Did they have to track down leaded gas? Did they just use unleaded? Did they suffer engine knock?
Gas stations dispensed both, like current gas and diesel.
You could also buy lead additives, more for an emergency situation than a permit solution.
Yup!
We didn’t “switch” to unleaded gas in the 1970s. We added unleaded, required gas stations to offer it, and vehicle manufacturers were prohibited from making new cars that required it.
Leaded gas was still being offered at some stations well into the 1990s.
Fuck, Germany introduced unleaded fuel only in 1984 and still offered leaded fuel for a long time.
It was required because of the introduction of catalytic converters, which would get damaged by lead in the fuel.
When I was at Bundeswehr I was in hospital for some time and got some thorough diagnosis. They asked me if I worked with lead in the past (no), so I seem to have at least some lead levels in my body.
(Can’t think of a I AM NOT CRAZY pun right now)
Why was Germany so late in adding catalytic converters?
Tbh, I have no idea. The whole of Europe was late to this. The first catalytic conveter cars were sold in 1973 in the US and 1985 in Germany.
Switzerland made them obligatory in 1986, Germany made them obligatory only in 1993 - because that was an EU-wide regulation.
The only thing I can imagine is the big political influence car makers have in Germany, but that’s just “what sounds reasonable to me”, no proof.
Could it be that gas stations in Europe had no room for another tank? So maybe the governments kept putting it off.
As gas stations have enough room for more expensive “ultimate” versions of fuel, I don’t think that’s the reason. You can frequently get two kinds of Diesel and three kinds of Gas at the pump.
O. t. o. h…maybe the whole “premium fuel” hype resulted from stations having additional tanks after leaded fuel was phased out.
Leaded gasoline is still around. It’s rarely at the pump, though. Cars that need it can add lead by pouring it in with regular gas.
Small aircraft mostly use leaded gasoline (AVGAS100LL), as aircraft regulations change at the pace of continental drift. Most of these aircraft would run fine on an unleaded equivalent, and us GA enthusiasts hope for change in this regard.
To add on to this, some of the older cars have been converted to run on unleaded. I own a 1960 Morris Minor that was converted and it runs sweet.
From 97-2000 I drove a ‘77 GMC truck that was designed for leaded gas which was not available any more. I just used unleaded. No additives or anything. Maybe the fact it was a V8 meant it could stand being a little out of tune, but I never saw any adverse affects.
No knocking?
Who’s not there?
25 years ago I don’t trust my memory on that. I don’t remember knocking, but it’s quite possible it already had all the lead built up that it needed to prevent knocks. Or because it was parked on the street I just didn’t care.
You can buy lead fuel additives to drop in your gas tank.
That’s what people still do, if they have a car that requires leaded gas.
You can still buy tetraethyllead for classic cars that need it.
That is horrifying
It’s pretty uncommon though. Aviation uses far, far more leaded fuel than classic cars.
Yeah, I knew that some planes still use it. I have had a full year or so now of being horrified by that too.
I wonder if we’re still going to be selling PFAS 50 years from now too.
Only small prop planes, and not all those.
Almost all commercial aviation are jets or turboprops, using jet fuel. Jet fuel has no lead.
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I was under the impression thar’s what the mid-grade petrol was for; it had a high-enough octane factor to be non-knocking in engines designed for leaded.
It wasn’t in fuel just for it’s octane boost. Some early engines that were designed to run on leaded fuel had valve seats made of softer metal and relied on lead’s lubricating/sealing properties. When unleaded fuel was used, the valves wouldn’t seal as well and the seats would wear prematurely.
You could also convert cars by putting harder valve seats in, not sure if this happened a lot at the time, or whether it’s more for classic cars that are worth enough to make sense to do. I don’t think the lead was primarily an anti knock additive, more of a valve and bore lubricant
Getting hardened seats isn’t really all that expensive either. I took the head off my MG and a shop only charged me about $300 for a full teardown and rebuild of the head, including all the machining and installation of hardened seats. It’s way cheaper in the long run than having to add a lead substitute every fill-up
In about 1980 they stopped selling it at the last local station and my dad and someone did something to the van to make it run on unleaded. It lasted 10 more years.
In Ireland they had something called LRP or lead replacement petrol for a good while. Eventually it just fizzled out as people had their old cars converted.
I believe there was an additive you could buy at a parts shop for cars that couldn’t be converted.
so, from what I read, some people actually still use leaded gasoline?
In the US the only source of leaded gasoline that I’m aware of is aviation gas. Lots of (all?) older piston-driven airplanes use it.
I looked this up, many do but the new additives are supposed to be good enough to replace it. (For piston planes).
it’s used in small plane aviation.
https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/leaded-aviation-fuel-and-environment
Airplanes still use leaded gasoline.
Just to clarify, a few airplanes still use leaded gasoline. The vast majority do not.
Turbine engines (jets) do not burn leaded fuels. Jet fuel is similar to kerosene or diesel fuel, with certain additives to meet aviation needs.
The overwhelming majority of piston powered aircraft use 100LL, which has a relatively tiny amount of lead compared to automotive fuels of the 1970s. The FAA has recently certified 100UL for use in all aircraft, but production does not yet meet demand.
Jet-A has higher energy density and is cheaper than 100LL or 100UL, but can’t be used in spark-ignition engines.
Compression-ignition (“diesel”) piston engines are coming on the market as new and retrofit kits, allowing the use of Jet-A in general aviation aircraft.
Add lead.
I had a 1967 mustang while this was going on in the 1980s. For awhile there was one station selling the leaded gas, then you just took your chances, use the unleaded and maybe an additive if the engine knocked, mine didn’t.
