MPG and modifications poll

[Crazcnuk]

"so mikuni makes a pump that works with trottle "

I believe Mikuni also makes carbs with accelerator pumps.

THere is a singel carb conversion you can get for Viragos that uses one of these carbs. The biggest bonus to the conversion is the accelerator pump.

[corey]

Acetone?!

Chop:

I think they tried the acetone trick on MythBusters. They said no go.

On another forum (for my TurboCoupe Tbird) we decided that it was farse too. Might be different for carbs vehicles.

Let us know! I HOPE IT WORKS!

[xschop]

Myth busters

I never saw that one. I am very surprised how well the bike is idling now, so I tried 45ml in 10 gal 100% Shell petrol in my 86 s10. It has the 2.8l Throttle body......same deal, I drove it to work @ 9 miles and can't believe that the engine is running as smooth as it does. Most v6's have a "rock" to them at idle, it's gone now. I have been reading up on diff. mix ratios and more is not better, Some have reported that >2oz/10 gal. will actually decrease MPG's. You chemists will understand the principle of stoichiometry and there's no exception, applies here too. I hope Hobbyman will chime in here, I know he was working on diff. mixes and didn't blow himself up.....

[dbeardslee]

OK Chop, you got me interested in the acetone additive so I tried it. I've got to agree, it makes a difference in how she runs. Gas mileage was up slightly (a little more than 1 mpg) and she definately likes it. Thanks for the tip.

I was somewhat concerned that acetone, being a pretty aggresive solvent, might do bad things to the internals. It's such a small amount though, I doubt it will cause trouble. The bigger issue is to be carefull putting it in the tank. Acetone goes by another name - fingernail polish remover. I doubt that it's good for paint

My brother works for Cincinnati Container Co., and he was able to get me a couple 1 oz plastic bottles that I can carry in my pocket. I've just been filling them up with acetone and dumping them in on every other fill up. For me that's about 3.5 gallons of gas.

On a somewhat related issue, I saw a segment on the local news not too long ago that basically said ohio pumps screw the consumer by metering less than a gallon when the pump shows a gallon. Makes me wonder if I'm actually getting better mileage than I thought.

[xschop]

screwed at the pump

My fiance works at the Ok. State Corp. Commission that regulates the gas bastards (storage tank division) she tells me that Shell stations have very few to no violations when the metering standards are done. I just stopped by there and filled up. IT is 100% petrol too. I am going to do 30ml (1 fl. oz) to the XJ tank of 99.98 Acetone. I just about finished my last 5 gallon tank today that I put in 0.75 fl. oz in and I saw an increase of 3mpg's overall.....just don't forget that the ethanol in the equation lowers your mpg's if you are using a blended gas.....gotta go do some more calc's it's nice out and want to go to a car show across town....will post results tomorrow or Monday. I should be able put some miles on this weekend....peace

[dbeardslee]

Chop - Thanks for the heads-up. I've got a Shell station down the street. Timing was perfect as I'm do for my every-other-day stop. I'll give Shell a try.

[xschop]

INTERESTING

Just took at long trip,still have plenty to go before I drain this tank, however after adding 30ml to the full tank this morning, not only is she running smooth as butter, but the idle speed has increased and I had to turn the idle knob down to lower the idle. The throttle response is much more pronounced in all gears than the last batch....

[Axel]

Wondering

Just wondering . Did you guys ever use Seafoam or any other additive ? How many miles since your last carb re-build/cleaning .
Would you say that some gum has been removed from your carbs by the acetone ? Do you ride year round ?

[dbeardslee]

Axel - Just prior to trying the acetone I ran a full can of seafoam through the system. I keep my carbs VERY clean, but due to some gas tank switches I ran the seafoam to get rid of water, etc. Usually I only put half a can to a tank, but I was going some place and didn't want to carry petroleum distilates around in my jacket pocket. I monitor my mileage at every fill-up, and I'm almost always right at 32 mpg. The first acetone tank gave me 33.6 mpg. I was also having a minor low-end bog issue that went away with the acetone.

I can also confirm what Chop said about Shell gas (not that I doubt Chop - I don't). I just got back from gassing up at Shell, and I looked EVERYWHERE for that naferious little sticker that says '10% Ethanol by Volume' and couldn't find it. I think it's still a good idea to run gasahol through sometimes as alchohol will mix with water and gas thus drying your tank. I'm going to see what happens to my mileage, but all things being equal, I'd rather have a tank full of gasoline as opposed to a tank that's only 90%.

[Axel]

Kool

Thanks for the reply . Shell has ethanol-free premium (92)gas here called V-Power . So its not a case of the acetone cleaning your system - it just runs better ? I gotta try this .

[dbeardslee]

Axel - Yup. Sure seems to run better to me. Could be psychosomatic, but I don't think so. The first tank I put it in was from BP with 10% ethanol - 87 octane. Better idle, more zip says I. YMMV

[tarzan]

I am intrigued by the acetone trick ,but I wonder what running it regularly will do to o-rings and gaskets.As dbeardsley stated it removes paint.

[xschop]

what's in a name

Acetone is Berryman chemtool's main ingredient.

[dbeardslee]

Tarzan - I was concerned about plastic and rubber parts also, until my brother pointed out that fingernail polish remover comes in plastic containers. Plus, if your mixing it as per Chop's recipe it's 1 part acetone to 640 parts gasoline - so it's pretty diluted. It's just supposed to make the gas atomize more easily. In the mean time, I know a guy with a yzf600r that needs to be spanked more soundly than he usually is

[xschop]

supposed to make the gas atomize more easily

.....that's 1 benefit...... started digging into the chemistry behind this solvent. I see why 2 oz. per 10 gal. is the best mixture.....at this conc. the acetone is saturated in the other hydrocarbon mix (petrol).....also looking at acetone (ketone), you have a very potent fuel that comes with it's own little oxygen atom.....so basically it's own liquid supercharger