AV gas for the generator

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Thanks Gdetrailer :)

I was tying to limit the history to recent era of the fifties sixties and seventies. In 1974 when unleaded first appreared out here the main concern was to stop folks from coating the platinum catalyst in their converter with lead.

Those were the days when 91 Octane and 100 octane decals disappeared from the side of pumps and M+R/2 replaced them. And absurd emissions controls ruled beneath the hood. The distributor vacuum advance line was cut, rubber caps slipped over the ends, then engine timing was set to TDC 0 degrees initial advance. And a decal was plastered on the air cleaner.

Mex,

I appreciate you trying to limit the history, the downfall of that is things are often taken out of context and as it has been said "history often repeats it's self".

Sort of like folks think EV are something invented by Elon Musk (they were not) if you didn't know the early automobile pioneers that came before Henry Ford, Ransom Olds ect..

Cat converters were "mandated" in 1975 for most gas powered vehicles, Pickup Trucks were exempt up to 1980. Cat converters and lead did not get along and hence the reason for the Lead removal in the mid 70s. Yes, I remember the scare tactics that aftermarket folks did to get you to buy their bottles of lead additives for your pre 75 vehicles..

The cold hard reality though was very few engines needed the lead and was no massive amount of valve damage by running without lead.

A lot of 1975 engines were just plain dogs, they were massively detuned, Ratios were dropped significantly, some as low as 7.5:1, timing was backed off, mechanical and vacuum timing advance was reduced/limited and depending on the temp timing ran backwards (censor didn't like the word for running the opposite of advanced timing??) until engine warmed up enough.. 1980s was not very kind to auto engines, still dogs for performance and mileage, wasn't until late 1990s when manufacturers started phasing out carbs and moving to fuel injection and then the power and fuel economy improved.

As I have mentioned, Ethanol became a eventual replacement for Lead and MTBE because it is deemed less harmful to the environment.. I personally think that is also a "red herring" in the fact that most Ethanol is derived from Corn crops.. And growing corn removes a lot of nutrients from the soil and those are replaced by oil and gas derived fertilizers.. Hence HISTORY REPEATS ITS SELF!