Why do experienced car owners recommend pouring acetone into the car's fuel tank

A simple man in the street knows little about acetone - they can dilute paint, wash off hard-to-remove pollution, and women, for lack of a better one, remove their nail polish with it. However, if seasoned motorists are asked about the function of acetone in an internal combustion engine, it turns out that the odorous liquid helps to reduce fuel consumption and, as they say, improve its quality, as well as increase engine power. But at what cost, the AvtoVzglyad portal found out.

Problems with fuel quality and a decrease in its consumption have always worried motorists. In some regions of the country, to this day, visiting gas stations is akin to a lottery. If you're lucky, the engine will start without problems even with a strong minus. No luck - expect trouble with the fuel system. So people invent their own methods to improve the characteristics of gasoline by adding various liquids to it. And one of these folk additives is acetone.

Acetone is credited with truly miraculous properties. For example, if 350 ml of this liquid is allegedly poured into the tank (why is such accuracy?), then AI-92 fuel can be turned into AI-95 by increasing its octane number. We will not go into chemistry and other exact sciences, but as a thesis, we will say that this is indeed the case. However, as always, there are reservations and a bunch of different “buts”.

For example, such a small amount of acetone in a 60 liter tank will have an equally insignificant effect. And even if the dose of the solvent in AI-92 gasoline is increased to 0,5 liters, the octane number of the fuel will increase by only 0,3 points. And therefore, to really turn AI-92 into AI-95, more than five liters of acetone per tank will be required.

However, you need to understand that with the cost of a 10-liter canister of acetone GOST 2768−84 about 1900 rubles and the price of AI-92 about 42,59 rubles, the final price of a liter of fuel in the tank will be more than seven rubles higher than the price of AI-98 fuel at gas stations . Don't you think it's easier to immediately fill your car with 98? However, if you do not tell your garage neighbor about this, you can safely enjoy the laurels of a real guru as part of your garage cooperative. Ultimately, the scheme is working, in contrast to the statement that acetone helps to increase power and reduce fuel consumption.

Alas and ah, the consumption of fuel mixed with acetone is guaranteed to grow. The thing is that the calorific properties of acetone are significantly lower than those of gasoline. And when burned, acetone releases about one and a half times less energy. So what kind of power increase can we talk about?

As a result, we can safely say that acetone in the tank in small quantities will not improve or particularly worsen engine performance, nor will it significantly affect the octane number of gasoline. And pouring it at each gas station is significantly more expensive than initially filling a car with gasoline with a high octane rating. Cleaning the engine with acetone is also a dubious undertaking. It is much easier to buy the additives necessary for this, or to run a dozen other kilometers on an empty section of the route with the gas pedal pressed to the floor.