Originally Posted by cyccommute

It's a little more complicated than that but not by much. According to the MSDS, the mixture is more like a 50% diesel/kerosene cut, a 25% mineral oil (think baby oil but a little thicker), and 20% mineral spirits mixture. Without the mineral oil, it would make for a great degreaser. Unfortunately, the mineral oil is the part that doesn't go away and makes the stuff messy.

The Wired article, by the way, is mostly correct with the exception of making this statement



I will guarantee that there is no decane in gasoline...unless the gas is a really bad gasoline. Gasoline is usually limited to molecules that have 8 carbons or less and are highly branched. There is decane in diesel and kerosene but not in gasoline. A gasoline engine would run very poorly on a fuel that had decane in it. It would knock and ping like crazy.

You won't find mineral oil in kerosene, either. Although diesel engines can run on fuels that are crappier than gasoline, mineral oil wouldn't ignite quickly enough to burn smoothly. It would make for a very sooty fuel which would cause engine problems.