ascetone...not sure on the spelling...but it works...just run it dry each time or you'll clog things zach
i don't know about being an old wives tale or not, but it seems kinda dumb to me. Wouldn't it wind up blocking something?
I heard they're pretty small and they hide them under their wings...!! And Maybe you should introduce yourself before you sniff their balls...!?!?!!!!
Moth balls contain camphor a volatile oil and undoubtedly produces caloric energy. Do not use acetone in fuel systems. Too volatile and will dissolve rubber gaskets. Ever seen the stuff burn? Toluene is a good fuel additive.
People used to think thay increased your octane, because they contain Napathaline,which is sorta related to Napatha,which is a solvent,that will increase your octane. One other ingredient in moth balls is dichloral benzine(sp?) which is a chlorinated derivitive of Benzine, which will increase your octane. Back in "the day" straight Benzine was used as a racing fuel,and has an octane high octane rating Sparky
-------------------------------------------------------------------------- BACK IN THE LATE 50'S AND THE 60'S, THERE WERE NOT ALOT OF OCTANE BOOSTERS AROUND AND THE HOT NEWS WAS TO RUN MOTH BALLS BECAUSE THEY HAD SOME KIND OF ETHER IN THEM. WELL WE RAN THEM IN OUR OLD STOCK CAR GAS TANK, UNTILL ONE DAY WE HAD TO PULL THE TANK AND WERE SURPRIZED TO SEE A LOT OF THE MOTH BALLS STILL IN IT. THE ETHER WOULD PROLLY GET OUT OF EM AND MIX WITH THE GAS, BUT THE MOTH BALLS THEMSELVES DIDN'T MELT DOWN VERY GOOD IN THE GAS.
Never watched "myth busters"? They did this, and a lot of other myths, and found no advantage to adding them to gas.
Xylene & Toluene will raise your Octane, but it takes quite a bit of it to actually make a noticeable difference. The Tank in my Truck is 16gal, and according to the formula I found on the Internet, 1 1/2 gal. of Xylene will raise it from 97 oct. to aproximately 100 oct. The recipe called for a capful of tranny fluid per gallon of Xylene. I don't know if thats exactly right, but it does raise it enough to get rid of the spark knock. Denatured Alcohol is supposed to be about 114 oct., but it would take at least a couple Gallons. Unless you are buying your stuff in 55 gal drums, I think you would money ahead to just buy high octane fuel.
Mythbusters can be bullshit at times.... (I am a gun-nut so I'll sight 2 examples based on that....) Like them shooting the gastank.... You shoot that with Incendiary or Tracer bullets and it will blow.... Lead and copper don't spark... To blow up a gas tank you need the ammo I listed above.... And the "ice Bullets"... No one would fire an "assassin bullet" from a super-sonic rifle... The round would be sub-sonic and most likely in a pistol calibre so the force didn't deteriorate the round or have a sonic boom.... They shot it with a 3,000 fps rifle..... douches... I'm O/T.... Yeah, shit in your tank.... Methane will increase octane......... That's what we were talking about, right...???
Never heard of mothballs for octane - have heard of them to absorb water - prolly another old wives tale. Acetone WILL ruin your carb - it eats rubber & plastic. Tolulene will increase octane - here's an old (cheap) racer fuel: 55 gallon drum: 25 gallons of Amoco 93 25 gallons of 110LL avgas 5 gallons of Tolulene
When I was in high school 40 years ago, the wives tale was to add moth balls to the tank of the guy you hated. It was supposed to burn his valves. He'd do a valve job and they would immediatly burn again because the moth balls were still in the tank. It's funny how stories get passed around as gospel and can get turned completely around. This is the first time I ever heard anyone say it was a racing trick. It may be but I won't be doing it.
Don't you mean 100LL? I saw on the Discovery Channel, that black widow spiders don't like moth balls. That '50 Ford that I bought came out of a field and was full of them. I tossed about a half dozen mothballs in the car and a week later... no spiders. Cool hu.
Yep 100LL or 100/130 - whatever we could get...the Green 100/130 is getting hard to find these days though...
That 100/130 is some high leaded shit! Hell ,even the 100LL has more lead in it than regular leaded fuel did. You ain't gonna detonate running that stuff. Prices are through the roof though.
The recipe is actually the ingredients in a common cnned 'octane booster'. It has mineral spirits too. The can says it has "octane booster, cleaner, AND lubricant" Why both? http://www.vtr.org/maintain/gasoline-octane.shtml Xylene and Tolly work. Ever look at what is in pump or race gas? The race gas has large percentages of tolly. Make your own IF YOU NEED IT ONLY. http://www.cs.uu.nl/wais/html/na-dir/autos/gasoline-faq/part1.html Moth balls no longer contain Napathaline. Toluene is also used to make meth, have fun loading up 20 gallons in your shop truck at the hardware store. Make sure you buy tubing and fittings at the same time
We used mothballs in our old stock cars and were damn lucky to get a 1/2 of a season before we had to replace all the rubber parts. mothballs don't like rubber
SHIT!!! I gotta start reading these posts better! I thought it said,"MEAT BALLS" in your gas tank! What fuckin' idiot is gonna put meat balls in a gas tank? If ya do,ya gotta put sauce and parmesan cheese in there too and then yer REALLY in the shit! Seriously though just another old mechanic's(?) tale to go along with the new Caddy(or whatever car you want to put in)for sale for $100 because someone died in the car and they can't get the smell out of it or a thousand others. I gotta go to sleep;my mind is starting to turn to sugar;you know like when they put it in the gas tank to.............
Hey Spoon I thought the only thing available was the 100LL now? All of our airplanes are on Jet A, so I haven't even discussed this with our fuel guy.
Hey man, it's ok, we all know that you've been hiding your stash in your fuel tank for years.......! Your secret's safe with us!