Would running a percentage of paint thinner (mineral spirits) work?

Obviously it shouldn't be a standard practice, but what would be the outcome
of adding say a gallon or two or pain thinner to a nearly full tank of
gasoline? Any chemists out there to make any guesses as to the problems of
using a 1:15 ratio of paint thinner to gasoline in an unleaded gasoline car?

Would ethanol be a better choice? its more expensive, I can buy paint
thinner for 1.99 a gallon at the hardware store.


Yeah, I KNOW its a dumb idea. But if a person HAD to use something, paint
thinner should work.

 

If you are attemting to destroy your vehicle then yes paint thinner will do
a fine job.
if you are trying to dilute your fuel to save fuel cost $1.99 a gallon
isn't saving you anything.
if you are attemting to clean you fuel sytem buy somthing that is made for
cleaning your fuel system.
I believe Mr. Stern will probably chime in and give his opinion on fuel
additives.

 

If a person has a nearly full tank of gasoline, then one doesn't HAVE to
add any crapola to the fuel tank.

 

What on earth is the objective of this question? If you're diluting
paint thinner 20:1, its probably not going to harm anything. In fact its
probably not going to DO anything AT ALL, other than increase deposits
on the spark plugs, increase emissions, and make the catcon work harder,
so why add it?

 

I guess the question is asked as the major ingredients of many of the "fuel
injector" cleaners is
MINERAL SPIRITS.


And MOST of the gas driers on the market are METHANOL, or ETHANOL.

 

Well...no. Petroleum distillates are the vehicle for the active cleaning
ingredients.

Well...no. Ethanol or isopropanol.

 

Adding paint thinner will allow you to pass an emissions test. The
dealership I worked at once (Burnaby Hyundai) now closed down, used to add
it to all the shit boxes they sold that could not pass emissions tests.
Always passed after. however the cars would come back a couple of months
later as the fuels injectors ended up dissolving and the fuel pumps would
destroy themselves. But hey there is no warranty on those!

 

Dilution aside, I can tell you this: In the mid 80's, I got the
brilliant idea that paint thinner would be the ideal general purpose
cleaner in my garage.

Here's what I did: I started wiping down my tools with it after I used
them - really got them claen and made them shine, and I opened the hood
of the car I owned at the time and wiped all the visible parts down to
make it really shine and look clean.

As a result, within 6 months, here's what happened: The handle of every
plastic-handled screwdriver I owned completely crumbled into little
pea-sized pieces of plastic when I attempted to apply any torque, and I
had to replace every piece of exposed rubber and plastic on top of the
engine - all vacuum hoses and every plastic part. The previously soft
and pliable hoses were hard, brittle, and very weak.

If that was the result of a one time, short-term, undiluted exposure, I
can't imagine a 20:1 contionuos exposure over months, much less years,
would come out much better for plastic parts in the system.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
adddress with the letter 'x')

 

That would completely go along with what I would expect - see my other
post in this thread (I saw your post after posting that)

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
adddress with the letter 'x')

 

I realize you probably won't even read this, because of all the other
(flippant) answers piling up. But the term "paint thinner" is much much too
broad to be answerable. It includes many solvents, ketones, for instance,
which will melt lots of plastics.

Mineral spirts makes a better question. "Would it hurt my car to run on
mineral spirits?" If we're talking about once, or mixed with gasoline 1:15,
then clearly not. Mineral spirit is a pretty boring solvent, a lot like
gasoline but somewhat heavier, and it doesn't have any magic solvent powers.
laquer thinner, on the other hand, would melt everything you've got, I'll
bet. I haven't tried it, and don't plan to.

 

What's the street price for toluene or xylene? Wholesale price seems
to have hovered around $1 per gallon last few years. Not sure where
you can buy this stuff (retail) in large quantities (say, 5 gallon
pails).

If cheap enough, they'd make a good bulk additive (gasoline contains a
good bit of those 2 items as it is).

Toluene is normally sold (in small bottles) as an octane booster I
think.

Nitromethane and nitro-propane might give you some interesting
performance increase (again as a bulking agent it depends on the price
per gallon). I think nitromethane is the main ingredient in 2-cycle
(maybe 4 cycle too) fuel for small hobby engines (model planes, boats,
etc). Nitromethane is I think the best solvent for superglue (better
then acetone).

Now if you really want to mess with your fuel system, I remember
reading that water injection had some good fuel economy effects. I
think this was explored quite a bit on airplane engines during WW2,
and even today many aviation engines are equipped for water injection.

Maybe this is urban legend, but I've heard of people that ran their
diesel cars on home heating oil (or maybe mixed it in with regular
diesel). This sort-of makes sense - home heating oil isin't usually
taxed like pump diesel for cars.

 

The "paint thinner" I was referring to IS mineral spirits

The local hardware store sells ethanol, methanol, toluol, xylol, methyl
ethyl ketone etc for about $8.99-$12.99/gallon
The paint thinner is Mineral Spirits and is generally on sale for $1.99 a
gallon


http://www.chemi-tek.com/prod_mostra.asp?pid=4447

Isn't there some product that used to be advertised to store in your trunk,
and use as an emergency when you run out of gas?
I wonder if IT was an octane 90 mineral spirit?

 

The chemical you buy in any hardware store labeled "Paint Thinner" is
also labeled as "Mineral Spirits".

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
adddress with the letter 'x')

 

And for all intents and purposes, "Mineral spirits" is about the same
thing as "Kerosene."

One thing that adding mineral spirits to gasoline WILL do and which I
didn't mention before is to LOWER the effective octane rating. Not raise
it. Heavier refined oils like kerosene, Jet-A, various mineral spirits
and diesel are all naturally very low-octane fuels. Yes, some octane
boosters do contain mineral spirits, but only as a carrier solvent for
the other additives that actually raise the octane. Mineral spirits
alone are an octane anti-booster.

 

" Maybe this is urban legend, but I've heard of people that ran their diesel
cars on home heating oil (or maybe mixed it in with regular diesel). This
sort-of makes sense - home heating oil isin't usually taxed like pump diesel
for cars."

No. 2 heating oil is exactly the same as diesel for vehicles; sort of.

It may or may not have the same Cetane rating.
It may or may not have too much sulphur.
It may or may not have too much water.
It may or may not have been properly filtered for solids.

But you are right, it does not have the road use tax applied, thus making
its use a federal and state tax law violation.

Richard.

 

One summer day, when I was a teenager. I had plans to go to Six Flags
Magic Mountain with my friends. Before I could go, I had to mow the
lawn. I was just two to three passes from having it done, when the
mower ran out of gas. I did not want to take the time to go to the
nearest service station, so I went in the garage and found some
charcoal lighter fluid and paint thinner. I poured both into the tank.
The mower started and ran so that I could finish the job.

My parents found out when the wanted to know what happened to the rest
of the lighter fluid. They were not pleased to say the least. The mower
ran a few more years before I moved out. I don't know what if any
damage was done, but would not recommend the practice.

-Kirk Matheson

 

Which is keen and all, but most lawnmower engines have very low
compression relative to automobile engines.