TOPIC: Acetone and Xylene in fuel mix?

i got an email today from a fellow saying to use an ounce if acetone and/or xylene per 6 gallons of premium, says gives better mileage and keeps yer motor clean. any you guys doin this with old mercs?

frank

I wouldn't - they're both solvents and can mess up hoses & fuel pump diaphrams, and rinse oil from bearing surfaces...

Xylene is commonly used as an octane enhancer,a drag racer trick. The ratio he adds is meaningless in my opinion either as a "cleaner" or as an attempt to raise octane. Acetone is similar in this regard.
If you start with a clean carb/pump and filter, what exactly is going to be cleaned out? Auto gas has detergents/solvents in it already, this generally is for combustion deposits, or fuel injector pintle health. Ethanol has these qualities as well, unfortuneatley it also attracts water. Ethanol has less BTU value than gas so mpg (or equivalent measure) will decrease with increasing ethanol percentage. Power will be decreased as well.
Gum and varnish are an artifact of gas evaporating and leaving behind the parts that don't evaporate off. When storing or not using the motor for a time run it out of gas rather than leave the gas in the carb bowls to evaporate. This eliminates build up of evaporated gas crud. Particles from rust in fuel tanks or dirty suppliers need to be taken care of with a filter, no solvent wizardry will take care of particle contamination. At lease most supplier underground tanks now are not metal they are plastic.
I have a screen filter on my gas can when I fill the baot tanks to be safe.
I'd skip it and doubt that small amount has made any measurable impact.
There may be some issue with degrading rubber like parts but modern materials (post ethanol in gas) will be pretty tolerant of these materials. New carb kits, hoses and floats should have improved materials now.
My humble opinion.
Randy

the only fuel improvements you will see is the cleaning they do to a dirty system, and then IF it were previously dirty youd believe in the idea, but this subject has been passed around the net a few times now & there have been several independent studies done on this & they show no appreciable gains.

I just googled it and found MythBusters did an episode on the subject ....Busted!

thank you!

Frank, I remember when Sunoco first started experimenting with xylene as an additive in the 70,s. I did radio communications work at one of their refineries and they gave me some xylene additive as part of their test programs. Since I drove a lot I was supposed to measure my gas mileage without the additive for a month and then again with the additive for a month and report the difference. I still remember furtively adding these black plastic,non labeled bottles of xylene to my tank when I filled up. It made no difference

Do not add more than 1 oz. per 20 gals of regular fuel. do not mix with corn fuels. Do not use if if you have a 2 stroke. Bad for rubber hoses, fuel pumps. Really bad for the ones on out board motors. Acetone will increase your milage in a auto only if you are very careful as to how you use it. It has to be pure acetone, not the type they use to clean nail polish with. It eats rubber up really fast and will plug up a carb passage faster than you can spit.I worked on a acetone project with a large company afew yrs back and after much money and motors wasted it was deemed not to be something he average public should deal with. If you really want to go faster get a bigger motor or a better prop.If you want better milage just find your sweet spot on your throttle, sit back relax and enjoy. It will be cheaper in the end. Skip.

The only things that go in my gas are synthetic 2-stroke and Seafoam. No issues for the 6-7 years I've been doing this. If you really think you need more octane, add a gallon of racing gas to every 10 of the cheap stuff. Makes about 94-96 octane, depending on how "cheap" the cheap stuff is.

okay, okay! i use premium gas, synthetic oil and marine stabil every tank. i just thought i would throw this out there. i give up!

frank