Ed's Red as a motor fuel

Andrew 20 years ago

Those of you who are gun enthusiasts may of heard of something called "Ed's Red". Ed's Red is a home-brew gun cleaning solution made of 1 part acetone, 1 part tranmission fluid, 1 part kerosene, and one part aliphatic mineral spirits.

I mixed up a a four-gallon batch in a jerry can and my inconsiderate, a-hole renter -- thinking it was gasoline -- performed a stupid automotive trick for my amusement by pouring the contents of the jerry can into the fuel tank of his truck.

I can report to you that the truck only made it 2 blocks before it sputtered to a stop. Draining the tank and refilling with gasoline seemed to solve his problem. I wonder what fuel system components might negatively impacted by 25% acetone.

I wonder what the main failure mechanism was? Too rich of a mixture for the engine to manage?

Andrew

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<HLS 20 years ago

Acetone can be a pretty harsh solvent on some plastics and elastomeric seals. If any damage was done, that is where I would expect it to show up.

I suspect it stopped running due to plug fouling or something of that sort. For a while, he was probably running on the fuel in his lines, filter, etc. Then as this mixture began to feed into the engine, it probably just fouled.

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John S. 20 years ago

I don't know how such a home brew could cause the mixture to be too rich - the ratio of fuel to air didn't change. It just would not burn when atomized. I would worry more about the damage acetone and to a lesser extent spirits might cause to seals and other rubber/plastic components in the fuel system.

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