Home Brew fuel additives

[BrianWC]

Inspired by the Katrina-era acetone threads, I took a trip to the hardware store yesterday. I picked up one gallon of acetone ($11.49) and 1 gallon of toluene for $8.49. I was experimenting w/ some different mixes last night. I thought I had a great one: 6 ounces toluene, 6 of acetone, and 2 of 2 cyl oil. Looked very MMO-ish. Then it melted the plastic measuring cup I was metering it with....then the bottle I had it in.... Luckily I had a stouter bottle that some injector cleaner had come in. I threw about 6 ounces in my 18 gallon tank and filled up last night. We'll see what if anything happens with mileage.

I was really intrigued by the way acetone reacts with the other stuff. When I poured the red 2 cyl oil into the acetone, it instantaneously evenly spread throughout. Pretty weird stuff chemistry is....

 

[Quest]

BrianWC-

looking forward to your report!

Q.

 

[GMorg]

BrianWC,

Plastics and organic solvents generally don't play well together. I would suggest against home experimentation without knowing a little about your reagents. If you are going to continue these efforts, get a glass measuring cup. You will also need some containers that you KNOW will handle the solvents. Metal cans are a good bet.

Also, if you try to recover your brew after it has "melted" plastic, it now contains the plastic. I do not suggest that you pour this type of material into your tank.

Lastly, be careful to watch your acetone / 2-stroke oil mixes. If your 2-stroke oil contains PIB (polyisobutylene), it can precipitate out in the acetone. My guess is that it will re-dissolve in your tank, but I would recommend NOT using any solution that appears cloudy, milky, or appears to have silk-like material floating in it.

Be careful...

 

[surfstar]

I tried a couple tanks of acetone and MMO together and didn't notice a difference so I gave up testing partly due to any chance of messing up my fuel system.

Still I look forward to some more reports. I never bought the "I went from 22 to 30 MPG with acetone!"

 

[UncleS2]

Brian, I was curious too & bought a pint of acetone at Walgreens a couple of months ago. Haven't put it in a car yet. I did try mixing it at about 2 1/2 parts acetone to 1 part of Fuel Power/Neutra "MolaBrew"(~3 parts FP to 1 part Nuetra). It doesn't mix! Shake it up, it looks OK for a few seconds, set it down & come back in 10 minutes or less- it's all separated again, with the acetone floating on top of the FP/N.

Still hasn't dissoved the /2\ plastic bottle I mixed it in.

Let us know if you get 100% better mileage & gobs of extra power!

 

[GMorg]

Stuart Hughes,

Any chance that your acetone has a little water in it. It doesn't take much to cause what you are seeing. If you can drop a little gasoline into acetone and they fully mix, then your acetone has some water. Like many of the alcohols, acetone goes both ways...aqueous and organic.

 

[UncleS2]

GM, it *shouldn't* have any water in it, though I suspect it can absorb it from the air. It *does* have some kind of additive in it though, it's from Walgreens & sold as a high-volume nail polish remover. It went straight from the sealed bottle bought at Walgreens into another plastic bottle, then I immediately added the FP-Neutra mix to it. The FP or Neutra(more likely) might have absorbed a little moisture from our humid East Texas air.

 

[BrianWC]

Yep, I'll be careful!!! My mileage figures got ruined today as I had to sit in backed up interstate traffic for almost 1 hr. b/c someone doesn't know how to drive a furniture truck in the rain....

quote:

---

Originally posted by GMorg:
BrianWC,

Plastics and organic solvents generally don't play well together. I would suggest against home experimentation without knowing a little about your reagents. If you are going to continue these efforts, get a glass measuring cup. You will also need some containers that you KNOW will handle the solvents. Metal cans are a good bet.

Also, if you try to recover your brew after it has "melted" plastic, it now contains the plastic. I do not suggest that you pour this type of material into your tank.

Lastly, be careful to watch your acetone / 2-stroke oil mixes. If your 2-stroke oil contains PIB (polyisobutylene), it can precipitate out in the acetone. My guess is that it will re-dissolve in your tank, but I would recommend NOT using any solution that appears cloudy, milky, or appears to have silk-like material floating in it.

Be careful...

---

 

[GMorg]

Stuart,

Many brands of nail polish remover are as much as 40% water! When you add it to MolaBrew, does it float or sink?

 

[Hammer]

FP60 and 100% pure acetone don't like to mix.

Hammer

 

[Leo]

I sure wouldn't be deliberately sniffing Toluene...

 

[BrianWC]

A little lung damage and suffocation never hurt anyone....

 

[toocrazy2yoo]

Tolulene, Jeez..
The plane captains and structural mechanics in NavAir used to squeeze out rags in buckets of that stuff to clean the airplanes. I remember to this day, the streams of the stuff running down their elbows and getting into their clothes. I thank my stars to this day that I was an airconditioning and LOX specialist back then. Hydrocarbons are a major-league no-no around pure, pressurized O2, and so it was with the solvents.

Lots of those guys got liver, skin and lung cancers from that stuff. Lots of em died. My little brother was one of em. Now that they know the risks, everyone works with water-based cleaners these days.

Be careful with these solvents, gents. Any of the "aromatic", or sweet-smelling solvents and hydrocarbon-based liquids and fuels are REALLY toxic carcinogens. They'll wreck your liver, kidneys and inspire the enzymes that turn pre-cancerous cells into cancerous in your lungs.

 

[UncleS2]

The acetone floats on top of the Molabrew. The label says it's 100% Acetone, plus some small additive for who knows what. Mebbe to make it taste extra bad to winos?? (Are we allowed to say "wino" these days?

)

 

[BrianWC]

Actually (and I know this may not be any consolation) but toluene is one of the less harmful aromatics. It is not even classified as a carcinogen. It can cause renal failure if enough is contacted, but...

 

[GMorg]

You've got to love that MFO (mixed function oxidase system) that the liver has. It can burn most anything.

Toxicology is one thing, but ...boom!...that's another thing altogether.

 

[GMorg]

Well, Hammer says that FP60 and acetone won't mix. Stuart Hughes says that acetone is less dense than Molebrew. I'd say we have a few clues if we want to start trying to decipher the FP60 formulation.

I would just as soon keep trying to get my chinese dumpling sauce just right. I can get close, but I just can't get it perfect.

 

[BrianWC]

GMorg, I highly recommend starting at page 170 of the additive forum and working your way back here. Lots of nuggets not usually found in a search. Lots of wisdom. And lots of humor, too, as people keep asking the same questions like "Is GTX a good arx clean phase oil?"

I'm up to 120! Lots of clues to our favorite additives. I got a new appreciation for Neutra. It's not heard about much since Bob stopped particpating as much, and since it got classified as hazmat for shipping, but seems pretty neat. I bought a case!

And the smell is great!