Fuel additives: Lucas upper cylinder lube

[Patrick]

As a rule, I figure the guys building the fuel we buy know what they're doing, and have never used additives unless I knew I had a problem. Drove a big truck for a lot of years, only had a gel problem once, ice due to condensation a couple of times. That said, I thought I'd try some of the additive mentioned above, just for the heck of it. Not supposed to have any alcohol type substances, so shouldn't do any damage, right?

Been running about 45l of fuel in 800 km.

First tank with additive, 780km on 40l.

Have to run a few more tanks to check, but it looks good so far!

Car is a 4door mark2 Jetta with a 1.9idi and a 5 speed with the big overdrive. haven't checked, but suspect it's showing a little shy on km due to tire size (195/60R15). If that's the case, mileage is actually better than it shows here.

Anybody else have similar results?

[zyewdall]

I can't speak for this particular additive, but if it does increase lubricity of the fuel, I can see that it might help, especially with the new low sulfer fuel.  A B20 blend usually gets slightly better mileage than regular diesel, despite having lower btu/gallon content.  Although whether this is due to high lubricity, or higher cetane rating, is a question.

[jtanguay]

cetane boosters are always good.  More power means higher MPG and lubricating your (expensive to repair) pump is a BONUS

[rubberducky]

any one hear of adding acetone to fuel?  came across this the other day.  what do you think:

http://www.lubedev.com/smartgas/faq.htm

says does no harm to engine components; i have my doubts...  but sure sounds attractive though.

Cheers.

[Mark(The Miser)UK]

I can't speak for this particular additive, but if it does increase lubricity of the fuel, I can see that it might help, especially with the new low sulfer fuel.  A B20 blend usually gets slightly better mileage than regular diesel, despite having lower btu/gallon content.  Although whether this is due to high lubricity, or higher cetane rating, is a question.

Just run 5% Cannola for that extra lubricity...

[Mark(The Miser)UK]

any one hear of adding acetone to fuel?  came across this the other day.  what do you think:

http://www.lubedev.com/smartgas/faq.htm

says does no harm to engine components; i have my doubts...  but sure sounds attractive though.

Cheers.

This is part of that link:
What kind of mileage increase will acetone give my car?     Normally from 15% to 35% depending on your driving habits and how many of our mileage suggestions you have taken. We know an aeronautical engineer in San Jose whose test car went from a baseline of 19.3 MPG to 27. He certified this with his ScanGauge. That is a genuine boost of 27%.

Miser says:
Acetone is a powerful solvent that disolves tar and petroleum based products. It's noxious too. Unless I'm a monkey this is as far from a lubricant as you can get. His gasser fuel economy improvement was probably because the acetone removed the oil from a gummed up sparkplug so it now runs on 4 cylinders rather than 3! This would not be going in my fuel tank... period... ( even though I have 4 TD pumps to play with!!!
Cheers

[QuickTD]

any one hear of adding acetone to fuel?

The theory is that acetone acts as a surfactant and reduces the surface tension of the fuel, resulting in better atomizationand therefore a more complete burn. 15 to 35% improvement seems a tad optimistic, maybe in an ancient engine with 3 of the 4 injectors squirting rather than spraying the acetone might dissolve the gunk and open them up, yielding good results. Very few vehicles in a respectable state of tune will lose 15-35% of thier fuel out the tailpipe.

[rubberducky]

thanks for clearing that up for me.  sounded rather sketchy...

Cheers.

[Mark(The Miser)UK]

This is part of that link:
What kind of mileage increase will acetone give my car?     Normally from 15% to 35% depending on your driving habits and how many of our mileage suggestions you have taken. We know an aeronautical engineer in San Jose whose test car went from a baseline of 19.3 MPG to 27. He certified this with his ScanGauge. That is a genuine boost of 27%.

Miser says:
Acetone is a powerful solvent that disolves tar and petroleum based products. It's noxious too. Unless I'm a monkey this is as far from a lubricant as you can get. His gasser fuel economy improvement was probably because the acetone removed the oil from a gummed up sparkplug so it now runs on 4 cylinders rather than 3! This would not be going in my fuel tank... period... ( even though I have 4 TD pumps to play with!!!
Cheers

Also I never trust somone who is trying to sell me something when his maths doesn't add up...
(27-19.3)/ 19.3 is a 39.8% improvement :roll:
I wouldnt want to be driving to work behind this Aeronautical Engineer :shock:
Wots a Scan Gauge? Sounds like it needs recallibrating
Sorry rant off  :twisted:

[jtanguay]

well isn't the alcohol they put into gasoline worse than acetone?

[Mark(The Miser)UK]

well isn't the alcohol they put into gasoline worse than acetone?

Hi
Who you talking about?
If the oil barons are doing that over here then it's news to me :shock:
Different issues with a gasser; I'm only thinking of the Bosche pump and injector parts that rely on lube.
Mind you over in the Americas you seem to have a great issue with bad fuel,If I unscrew the filtre drain once every 2 years I probably will not find a single trace of water!

[jtanguay]

The oil companies don't put ethanol in diesel, just gas.   Ethanol is supposedly as bad as acetone as an additive.  Just gives more reason to drive a diesel

[rubberducky]

here's the URL for the ScanGauge that was mentioned earlier:

http://scanguage.com/

seems nifty, and not all that expensive...  although i can't use it in my Jetta.  could be useful in my gasser V8.