Acetone as a fuel addative

Factual Questions
1

Reciently I have been reading an article put out by a guy named Louis LaPointe who swears up one side and down the other that by adding a small amount of Acetone to your fuel (Gasoline/Diesel) that you can expect to see dramatic improvement to your gas milage, engine performance, engine life, less smog…etc. The article claims that the acetone causes the fuel to particulate better and therefore it burns more completely… It sounds like something extruded from the hind end of a cow to me. I’m not going to experiment on my car until I hear something posative from someone without the name Louis LaPointe. Plus it seems odd to me that very little is said about acetone and gasoline/diesel prior to 2005

here is the article
http://www.lubedev.com/smartgas/additive.htm

anyone? anything?

Thanks JR from NE Washington State

2

I looked into this a while back and concluded that:
1 - if you have ethanol in your gas (some have this as mandatory), it does nothing, or even hurts mpg.
2 - If it does work, the boost in mpg is offset by the cost of acetone.
3- you are risking spilling it on the paint, which could cause problems to the car’s finish.
4 - There are some claims that acetone could wear out some parts in the fuel system (plastic/rubber), by disolving them.
So to me it is only worth it:

1 To see if it works, as an experiment.
2 If you need to extend the range of your car, once you have confirmed that it does work.

3

I run way more diesel fuel than gasoline. My car is diesel, my truck is diesel, my backhoe,tractor, and dozer are diesel… more is said about the gas aspect of this I am wondering what’s up with the diesel side?

JR

4

IIRC, claims of about 1/2 to 2/3rd the MPG increase of gas %age, so not as good, but you use about 1/2 to 2/3rds the amount, so it’s a wash.

Again looked at this a while ago, and there is plenty info if you want to search.

5

I don’t know about the acetone theory, but the linked item contains some of the classic elements I see in dubious alternative health promotions - i.e. citing personal experience and testimonials as purported evidence, and suggesting that the reason the idea hasn’t caught on is because They don’t want you to Know.
Disclaimer: I have no connection to Them.
Really.

6

Wanna be nice to your engines…?

Change the oil a lot. Use proper weight for operating temperatures.

Change the fuel filters a lot.

Clean the air filters a lot.

Put ‘toluene’ in the gas.

Put Marvel Mystery oil in the gas and diesel fuel. Not too much.

YMMV