Acetone in gas tank

[Wavebourn]

Originally Posted by kevinkr

I've had this very messy event happen to plates with food on them, and its even messier than this aftermath.. Beware of plates marked "microwave safe" sometimes they aren't..

Cool clock btw...

Thanks!

And when a photo resistor sees the light, it announces each hour: "Cuc-koo". However, the voice was recorded mine.

http://wavebourn.net/images/2005/coucou.wma

[boywonder]

Originally Posted by Wavebourn

Is timing adjustment continuous variable, or 2-positional (knock detected/no knock detected)?

If all gasolines are the same, why I am getting different mileage on products from different gas stations? And why when I bought a gas on Shell in both times there was detonation?

As I said, when I tried 91 instead of 87 there were no improvements. But why when I buy gas on 76 and Valero the car runs better and is more economical than on gas from other stations?
However, the worse gas I once bought in Costco...

My conclusion is, octane number does not matter. The seller does.

Is your civic relatively new with low miles or is it a beater with zillions of miles on it?

Usually when a car knocks/pings/detonates on the octane it was designed for, the engine needs some tuning work, although with modern stuff, there is not much to tune anymore. As far as timing goes, most modern cars don't even have distributors anymore, so there is very little hardware to cause timing problems....and no carburators to cause lean fuel problems, it's all done closed loop between the O2 sensor, mass air flow sensor and knock sensor.

Of the fuels that you have tried between brands, are they all 87 octane? If you run mid-grade 89 octane does that work fine?

The other thing that has not been mentioned much is who buys gas from whom, as it is a somewhat regional distribution model, and the gas you get at station X may very well be the same gas as station Y down the street. An earlier poster in this thread who works for a petroleum company can probably shed some light on this.

[DigitalJunkie]

I've heard rumors that some 'low-end' stations would carry a load of crude oil in a tanker truck,and then put a load of gas in there,to 'clean out' the tanker..thus polluting the gas with oil and other nasties..For a while I've wondered if it was true or not,any idea?

[star882]

Originally Posted by Wavebourn

By the way, especially for this thread I started an experiment: poured 91 gasoline instead of 87 one in my Honda Civic Hybrid.
No difference, still the same 36-37 mpg on the meter.

Check with Jennie Chen's team. They got nearly twice the mileage in a Civic Hybrid.
http://romanreign.com/world_record_attempt.htm

[tubelab.com]

If all gasolines are the same, why I am getting different mileage on products from different gas stations? And why when I bought a gas on Shell in both times there was detonation?

As I stated before many companies add ethanol to their gasoline It is legal to add up to 10% ethanol to gasoline in the US without labelling requirements. Ethanol has less BTU per gallon then gasoline, but has a higher octane rating (about 108). It is a cheap way to raise the octane number of their product but it reduces the fuel economy. Gasoline burns completely (least emissions) when burned at a 14.7 to 1 ratio (air to fuel by weight). Maximum power is produced at about 12 to 1. Ethanol works best in the 8 to 1 region. Any ethanol blended gasoline will cause the ECU in the car to increase the fuel to air ratio thereby reducing fuel economy. The oxygen sensor forces stoic (optimum burn ratio) on any fuel when operating in the closed loop mode, so ethanol blended fuel will run richer than pure gasoline. The car companies were required to post the MPG ratings for E85 on flex-fuel capable cars. They aren't easy to find any more, because they are terrible, 12 MPG for a 6 cylinder Chrysler mini-van.

As someone stated, raw gasoline comes from one of a few refineries. Each brand adds their own proprietary additive blend to improve octane, combustion characteristics and RVP (reid vapor presure). The additives change with the geographical location, climate and season. Fuel blends change with temperature and altitude (barometric pressure) since the fuel must be volatile enough so that it will atomize efficiently, but not so volatile that it boils in the gas tank. Gas that works in the Arizona summer will not start a car in a Minnesota winter.

It is possible that the additive package used by Shell does not work so well in your particular engine. About 8 years ago there were a rash of fuel senders destroyed by Shell gas in the south Florida area. It seemed that their new additive package ate the resistance element in the gas gauge sender. A class action lawsuit occurred.

Back when I used to race the turbo Dodge I got the best results on Shell gas (with some toluene added) in the summer. Their winter blend was far to volatile for my car here where 85 degree days are common in January. It would flash boil in the fuel rail (mounted over the top of the turbo) after the car was shut off making it impossible to restart. I switched to Exxon in the winter.

Is timing adjustment continuous variable, or 2-positional (knock detected/no knock detected)?

It depends on the year of the car. Knock sensors first appeared in the late 70's (Buick turbo V-6). They were a two state device (on - off). On a modern high performance engine the sensor can even determine which cylinder is knocking and retard the timing on each cylinder individually. On a new GM V-8 the timing is reduced in two degree increments until knock is eliminated. At some point the fuel mixture gets richened up.

My conclusion is, octane number does not matter. The seller does.

It depends on your particular engine. I guarantee that octane rating will matter in a Corvette, Viper, or anything with a turbo. In fact look up the horsepower ratings for many new turbocharged cars. The horsepower specs are quoted with premium fuel. The Ford Taurus SHO quotes 365 HP from a 6 cylinder engine with 91 octane fuel. The ECU will reduce the boost pressure and ignition timing on regular fuel reducing the power output. That is not reported on Fords web site but the auto magazines report a 20 to 50 HP decrease on regular fuel.

[Evaas]

i love this forum. I guess we all think alike.

anyone try marshmallows? they grow very large then burn from the inside out.

Originally Posted by tubelab.com

The microwave found its way to my warehouse after the science fair where it was forgotten about. During a clean up I found it and decided it couldn't be thrown out without being "tested" first.

when can we expect to see plasma videos? co2 should be easy enough

[Wavebourn]

Originally Posted by star882

Check with Jennie Chen's team. They got nearly twice the mileage in a Civic Hybrid.
http://romanreign.com/world_record_attempt.htm

Thanks, but I could not find on their site how they did that. I don't mean, how did they seal gas tanks by signatures of gas station personnel; I mean how did they get that record gas mileage!

[tubelab.com]

when can we expect to see plasma videos? co2 should be easy enough

I did not have a video camera when I did these "experiments" (2003). I have killed all of my junk microwave ovens and the modern stuff with plastic doors and bottom trays won't live long. Sooner or later I will find another oldie made of real stainless and glass like this one.

No CO2 needed. Just nuke an SOS pad. Regular steel wool makes some good sparks and fireworks, but the blue soap in an SOS pad burns creating a black soot that will ionize. Of course the oven will be trashed, and an awful stink will be created, so use a junk oven and do this outside with a fire extinguisher nearby. I set the oven on a metal cart far away from anything flamable, and added additional ground wires (automotive jumper cables) from the cart and oven to the ground rod on my antenna. I also used the panic switch from my work room in case anything got out of hand. Microwave ovens run on extremely lethal voltages (about 2000 volts) and I was definately operating it outside of normal conditions. It was an exrtemely humid summer night with zero breeze so the experiments stunk up the whole back yard. The previous night I nuked a 2400 baud modem, that stunk up the whole neighborhood.

I didn't take any pictures on the first two nights since I wasn't too sure about setting the camera up too close to a possible nuclear meltdown. After two nights of attempted murder of a microwave, I was pretty sure that nothing was going to explode, and there were no more eggs in the fridge!

Things that made for cool microwave experiments: All of those AOL CD ROMS that came in the mail (major stink), lit matches, paper with heavy pencil marks, light bulbs (incandescent and CFL, more stink), aquarium filter charcoal (used), vacuum tubes, IC chips (stink), Neon bulbs (NE-2), cell phones, pagers..... no don't nuke any living creatures

First photo: Two vacuum tubes, purple is a 2D21, and orange is an 0A2

Second photo: One vacuum tube (already dead 6146) nuked until the glass melted and it caught on fire (about 5 minutes). The flames will create an ion trail that will ionize into a plasma. Note the small arc from one of the tube pins to the glass plate on the oven floor. This cracked the glass and started burning a hole through the stainless bottom of the oven cavity.

Third photo: After about 2 more minutes the plasma grew to fill the entire oven cavity and the whole oven was making a very wicked buzzing sound. It was about 10 PM and this thing was lighting up the whole backyard. I decided that it was time to quit before someone called the cops. What would you do if you saw this nuclear reactor glowing and making a racket in your neighbors backyard? Not totally unexpected at my house though.

I won't even discuss my defibrillator experiments except to say that you should never connect a defib across a bannana, turn it up to 400 Joules and hit the button unless you have several hours to clean up the mess.

[star882]

Originally Posted by Wavebourn

Thanks, but I could not find on their site how they did that. I don't mean, how did they seal gas tanks by signatures of gas station personnel; I mean how did they get that record gas mileage!

http://romanreign.com/hypermiling.htm
Scroll down for a list of tips.
Check out http://www.cleanmpg.com for more advanced tips.

[Wavebourn]

Originally Posted by star882

http://romanreign.com/hypermiling.htm
Scroll down for a list of tips.
Check out http://www.cleanmpg.com for more advanced tips.

It is about driving style; it is obvious. For me it is not a problem: my Sentra SE did 32 mpG average, when EPA was 24-27. It had 2 liter engine, and no "Hybrid" motors/batteries. My Civic Hybrid does 36-37 average, with the same driver / the same style. I don't see any money economy on a hybrid that is more expensive to buy and maintain.