ORIGINAL: Sport_Pilot

They have run automobiles on acetone, but it leaves a streak blistered paint and bare metal below the gas cap!

Saw a use for nitromethane that I did not know about last night. They use it to shoot an oil well! That is when they blast it at the bottom to fracture the ground to unstop an older well where the oil has congealed and pluged up the rock fractures. They pour about 5 to 10 gallons of nitromethane (for the small well shown), then pour water to the top of the well. Since nitro is denser than oil or water it goes to the bottom below the oil and water, the water pressure keeps it confined improving the blast. Then they put a blasting cap to the bottom of the wll and detonate it. You could just hear the explosion, but about 10 seconds later water and oil spouts out the top of the well. It was pretty cool!