[Public-List] Old gas engines

[George Dinwiddie]

Hi, Paul,

On 8/26/10 7:28 PM, Paul Cheney wrote:
> Still scraping by with the A4, while rebuilding the carb on the dock
> I met a lot of other people having engine troubles recently. I had a
> friend who is also a mechanic helping me.  He suggested the reason so
> many people are and will have trouble with older gas engines is the
> gas itself. These engines were built to run on leaded gas, the lead
> in the gas acts like a lubricant. The low grade gas at most fuel
> docks also has ethanol in it which would do just the opposite. You
> can purchase a lead additive from most automotive supply stores and
> if you can't bring in your own high octane fuel there is another
> additive to deal with the ethanol. Can't remember the name - it's
> blue.  These changes made an improvement in my engines performance.
> Thought I would share incase others are/were in the dark about this.

The lack of lead and the addition of ethanol are completely unrelated 
issues.

On many older engines, the tetra-ethyl-lead in the gasoline lubricated 
the valve seats.  The lead-replacement additives were made for this 
situation.  I used to use it, but then found out that the valve guides 
used in Atomic 4s from sometime before the Alberg 30 went into 
production do not require the lead for lubrication.  Using the additive 
won't hurt anything, except it MAY cause you to burn a little more gas 
for the same propulsion.  I don't remember where I got that idea, so 
don't take it as gospel.

The Atomic 4 is a very low compression engine, and does not have any 
trouble with low-octane gas.

The addition of alcohol CAN cause problems.  There are serious problems 
with boats having gas tanks made of fiberglass, but that doesn't affect 
the Alberg 30.  Mostly the problems have to do with absorbing water from 
the atmosphere into the alcohol, which can cause the alcohol/water 
combination to separate from the gasoline.

  - George [currently in Qingdao, China's sailing capital]

-- 
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   When I remember bygone days                         George Dinwiddie
   I think how evening follows morn;            gdinwiddie at alberg30.org
   So many I loved were not yet dead,           http://www.Alberg30.org
   So many I love were not yet born.                          also see:
                'The Middle' by Ogden Nash     http://idiacomputing.com
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