I run a bottle of rubbing alcohol in my gas every so often as treatment. Does this hurt anything?

 

Yeah its not a smart idea. Rubbing alcohol is 70% water and 30% alcohol. The water will just seperate and settle to the bottom of the tank and start to ruin the fuel system.

 

What about putting in a little kerosene? I have heard that is mainly what the bottled fuel injector cleaners are. Good idea or bad? It sure would be cheaper to use.

 

I don't know about kerosene, but I will back up gashog about the rubbing alcohol. A lot of people use it to absorb water in the fuel tank, but they don't realize that they're actually putting a lot more water in. You should put fuel in your fuel tank. If it ain't broke, ......

 

well iso-heet is just isoprople (sp?) alcohol in a different bottle, up north we put this crap in our gas all the time. if there is more water in rubbing alcohol then its taking out, I would think I would have froze a fuel line by now. yet, my jeep never fails to start when its not plugged in and its 40 below with windchill. my ford also always runs. I know people who are to lazy to use these treatments and every now and then pay the price, not fun when its that cold. but anyway, I can't think of any reason to use rubbing alcohol where its not cold, even if there is water in your gas who cares??? as long as it will still run your good to go

 

what about a bottle of atf in your fuel for lub?

 

Can you mix atf with gas? Ive never heard of that.

 

so its better to only do that during the winter months....im from mn down by the cities......so just from like october to march?

 

Pretty sure it was a joke (I hope).

 

This was done and is done for old carburated engines that do not have hardened valve seats. It helps lube the valves like the lead used to in the gas.
I wouldn't recommend it for a modern EFI vehicle though.

 

I usually only bother when its going to be below zero, I usually use iso-heet but sometimes use rubbing alcohol when its convienient

 

I think you've got it backwards - most rubbing alcohol is 70% alcohol and 30% inert (water). Theoretically it should help diffuse any water in the tank/fuel lines (ala Iso-Heet, etc.).

Personally, I'd use a gas tank drier from an auto parts store if I wanted to run some alcohol through the engine. Although it's a bit of a moot point with the ethanol mandated in all gasoline now. Just use Techron.

 

You can mix 1 ounce of anhydrous alcohol and 1 ounce of water and you end up with
less then 2 ounces!! Anyone know why? Iso-heet is anhydrous isopropyl alcohol and
heet is methanol. The way they work is by actually attaching to the water molecules
and lowering the surface tension so the water can be drawn through the small openings
versus creating a dam by grabbing onto the opening then grabbing other water, they
don't actually dry the fuel they just let you burn the water!! Running iso heet or
heet or even ethanol or really any alcohol is not going to hurt your motor per se but
you will be running lean since the alcohol has less energy and would require rejetting
with larger jets if you were running more then 50% let's say of course the 2 or 3
bottles of heet I usually recommend that people run when they are having weird
problems with fuel or ignition related problems is not going to change much in relation
to ratios on a tank with 10 gallons in it, But if you have an old weed eater you can
mess around and try running it on increasing amounts of alcohol until it runs like crap
then you will have to increase the jet size and basically burn more fuel to get the same
power.
Water hurts alot more then putting in a few bottles of heet or iso heet and I have seen
many a boat owner run around and replace parts and part and parts when the actual
problem was just a few ounces of water in the tank. And I have seen many folks on
here and bringing their vehicles to mechanics and getting everything from maf to o2
sensors to injectors repalced when in reality it is just water blocking up one or two
injectors and alot of the times it will only happen at certain rpms since the flow through
the opening happens to pull the water up then it increases to a point where it actually
finally gets dragged through the opening. I have run motorcycles, weed eaters, diesel
v-6 v-8 and 4 cylinders, mopeds, rc cars, pulse jets, just about any motor you can
name except for turbines since I don't have access to one, On all manners of flammable
fluids and with a few mods it will run on just about anything. When I was a kid I had
a moped and no money I use to run that thing on paint thinner, alcohol, kerosene, old
gas that probably wouldn't ignite with a torch, home heating oil, acetone, propane even
from a torch held with duct tape pointing into the carb intake!! Yes I had to clean the\
carb alot. I ran my dirtbike usually on 50/50 to 70/30 of 93 and 100+ octane race fuel
or even when I could only afford to run 50/50 I would put some methanol and rejet for
that on race day. You can't beat the smell of a 2 smoke running on race gas and a bit
of methanol. Heck my friend had a habit of putting gas into his diesel work truck and
if he did it again he was going to get fired, well one day he called me up and said I
think I did it again!! He said the truck would barely do 40mph and ws making all kinds
of racket!! I told hime to calm down and how much did he put in? He said he filled it
up from a bit less then a half tank. I told him to go to the dollar store and buy all the
motor oil he could afford and I had him dump it in he got 2 1/2 gallons in and it was to the very top so I told him to run around and try to make it mix up and he said after
ten minutes it was already running better but still hurting, they called him back to the
office and he was hoping noone else would take the truck, The next day it was still a
bit rough and he took it out and put another gallon and a half of oil in and then some a
couple gallons of fresh fuel and it ended up running better then it had ever ran since
he worked there!! It must of cleaned up the comb. chamber, valves and turbo!! He
never got fired and noone was any the wiser for it.

 

Hey Blue Beast,

Way to be inventive on finding ways to fuel that moped. You were determined to ride and found a way to "get-er-done".

 

From an old gearhead thats has been a mechanic for over 30 years,Heet is ok,rubbing alcohol works too but if you use atf use no more than 4 ounces for a full tank but the same amount of Marvel mystery oil is my choice for valve train lubrication.JMHO