They’re at it again, this evening Tues, May 23 on CBS affiliate news, repeated Wed am. Horror! Leaded fuel! And KAPA is dragging it’s feet! Feel free to refute.
I'm really not terribly surprised. GA has been dragging its feet for decades. I remember AMOCO unleaded high octane premium when I was a kid. New cars were lead-free by 1975. Leaded (edit prompted by @Zeldman) gasoline was gone completely by 1996. So it's 2023. The only significant domestic user of leaded fuel is an industry that, at least to the casual observer, has done just about zero other than complain that "man cannot fly" without it. Suddenly it exists! And that was subject of political bickering. Exists but not rolled out. Change it to something public but non-aviation you would like to see changed (I'm sure we all have something) and apply the same timeline.
Kapa is jumping on the unleaded band wagon. I read it was one of the first places to push, err… sell unleaded. It has to be subsidized for people to buy it.
Automotive engines have run fine - actually better - and lasted longer on unleaded for 50 years. It’s ridiculous that aircraft engines’ only knock preventative is lead in the fuel.
It has very little to do with knock suppression. The lead boosts the octane to prevent detonation. Very different engine compared to automotive. Our engines are based on 1930's tech, so we need a 1930's fuel.
AMOCO had a 102 octane premium leaded gas long time ago. It really woke up my big block Chevy engines.!! But not all stations carried it. Back when I was a mechanic we would occasionally get old people that would complain that their engine is ''shaky'' or ''vibrating''. We would put in a tankful of AMOCO regular, go out one the highway and floor it a few times. The engine would shudder, shake and backfire a few times, but after that the engine would run like a top.!!
AMOCO was great, as long as you lived in a place where you could get it. The western US was NOT where you could get it.
Sunoco 260. I used in my '63 409 Biscayane. $.32 a gallon. Yeah, that's how old I am a super premium fuel for 32 cents a gallon. They call it Sunoco Racing Fuel now, and you can buy it in fancy 5 gallon jugs at the local speed shop. I didn't bother to look at the price tag.
Yes sir, and looking in the mirror would generally show a large cloud of soot, carbon, and whatever else needed to be blown out of the engine. Had to do this to my mom's car once in awhile ...
At your age you probably shouldn't.... the shock may be too much for you... Yep, as a teenager I would take my dad's 1970 429 Mercury land barge out on the road and clean it out.... man, that was the first car that I hit over 100 mph in....at age 15...
The 5 months we spent in the Boston area in 1969 that was called a "128 Tune-up". Hwy 128 was the circumferential highway around Boston.
