Better Gas Mileage?
Can You Improve Gas Mileage?
By Robert R Barney
As promised on www.racerap.com, I am doing some stories on improving gas mileage. There are scams out there and there are also some items that work somewhat. Maintaining your vehicle is very important but....
One thing I do know, and my family, workers and friends have been surprised about is that you can improve gas mileage by 25 by adding 10-15 of solvent 150 (also known as Solveso 150) in your tank. My CRV gets about 325 miles per tank (holds 14 gallons of gas). When I add 2 gallons of 150 and fill up with 87 octane gas, I average 400-425 miles per tank in city/country driving. Several times by trying to do better by driving slower, I have actually gotten 460 miles on a tank of gas. That's like a 30 improvement!
S-150 cost more than gas (we use it in paint reducers) and so even though you get many more miles, you only save maybe 5 bucks a tank. My cost in a drum is about 7.00 per gallon. Nevertheless, this shows me that the gas companies know there are additives that could drastically increase gas mileage.
It is probably going to be hard for most readers to buy S-150 (Solveso 150, or Aromatic 150). Most paint stores will not have even heard of the product. We also own Tamco, a paint company and we buy it in bulk to blend into paint products and reducers. It is a very slow evaporating solvent and raises octane considerably. A lesser "quality" product that one can use which is readily available is a 50/50 mixture of denatured alcohol and Xylene. You can find this in any Home Depot, Lowes or hardware store. Put 1 quart of each for every 10 gallons of regular gas and you will notice a slight improvement in mileage. If your car supposed to run on 93 octane fuel, add 2 quarts of each solvent to 10 gallons, and only buy regular gas! It'll save you a bunch.
