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searcher
Senior Member
Username: searcher
Post Number: 255
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 09, 2008 - 09:44 pm: | 
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I had some work done on a 4 cyl. gasoline engine of late 1920'2 vintage. The shop cautioned me on the fact the engine's valves were designed for leaded gasoline and that unleaded gasoline would sooner rather than later cause valve problems. I thought I remembered something on the subject appearing on this site but I ran a search for lead and came up with nothing of use. So, what can one do to modern gasoline to make it fit for consumption in an old engine? |
rholcomb
Member
Username: rholcomb
Post Number: 26
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - 04:16 pm: |
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Here is a website with a historical timeline on gasoline...
http://www.runet.edu/~wkovarik/ethylwar/
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20000320/timeline
i am most likely wrong here but what i can find out that alcohol acts as an anti knock agent the same as lead only environmently friendly.most of the motors i deal with are pre 1920 when lead was not an additive yet.The problem i am experiencing is that todays fuel does not evaporate as readily as the 1910 fuel with all the additives that are in it now... |
searcher
Senior Member
Username: searcher
Post Number: 257
Registered: 10-2004
| | Posted on Monday, September 15, 2008 - 08:51 am: |
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Rholcomb,
Wow!! There is a pile of interesting information available there. Thanks for responding. I haven't gone through it all yet but I have read enough to see that the public has been misled for a long time.
As to your comment about present day fuel not evaporating, that was already a big gripe in the early teens. Gasoline of the time included a wide range of hydrocarbon compounds including some that were more volatile than others. The more volatile components resulted in easy starting. By the teens, refineries were removing many of the more volatile compounds from gasoline and putting them into other products. Owners of explosive engines noted the changes immediately and articles of the period convey the public's frustration with the poorer quality of gasoline.
Somewhere I have a contemporary account of gasoline production, the changes in refining, predictions of gasoline shortages, tables showing who was using hydrocarbons for energy and how much, etc. If I come across it again, I will post it. If you removed the date on the article and reprinted it in a modern font style, the average reader would not catch on that it had been written nearly 100 years ago. The parallels are uncanny. |
miro
Senior Member
Username: miro
Post Number: 345
Registered: 11-2001
| | Posted on Monday, September 15, 2008 - 05:02 pm: |
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Here's an article from Wooden Boat magazinethat talks about lead in gas for old engines.
Engines: maintenance, use of unleaded gas, 91:70
Millar, Gordon H., author: "Unleaded Gas: For Antique and Classic Marine Eng* 91:70 |
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