think it would be enough to offset the rich mix reading te O2 sensor is getting (in 1 above) but this would typically offer up more POWER!

5) Detonation, should decrease detonation. Closer droplets being closer together would give a more stable, evenly distributed mixture. Effectively reducing lean spots in the combustion chamber. A lot of the problems that cause detonation stem from lean spots in the mixture. A 'bubble in the chamber will create a lean spot, compress it and it can't take the heat like a rich mix can and it ignites.

6) Compression, will adding acetone effectively increase octane rating? Or can the more evenly distributed mix help control the combustion allowing an increase in compression? Or not?

7) ignition timing, as in the above, will this allow for a more aggressive timing curve?

All these questions were bombarding me all night. Mybrain gets on a subject and tortures me in my sleep. My dreams include visions of the subject at hand. I really hate my brain for doing this to me. Even does this with my work. Imagine dreaming about your job all night long, not women or cars, or cars or women, or maybe just cars(Bryan). I would like to be able to answer these lifes's mysteries, but I'm sure somebody somewhere already has. Either look for the answers in text, or, PLAY! I think I'll play! More fun that way!

[Sirdeuce]

Mikey! You like to play! Seems you have the perfect plaything too! I can try the milage thing with my Taco, but the timing is set. You have a regular distributor on the 2, and tou can play with the boost! The Taco uses 87 crapoline, so dropping to a lower octane rated gas to check the detonation issue isn't an option. One thing I forgot to mention in the above is BOOST! Or even the devil nitrous. But you can play with the boost and timing! Waddya say?

[Sirdeuce]

Acetone! Driving from Castro Valley to my house. 580, 5, 152, 99, through Madera to the hills. Mostly flat straight roads. 224 miles, about 60 of that spirited mountain driving, 9.56 gallons of gas, 3 ounces of acetone per 10 gallons of fuel. 23.43 mpg. I've driven thins route several times in the last few months, averaging 20 mpg. The average speed traveled on the long is around 77 mph. Average speed in the hills is around 55 mph. On an atypical drive for me, trying to squeeze miles per gallon, the better mileage I would geet in my Taco was 22 mpg. Best I ever saw was 24 mpg. I'm taking a drive to Atascadero this coming weekend and plan to putt it all the way. Can I get 26-28 mpg using the acetone? I did gain a little driving normal. I think the acetone does make a difference. Although this is a journey into better milage, I believe I am getting better power. Climbing the hill to my house usually reqires shifting to 2nd gear, with the acetone 3rd gear seems to be adequate. Hmmmm?

[BigMike]

Remember it takes a couple of tanks to get results, right?

Also, I picked up a 32 oz bottle of Lucas Oil upper cylinder lube, and also the small 5.25 oz bottle. 5.25 oz is made for 20 gallons, so I am using the 32 oz bottle to fill the 5.25oz bottle half-way, and when I fill up 8 or 9 gal, I dump in the 2.5-or-so ounces.

The 32 oz bottle only costs like $10-$12 and I will get around 12 tanks out of it. So it adds $1 per tank. Currently, 91 oct is about $3.20/gal, so this treatment costs about a third of a gal of fuel.

So if I am making 30 MPG and traveling 270 miles per tank, I need to travel 1/3 of a gal more for this to pay for itself. So that's an additional 9 miles per tank. So if I go 279 miles in 9 gal, then that is a 31 MPG average.

So if I make 1 MPG more with this, then it's basically free injector cleaner, free cylinder cleaner, free fuel pump lubricator, free valve lubricator, free piston ring lubricator.

So this is what I am doing right now :D

[Sirdeuce]

That was the second tankful of gas with the mix. The wind was blowin really good on the trip too. It was the first trip I took that wasn't up and down the hill.

[Sirdeuce]

Last tank was 22.5 mpg. A good average  increase of 3 mpg over a similar set of trips and circumstances. I'll drive this tank out and then I'll TRY(?) to hypermile a tank. Let's call that 'helltank', it'll be pure hell to drive like the grannies around here.