** INTRODUCTION **After reading the previous thread about adding acetone to gasoline to improve fuel economy, I decided to try it out myself. I wanted to see if the real thing lived up to the hype. So I ran a little fuel economy test, comparing "acetone-enhanced" gasoline to normal gasoline.
** TESTING METHODOLOGY **
The plan was to run 3 tanks of acetone-enhanced and 3 tanks of normal gasoline, keep track of fuel consumption and miles travelled, and tabulate the results. I alternated between the two (i.e. one tank of acetone-enhanced, then one tank of normal, etc). I started off by adding 1.5 oz acetone to the fuel tank, filling it up (until the gas pump auto-stopped), and reset the trip odometer. When the tank was almost empty, I filled it up again (recording the amount of fuel needed to refill it), noted the miles travelled, and reset the trip odometer. I repeated this sequence until the test was finished.
The test was performed in real-world conditions. Since I didn't use lab equipment in clinical conditions, there is some built-in error (see notes below). However, the figures should be pretty accurate relative to each other. In other words, the test should be able to reveal a trend. And that's what I'm looking for.
** THE RESULTS **
TANK #1 (Acetone Enhanced)
- FUEL: 9.3 gal
- MILES: 280
- FUEL ECONOMY: 30.1 MPG
TANK #2 (Normal Gasoline)
- FUEL: 9.2 gal
- MILES: 260
- FUEL ECONOMY: 28.2 MPG
TANK #3 (Acetone Enhanced)
- FUEL: 9.6 gal
- MILES: 274
- FUEL ECONOMY: 28.5 MPG
TANK #4 (Normal Gasoline)
- FUEL: 9.6 gal
- MILES: 270
- FUEL ECONOMY: 28.1 MPG
TANK #5 (Acetone Enhanced)
- FUEL: 8.9 gal
- MILES: 265
- FUEL ECONOMY: 29.8 MPG
TANK#6 (Normal Gasoline)
- FUEL: 9.6 gal
- MILES: 279
- FUEL ECONOMY: 29.0 MPG
AVERAGE FUEL ECONOMY (Acetone Enhanced): 29.5 MPG
AVERAGE FUEL ECONOMY (Normal Gasoline): 28.5 MPG
** CONCLUSIONS **
Well, it would seem that the Acetone enhanced gasoline yielded an ever-so-slight improvement in fuel economy. According to my calculator, the fuel economy with acetone was about 3.5% better than normal 87 octane gasoline. To be honest, I was surprised, even at this small improvement. I wasn't expecting acetone to make any difference.
** NOTES **
1) Notice that I relied on the gas pump to tell me when the tank was full. Since the gas pump is not going to stop at the same fill level every time, there will be a small amount of error built into the fuel consumption data.
2) Although I tried to drive the same routes during the same times of day for each test, it wasn't possible to keep it exactly the same for the entire span of the test. So regardless of what fuel I used, the fuel economy is going to change slightly from one test to the next, simply because of the changing amount of stop-and-go driving and highway cruising.
3) The test took roughly 2 months to complete. During that time, the climate changed. During tanks 1 and 2, the weather was mild and relatively dry. During tanks 3 and 4, the weather was hot and humid. During tanks 5 and 6, the weather was warm and rainy. You can see how the weather affected fuel economy.
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I ran out of acetone during my initial testing and had not gotten around to picking up some more.
