Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site brl-tgr.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ihnp4!mhuxn!mhuxj!mhuxr!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!godot!harvard!seismo!brl-tgr!ron From: ron@brl-tgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie) Newsgroups: net.auto,net.consumers Subject: Re: No Leaded Gas -- Now What? Message-ID: <9061@brl-tgr.ARPA> Date: Thu, 7-Mar-85 22:37:20 EST Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.9061 Posted: Thu Mar 7 22:37:20 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 9-Mar-85 08:42:03 EST References: <132@ucbcad.UUCP> <147@tove.UUCP> <168@osiris.UUCP> Organization: Ballistic Research Lab Lines: 38 Xref: watmath net.auto:5997 net.consumers:1946 > 1. The octane of gasoline can be raised in two ways. An additive > can be put in (like tetraethyl lead), or it can be refined more. Ahem? Am I missing something here. Are you talking some kind of "effective" octane, or the number that they stick on the gas pump and in the owners manual. If you mean the latter, I don't think adding all the lead in the world is going to change it. > 2. Unleaded gasoline has been around longer than a lot of people > think. Supposedly, Standard Premium (Amoco for you modern types) > was unleaded as early as the 1960's. This was a _real_ high- > octane premium gasoline, not the 91 or 92 octane "super" gas > we're stuck with today, unless we happen to be lucky enough to > have Super 76 in our area. (The last real premium gas I saw was > at Mars stations in St. Louis in 1981.) Again, my car would run poorly on the pre-catalytic converter AMERICAN lead-free gas while doing fine on cheapo leaded regular. > > 5. Today's unleaded regular does tend to have a lower octane > rating than (yesterday's?) leaded regular. This is because of > the economic considerations (see point 1). Eh? Todays unleaded regular at several stations I checked has an octane rating about two points higher than their leaded regular. At the point when you could still get leaded premimum, it was about 4 points above leaded regular. > 7. There are octane boosters which do not use tet. lead for their > kick. These, I believe, mostly use some mixture of methanol and > xylene, with maybe some other stuff thrown in - I'm not an organic > chemist, so don't quote me on the exact recipes. It is also poss- > ible to get straight tet. lead to put in your gas, but handle > VERY carefully as this stuff is quite hazardous. That's why the > EPA is cracking down. (You couldn't pay me enough money to make > me want to handle a jug of tet. lead octane booster.) The EPA never enforced the use of leaded gasolines (and still doesn't) unless your car is equipped with a catalytic converter, which would be rendered useless after a short time using gasolines using phosphorus or lead additives. > Of course, I may be wrong. :-)