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ok so i have been researching the mothball in your gas tank myth and it turns out to be entirly true but has a catch. heres what i have found.
Question: I had heard that adding Moth Balls to regular 91 Octane gasoline causes the octane to increase. If this is true, please explain what the Moth Balls do to produce a higher octane gasoline.
An Let’s start by focusing on the gasoline. In order to start a car the gas has to ignite through the spark from a spark plug. Sometimes the gas ignites spontaneously causing knocking which can damage an engine.
The octane rating of gasoline tells us how much the fuel can be compressed before its spontaneous ignition. Gasoline contains over 500 hydrocarbons that may have between 3 to 12 carbons; the small hydrocarbons handle compression very poorly. Octane (8 carbons hydrocarbon), on the other hand, handles compression very well. The regular 87-octane gasoline is a gasoline that contains about 87 percent octane; the other 13 percent is a combination of fuels.
This lower octane gas can handle the least amount of compression before igniting, so the logical conclusion would be that a higher octane-fuel produces a higher compression improving the engines performance, right? Not really. It depends on the car engine. For most cars, the regular octane gasoline is the recommended one. More often than not, using a higher-octane gasoline will not improve performance. For those cars, the high-octane gasoline is only recommended if that car engine knocks when using the recommended fuel.
So, what about the mothballs? Most of the mothballs available commercially have as their main ingredient naphthalene or p-dichlorobenzene. Naphthalene is an aromatic compound and it does handle compression extremely well.
For some years now, the idea of using mothballs to increase the “engine power” has been around. There are some real problems using this “trick”. One of them is that you would have to use mothballs of naphthalene, and not p-dichlorobenzene since it is not an anti-knock compound and its sub products will *eventually damage your car.
Another requirement is that your car may not be fuel-injected. Third problem, **you would have to crush about five mothballs for every gallon and put it in your gas tank.
And most importantly of all is the health issue. According to US EPA's IRIS (Integrated Risk Information System) using criteria of the 1986 Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment, naphthalene is classified in Group C, a possible human carcinogen. P-dichlorobenzene has not undergone a complete evaluation for evidence of human carcinogenic potential.
*When naphthalene is burned, because of its very low hydrogen to carbon structure, it will create carbon deposits in the engine, i can not specify where these deposits would form but this is what i have read. There are many people that claim to not of had any problems with carbon deposits.
**This number is very high, A very large amount of people claim you should only use about 1 with every 20 liters of gasoline.
~On a side note it has been found that moth balls will create a much hotter cylinder temperature and can pose a overheating problem, be cautious about this.
Now that you know the truth behind the myth i will state now that i cannot be held responsible for any damage this may cause to your car.
Damien[/b]
Question: I had heard that adding Moth Balls to regular 91 Octane gasoline causes the octane to increase. If this is true, please explain what the Moth Balls do to produce a higher octane gasoline.
An Let’s start by focusing on the gasoline. In order to start a car the gas has to ignite through the spark from a spark plug. Sometimes the gas ignites spontaneously causing knocking which can damage an engine.
The octane rating of gasoline tells us how much the fuel can be compressed before its spontaneous ignition. Gasoline contains over 500 hydrocarbons that may have between 3 to 12 carbons; the small hydrocarbons handle compression very poorly. Octane (8 carbons hydrocarbon), on the other hand, handles compression very well. The regular 87-octane gasoline is a gasoline that contains about 87 percent octane; the other 13 percent is a combination of fuels.
This lower octane gas can handle the least amount of compression before igniting, so the logical conclusion would be that a higher octane-fuel produces a higher compression improving the engines performance, right? Not really. It depends on the car engine. For most cars, the regular octane gasoline is the recommended one. More often than not, using a higher-octane gasoline will not improve performance. For those cars, the high-octane gasoline is only recommended if that car engine knocks when using the recommended fuel.
So, what about the mothballs? Most of the mothballs available commercially have as their main ingredient naphthalene or p-dichlorobenzene. Naphthalene is an aromatic compound and it does handle compression extremely well.
For some years now, the idea of using mothballs to increase the “engine power” has been around. There are some real problems using this “trick”. One of them is that you would have to use mothballs of naphthalene, and not p-dichlorobenzene since it is not an anti-knock compound and its sub products will *eventually damage your car.
Another requirement is that your car may not be fuel-injected. Third problem, **you would have to crush about five mothballs for every gallon and put it in your gas tank.
And most importantly of all is the health issue. According to US EPA's IRIS (Integrated Risk Information System) using criteria of the 1986 Guidelines for Carcinogen Risk Assessment, naphthalene is classified in Group C, a possible human carcinogen. P-dichlorobenzene has not undergone a complete evaluation for evidence of human carcinogenic potential.
*When naphthalene is burned, because of its very low hydrogen to carbon structure, it will create carbon deposits in the engine, i can not specify where these deposits would form but this is what i have read. There are many people that claim to not of had any problems with carbon deposits.
**This number is very high, A very large amount of people claim you should only use about 1 with every 20 liters of gasoline.
~On a side note it has been found that moth balls will create a much hotter cylinder temperature and can pose a overheating problem, be cautious about this.
Now that you know the truth behind the myth i will state now that i cannot be held responsible for any damage this may cause to your car.
Damien[/b]
This I would say is definitely a "band-aid" "solution" at best . . . just tune your car properly on the fuel you're going to use! Thanks for the info though 8)
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