Mike1

iTrader: (2)

Is there any truth to making sure you pass a tailpipe sniffer by putting a bottle of 70% rubbing alcohol in with a full tank of gas that you will pass emissions? I know a guy that swears this is true. If so is there any chance of damaging anything such as fuelinjectors?

Later,
Mike

smartman__007

iTrader: (1)

Sounds pretty fishy to me. It would be like putting ethanol in your tank but obviously rubbing alcohol is a different composition than ethanol. Too much alcohol could damage rubber parts such as o-rings, rubber fuel lines, and other parts not made to deliver alcohol. Even fuel pumps could be at risk. I haven't heard of anyone doing this but it very well could be true, but he damaged he car somewhat each time he does it too. Make sure you think twice before puttin that stuff in your tank.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

No it is not true.

Doesn't matter if you know a guy that swears it. I know 2 guys that swear it, myself. Doesn't make it twice as true. I also know people that swear the Earth is flat and that there's a top-secret listening device implanted in their brain monitored by black helicopters that beams their thoughts to the government. So what. The passion of the swearer doesn't influence reality.

No it will not hurt anything. Won't really help either. Although, if you use 91% instead of 70%, it will help mix any water that happens to be in there into the gasoline and get it out of the tank. That's about the extent of it.

84L69TA

I just ran my 68 Chevelle through emissions yesterday. It failed the first time. The second time, I put 1/2 gallon of 70% isopropyl alcohol in the tank mixed with 4 gallons of fuel and it cut the readings in half....by changing nothing else. To those who say it doesnt work, I call bullsh!t. Ive known many people that have used it successfully.

ProjectIrocZ28

dont do it in a car w/ an electric fuel pump!!!! the other 30% of the mix is water. depending how much water is in your tank already, this could help corrode the pump, injectors, or lines. just run a buch of drygas. thats pure isopropyl alcohol that will remove whatever water could be in your tank safely.

84L69TA

I have an electric pump in my 68. Theres so much fuel in the tank, its not going to do anything. You dont fill the whole thing up with the stuff, just add a little. Its fine.

84 Z-28 350

it will bring your emissions down allitle, enough to put you over the edge if your close, but don't count on a huge reduction

jer87formula

Well I am origionally from mass, And we use to use fuel stabilizer..um the stuff to prevent the gas from freezing. 1/4 tank 1 bottle any car will pass. And make sure car is fully warmed up.

your gonna laugh but i failed in my 72 442.And the inspector told me get it down to a 1/4 tank pour this in take it on hiway for 10 minutes and come back lol...passed flying colors. Just a suggestion prolly better then rubbing alcohol.

I think it was called drygas..

I live in fla now no emissions.

safemode

iTrader: (1)

if your timing is advanced, retard it until it barely runs. You will half your emissions. If not, then use dry gas as mentioned above and you'll get a decent reduction, how much depends on the tune of the car though, but unless you're burning oil and failing by an ungodly amount, it should allow you to pass.


I chose the timing reduction. My emissions were a fraction of what they were the first time. I have numbers here: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/tech...ml#post3105354

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

And the other half of the time that people try it, their readings double.

ONE instance of someone getting lucky, DOES NOT "PROVE" that something works.

Fix your car if you want it to go through. Not only will you not have to worry about it, but you might also just accidentally have a car that runs better and uses less gas, all at the same time.

"Dry gas" is denatured alcohol. Does the same thing as rubbing alcohol.OK, so if he told you that you should stand on your head and rub your stomach and kiss the lucky one-eyed whatever, and then take it on the highway and drive it for 10 min and bring it back, it would also have passed; and then you could claim that it was the standing on your head and so forth that made it pass. What actually was effective, was the 10 min highway drive. The stuff in the tank was "placebo effect". That's something that occurs in medical experiments, where you can give people a coated sugar pill and they'll tell you that they feel better now, so the "medicine" must be working... such that in clinical trials, you give half the subjects the real thing and half the placebo, the real thing has the desired effect 80% of the time and the placebo does 40% or something, so you can sort of "isolate" people's imaginations from reality. If he had not put the stuff in the tank, and just told you to drive it for 10 min and bring it back, you probably wouldn't have believed him, and he wouldn't have made a few extra coins selling to you besides.

Certain Native American tribes believed that lunar eclipses were caused by a giant frog eating the moon. So when one occurred, they would beat their drums, shout as loud as they could, and perform a ritual to scare and hex the frog away. It worked EVERY SINGLE TIME, which is documented scientific fact: after a few minutes of this, and of course the ritual, the eclipse ended. Does that "prove" they scared away the frog? Hmmmm..... That's what these "I put it in my tank and I passed" stories amount to.

DENN_SHAH

iTrader: (1)

i could see where adding alcohol would reduce tail pipe emissions.
if your car is running rich & you add enough alcohol it will lean the motor out. CO, HC, & maybe even NOx could come down depending on how rich you are.
if it did help, you do have a problem somewhere.

on a side note, most gas sold now contains around 10% alcohol. they call it E10. didn't anyone else notice a drop in performance & fuel mileage?
in some parts of the country you can get E85, 85% alcohol, 15% gasoline.

84L69TA

First of all, let me tell you something...You dont have a clue as to how this motor in my Chevelle is built. Its not a stock cam, stock compression 454. I actually have access to a 5 gas analyzer, which I use for all my cars come emissions time. In order to pass, the car had to be idling at 1600-1700rpm to get it out of the lope (first failed idle HC). So dont tell me to "fix" my car. Second of all, I NEVER said just because it cut my readings, that was enough to say it worked and will work for everybody. It will alter the readings, but how much the difference will be from car to car is anyones guess. My point was...for many years people I know were regularly doing this with good results. I decided to try it and also had good results. Before you start questioning me, dont. I am ASE Master certified, GM certified, and am a licensed emission inspector. If I dont have the knowledge pertaining to a topic of conversation, I can easily get it through many resources. Anything else?

Fast355

iTrader: (2)

You can buy Heet for like $1.29 a bottle, it is just Isopropal Alcohol, you can read the label for yourself. I run my tank down to 1/8 tank (about 4 gallons) and pour in 4 bottles. Here is what the smog sheet looks like, stock cam TBI 350 no cats at the time. This is on the Dyno with no special tuning.



PS-the info is blacked out because it is my vehicle at my old place of employement. This is a Test Mode run. I am a licensed emissions inspector.

sofakingdom

iTrader: (1)

If it was possible to put a few ounces of something you can buy at the drug store for less than a dollar into your tank, and ACTUALLY produce a drastic reduction in emissions, don't you think that people like Greenpeace and the rest of the enviroNazis would already have been all over it like white on rice and it would ALREADY BE in your gas?

This is EXACTLY like those "tornado" things you can buy: the fervent belief in its effectiveness on the part of the user prevents impartiality. The buyer has his money tied up in it now, so he becomes part of the "conspiracy", so to speak; he'll look for ANYTHING to support his claim that it works, because he doesn't want to get exposed as having been rpped off.

IT DOESN'T WORK. The alcohol ISN'T the reason these people's cars are passing. The amount of additional oxygen in those couple of ounces of propanol, mixed with all that gas, is a DROP IN THE BUCKET.

You can show charts and graphs and all the usual stuff we've all become accustomed to; just like one of those native Americans up there could show us how they ended EVERY SINGLE lunar eclipse by their ritual. They could theoretically go back thousands of years and PROVE without a doubt that it had been effective. Why just look, the moon is still there this very night, the frog hasn't eaten it yet. What more proof do you need??

Charts and graphs are only as meaningful as the facts they are intended to back up.

Meanwhile, for those who choose to believe that it works, I'd suggest putting a good catalytic converter on the vehicle and making sure it's fully warmed up before going to the testing station; and THEN put the isopropanol in. Then you can be just like the tribes beating tehir drums to scare away the frogs, and go to sleep at night secure in the fantasy that you've saved the world from a great evil. Me, I'll just keep my car in a good state of tune, with the proper "accessories" installed and operating like it came, and not waste my money on the placebo.

84L69TA

Yeah, ok know it all. You must be right . Go ahead and keep your little 16 second car stock because "it passes emissions". You can get back to me when you know what youre talking about.

safemode

iTrader: (1)

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_...manual1-2.html

You would need over 20% alcohol to make a noticable difference in emissions. But, if your car is not stock, then there is no guarantee that it's running properly (stoichiometrically) so the effect of even <20% could correct the engine, or bring it further out of line. Different alcohols help more than others, the figure of 20% assumes regular ethyl, if you use propyl or cetyl, you would need slightly less to make a difference.

overall, the theory of going to alcohol to reduce emissions is completely valid, but if you have 5 gallons of gas in your tank, a 15oz bottle of heet isn't going to do the trick. You would need to dump over a gallon in. What it might do is clean your otherwise dirty injector/carb. That's all the "guaranteed to pass" bottles say they do, because they would get sued otherwise.

In short, just retard the timing. It's free, unlike shady fuel additives and indian tribal dances, retarding the timing _WILL_ work at reducing your emissions. If the free method of passing fails you then go on to buying a lot of alcohol to add o the gas. Just remember, if you retard the timing, run regular octane (87), even if you dont retard the timing, if you're getting tested, always run the lowest octane fuel you can without predetonating.

Vader

Someone said that running alcohol through an electric fuel pump is a bad idea. I guess someone forget to tell GM, Ford, Daimler/Chrysler, Toyota, Nissan, BMW, Subaru, and about everyone else who makes gasoline engines. Not only do they allow alcohol, they RECOMMEND it. I've been using 10% ethanol since 1976 through regualar and electric pumps. I've run E-85 in my half-truck through an electric pump for the last 15 months. I'd better not tell the pump that it shouldn't be working.

Toehead

hey drygas! Now there is a good old fashioned MA brand. It's made in fitchburg.