Text 2951, 85 rader
Skriven 2010-01-09 11:30:47 av Roy Witt (1:387/22)
   Kommentar till text 2725 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: Easy pickings
=====================
07 Jan 10 11:13, Robert Bashe wrote to Roy Witt:

 RB> Roy Witt wrote to Robert Bashe on Wednesday January 06 2010 at 16:36:

 RW>>>> In the days before there was a ethanol additive in gasoline, we
 RW>>>> put it in by buying a can of it and adding it as we filled up. You
 RW>>>> don't see those cans on the shelves anymore.

 RB>>> You're confusing tetraethyl lead with ethanol.

 RW>> Ummmm, no. It was alcohol in a can. Adding the alcohol replaced any
 RW>> moisture in the fuel.

 RB> Prevented it from separating, you mean. But I admit that amazes me...
 RB> I've never heard of gas so bad that water in it was a problem.

In those days, fuel tanks were vented to the atmosphere. That allowed the
tank to breath in air as the fuel was used up. Allowing cold, moist air
into a fuel tank will allow the water in that air to 'rain' on the fuel
and adding itself to it. In sub-freezing cold, the water in the fuel will
ice up a carburator so that it will no longer work, stopping the engine
cold. So, it wasn't a problem of 'bad' gas, but a problem of moisture in
the air that entered the tank and thus, the fuel.

 RB>  They used to have traps in the gas line to get out various crud, but
 RB> that was all I've ever seen.

Those are called filters and they do a great job of 'filtering' the crud
out of the fuel, but do nothing to remove water from the fuel. Every car
today has a fuel filter at the tank. Every vehicle made today has a
'return' line from the fuel injection log on the engine, back to the tank.
All fuel tanks today are closed to the atmosphere, which is why water in
the fuel is no longer a problem.

 RW>> You're thinking of the additive in a can that raises the octane of
 RW>> gasoline. One such was labeled 104 Octane.

 RB> Yes, that was what I thought you meant.

You can't raise the octane of gasoline with alcohol...you know that. In
order to get the same horsepower from alcohol as you would get from
gasoline, you have to use more alcohol. Which is why E85 is more
detrimental to the atmosphere than just plain gasoline.

 RB>>> Better not do that the next time you buy a bottle of whisky ;-)

 RW>> That's ok Bob...I know the difference between alcohol and ethyl
 RW>> gasoline.

 RB> Good. Don't want you to poison yourself...

I used to get my ethyl by syphoning it from cars that I knew used ethyl.
That was when I was 16, so I guess it didn't hurt me any. Then I got smart
and mounted an electric fuel pump under the back seat with a 15 foot hose
attached. It pumped fuel into my tank from other tanks.

 RW>> BTW, tetraethyl isn't available anymore. Even 105 octane racing fuel
 RW>> uses a different chemical to raise the octane above 93.

 RB> Nowadays the refining processes have been improved to such an extent
 RB> that a radical builder like tetraethyl lead is no longer necessary
 RB> even in "super" octane fuel. Which is a good thing, since tetraethyl
 RB> lead was extremely poisonous, penetrated the skin and was responsible
 RB> for quite a number of lead poisonings in the "good old days",
 RB> particularly in filling station personnel who often washed greasy
 RB> parts in gasoline.

That was my dad's occupation and he never got lead poisoning from doing
that. Before WW2, he worked in a factory, painting cars (hearses and
ambulances converted from Packards and Cadillacs). When he got back from
WW2, he bought a Texaco gas station, sold that one after 5 years and
bought into a DX (Sun Oil) station. In the Texaco station, they had a 25
gallon oil drum that they converted into a oil burning furnace. In the
winter they burned oil drainings that they had saved all summer. Later
in life, he got emphasyma and I believe that breathing the fumes from
burning oil (bad pipe joints) and regurgitated fumes from gasoline at the
pumps was the cause. In those days, they didn't know about such things and
when you're young, you think you're invincible and don't take precautions
to prevent things like that.

                R\%/itt

    You can put lipstick on a pig, but the pig still stinks!
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