Engine Fuel: The Test Results
A head-to-head test of 1 engine fuel options with the measured results for each. See how they ranked and watch the full test video.
Clorox bleach-free liquid hand sanitizer
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The measured results
Every number below is read straight from the test. Scroll sideways to see all measurements. Products are listed in the order they finished.
| Product | Specs (per safety data sheet) | Form factor | Engine test |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Clorox bleach-free liquid hand sanitizer | 65 to 75 percent ethanol, 5 to 10 percent isopropyl alcohol, flash point of -21C; safety data sheet paradoxically warns to remove contaminated clothing and rinse skin with water if it contacts skin or hair, despite being a skin-applied product; also warns of inhalation hazards and lists 'ingredients of unknown toxicity' | chosen specifically because it is a low-viscosity liquid (not the more common gel form), so it would flow through the engine's carburetor | did not run well; the narrator had a hard time getting the engine to run at all and never applied a load, since the engine stalled out during basic idle testing |
How it was tested
- pre-test engine prep: measuring the torque (using an AC Delco torque adapter) required to spin over a small engine seized from a prior Head & Shoulders-as-engine-oil test (measured at 15.3 ft-lbs with no cylinder head installed)
- freeing the seized engine using SeaFoam Deep Creep penetrating fluid on the cylinder and about 16 oz of Marvel Mystery Oil in the crankcase, spun with a drill to circulate the oil via the splash system
- baseline gasoline run (~5 minutes) to verify basic engine health via a compression test before switching fuels
- attempting to run the engine directly on Clorox bleach-free liquid hand sanitizer fed through the carburetor
“would I recommend using hand sanitizer as an emergency fuel substitute? Absolutely not. It did not run very well and I had a hard time getting the engine to even run.”
Data notes and caveats
This is a single-product myth-test (does hand sanitizer work as an emergency gasoline substitute), not a branded product comparison; isHeadToHead is false and winner/runnerUp/budgetPick are null by design. SeaFoam Deep Creep, Marvel Mystery Oil, and an AC Delco torque adapter are used only as supporting tools to prepare/free the test engine (carried over from an unrelated prior video where Head & Shoulders shampoo was used as engine oil, seizing the engine) and are not themselves under test or competing against each other, so they are not listed as products. Narrator explains the likely mechanism of failure: alcohol-based fuels require a higher fuel flow rate than gasoline, and this engine's carburetor has no adjustable jet, so it could not be tuned to compensate; a choke was suggested as a possible workaround but the engine still could not sustain a load test. Chapters (Safety Data Sheet, Hand Sanitizer, Oil Drain, Alcohol, Conclusion) align well with the narrative structure.
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