metal112524

Well I recently saw an old episode of Mythbusters and saw something i didnt see the first time, what i have dubed the MOTHBALL OCTANE EXPERIMENT! Well if you can guess what Im getting at or have heard of it before, they add mothballs to a container with some gas and after a while they pour in the contents minus the mothballs im guessing to see what it would do to the test motor. Seeing as the test wasnt all that "scion-tific" and they basicly just said the motor sounded better at WOT, i was wondering if anyone has heard of this or has tried it, just a little curious is all??

hawaiiguy

I just saw a local tv show this past Sunday night called 'Go Green Hawaii' ---this show talks about ways in conserving/saving energy etc.

In the show, noted mechanic/old time drag race George Nitta talked about ways to save on gas.

He talked about mothballs being put into the gas tanks of vehicles for better power---which he said was very popular in the 1940s/1950s . Says to get the 'old-fashioned' mothballs that contain napthelene 'as it is natural octane booster'. He went on to say to add 5 mothballs per gallon of gas...So for our xB, it would be about about 60 mothballs for a full tank of gas. Geez, this guy is well respected in the automotive repair industry, and I really wanted to try this--so much that I went to the drug store to look for 'old-fashioned' mothballs that contain the napthelene. I found it selling for $3.59 for 10 oz of mothballs (as to how many is inside the box, I don't know). Remember to get the 'old'fashioned' mothballs, as there was also the 'newer?' version that doesn't contain the ingredient, and also is marked 'unscented'.

He also mentioned about swiitching to Royal Purple full synthetic oil (don't know if he chose that specifically or just because he wanted to show that brand for the show).

He also says your tires should be increased to 40psi--saying sure it may be harder on the ride, but it will prolong the life of the tires along with better gas mileage due to less rolling resistance (I presently fill mine low profile tires @ 36 psi, used to be at 40 psi per the dealer I bought the tires about 2 years ago).

Finally, he mentioned a specific type of Autolite brand spark plug that gives better gas mileage (i know here on this forum, the NGK iridium plugs give similar results).

I'm just gonna look more into the mothballs (the ingredients indicated the napthellene was 99.85% of the ingredients along with the balance, .15% being 'inert ingredients'.

Comments/remarks?

hawaiiguy

bump...bump...bump...

13edge

The way I see it, Jesus could call me and be like, "Dude, I'm here with Allah and Buddha, and we all three agree with George that mothballs are the way to go." - ... and I still wouldn't put them in my gas tank.