# Alternatives for Last Tank of Fuel



## JAK (Oct 15, 2005)

I had an old can of coleman fuel and used it in the lawn mower. It is an old lawn boy, 3 horsepower maybe. Two-stroke of course. I got experimental and so I used canola oil instead of motor oil. I threw in a bit of gas-line anti-freeze for good measure. It worked. Nice smell of fried fish. What I noticed was that I had a little more fuel left over than usual and that 3 weeks later the fuel was still there whereas it would normally be evaporated away by now. Perhaps it is just because it is not hot summer yet.

Here is the question:
If you have an engine which you think is somewhat overpowered for the task at hand, be it a car engine or a lawn mower, would you get better fuel economy by switching to a fuel that has less BTU/gal but the same BTU/$?

Also, what if you added some water, desolved in some alcohol, and a little bit of canola oil to help protect the metal parts from corrossion? I have an old '92 Toyota Corrossion I am interested in experimenting with before I switch the insurance over to another vehicle.

Suggested mixes for last tank of fuel?


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## farminghandyman (Mar 4, 2005)

your camping fuel is basically gasoline with out additives, 

when you change fuels there are things that are characteristic to each type of fuel and what is needed to make them burn properly,

For example there is a difference between diesels and gasoline,'

and the type of engine that is needed to properly use the type of fuel,

and mixing in things that are not meant to mix in to a combustion engine may be harmful to the fuel system or the combustion chamber and valves, or the ignition system, or part of it,

so before you start to mix stuff I would want to under stand what the chemical will do when burning under the conditions that are present in an engine, and what may happen when you mix them.

Adding water to a engine fuel IN my opinion is not the best idea,
alcohol will dissolve some types of rubber, and some carburetors or fuel systems will dissolve when some things are added,

using fuels with out anti knock additives and such can damage the motor it self,

If a motor was over powered I would probably keep my foot off the throttle to get better mileage, (or down size the carburetor if it is that big of a problem),

usually if you use a fuel that has less btu per gallon, you will use more gallons of fuel to do the same job, if your running very light loads then you may not notice the difference in fuel usage,

it is like converting a motor to propane, it has less btu but it is cheaper (or was) per gallon, and thus was more economical even tho some times the fuel mileage dropped, but it is harder on the valves, but the oil does not get black, (still need to change the oil tho), 

alcohol usually need higher compression to run efficiently, and my need larger jets, it has less btu Than gasoline,

adding oils or other may foul the plugs, or other things, depending on the lubericiticy of the oil it may not properly protect the 2 cycle motor properly, and you may burn up the engine by not using the proper oils, and some may build up as they burn


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

farminghandyman said:


> your camping fuel is basically gasoline with out additives,


I just looked that up,is white gas,coleman fuel and unleaded interchangable.The consensus pretty much was if you have to you can use coleman fuel in a gas IC engine.Not long term advisable,but it will work.

Wasnt as clear if unleaded can go in your coleman stove but I know white gas will,its what we always used.

BooBoo


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

There are certainly additives in regular unleaded gas that should be missing in white gas, but in a pinch you can burn Coleman fuel in your car. Better as a mix with regular gasoline though. Less carbon in Coleman fuel so it should burn cleaner and last a bit longer but as said at what expense? Generally you get better milage when you work on improving the air fuel mix, I'm no expert but its what turbo chargers and super chargers are all about. A good clean air cleaner will help fuel economy. Controling preignition helps and getting a good clean spark helps alot too. It's about the only place I've heard of water being injected into the engine. We could get a spark plug called a splitfire that had two point for the spark to jump. Worked great but sure didn't last as long as a traditional plug.


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