Behold, the most expensive gas in Metro Detroit today:
Behold, my 1988 Chevy Caprice.
With this not being the most fuel-efficient car on the planet and gas getting more and more disgusting, I started looking into ways to increase gas mileage. I did all the standard stuff:
- Lighten your load.
- Inflate your tires.
- Clean up the air filter (this sucker is carbureted after all).
- Drive properly.
- Avoid rush hour, etc.
I tried all of this with a few more things and saw no results. Here’s a few facts about my 1988 Caprice:
Style: 4-Door full-size sedan
Seating: 6 (max)
Drive: Rear wheel
Engine Size: 5.0L V8
Engine Type: 305 small block with feedback fuel system
Tank Size: 20g
Carbon Footprint: 10.8 tons of C02 / year
Petrol Consumption: 20.1 barrels / year
It’s not a small car by any stretch, but on gas it’s not too bad. On average, I can pull 350 miles out of a single tank. That’s 17.5mpg, which still sucks but considering my last 2 cars got 12.5 mpg, only 250 miles out a of a single tank.
Behold those gas-guzzling beasts of burden:
And in the same breath, shitty gas mileage was never so ugly, or pretty (save for the 700 series BMWs of the same era).
So with gasoline getting disgustingly expensive, I decided to test out something that seemed shaky at best and engine devastating at worst: Acetone.
Acetone, for those who don’t know, is the active ingredient in nail polish. It is also said to be an octane booster for gasoline and, in something that’s probably been on Myth Busters that I failed to watch may increase gas mileage.
The idea works like this: pour the right amount of acetone into your tank after fill up. It works its magic, gives the car a little octane boost, should clean out parts of the fuel system, and in theory, increase your mpg.
But there’s 1 catch: the use of good gasoline. What is “good” and “bad” gas? The difference in what kind of Oil, how it’s refined, and who sells it. A lot of the best oil comes from Nigeria and who drills in Nigeria? 3 big players, Dutch Royal Shell, ExxonMobil, and Chevron.
Lets go down the list here. There are some Mobil stations in Michigan, and even fewer ExxonMobil stations. Their gas isn’t considered any better than anyone else’s by performance standards. Chevron many gearheads will swear by. GM does all their testing with it. Except, there are 0 Chevron stations in Michigan. So that’s out of the question. Then there’s Shell. The countryside of Detroit is littered with Shell stations, except they’re usually 10-15 cents more than every other gas station. Which means that the cost of the extra gas would cancel out any gains I made in MPG unless they were substantial gains. Since if I got any gain, with my car I would expect at most 10-15% increase, it would not be worth it. Any money I’d save on MPGs would instead to to Shell instead of my pocket.
So I had to make do and used random gas stations from around the area. I picked up a jug of acetone from Meijer along with a funnel and a measuring cup (2-3 oz / 10 g recommended dose) and I was off on my way.
I first recorded my data with how well I did during my fill-up:
343 Miles / 19.089g = 18mpg using crappy Speedway gasoline.
However, I was unable to find even a decent gas station to gas up with my acetone, so I had to use Valero, which is equally as crappy. These were my results:
355.3 miles @ 20.4 gallons = 17.41mpg. That was a mix of 5oz of Acetone in my 20g tank.
Next I tried BPAmoco. Then Mobil. Then Sunoco, costco, etc. I’m not going to post the results because I stopped recording them. It was all the same stuff. 20g ~= 350m depending on how much of it was freeway and how much was highway. With or without the acetone, my car fits the bill doing just as well a the EPA estimates on it are: 15mpg city, and 22mpg highway, for an estimated overall figure of 17mpg (according to FuelEconomy.gov), although I can usually to 1-2mph better than that.
Let me say this again: Acetone didn’t do a damn thing for your gas mileage. Of course YMMV on this one, and maybe it’s that my car has been running at peak performance because it’s been well maintained (mostly in thanks to the previous owners). However, it may be different for you. The web is littered with people who swear by Acetone for their fill-ups. I don’t share that sentiment, and am not willing to offset the cost with criminally expensive gasoline.
If you are under a different circumstance and want to try it for yourself, you have nothing to lose. My total materials cost was about $9 for everything, so you don’t have a lot to lose. Just don’t go expecting a great leap in mpg, any increase is good, and be smart about it, and do your research first.
Just be a realist about it.
