Odd Hedberg wrote:
>
> Michael,
> as a Swede I'm a bit curious, what's FDR?
Odd, sorry, I misspoke (or misconceived, or whatever <g>... I'm prone to
all such errors <g>). I meant the FRG. Democratic Germany, as opposed to
the DDR. They, according to news reports here, were rather late in
adopting either mandated unleaded fuel or substantive emissions
standards. Slow to acknowledge damage to the Black Forest, etc.
> On the topic of unleaded fuel; we've had unleaded fuel in Sweden
> since about fifteen - sixteen years back. The compulsory use of
> catalytic converters, that's another thing... They became standard
> fitment from the 1989 year model. They were voluntary options for
> some years before that. I've driven all my cars on unleaded ever
> since it appeared, simply because it's cheaper than the (then)
> leaded fuel. The only car that have had any trouble was my trusted
> old '67 Beetle - it melted one piston once on a highway strech...
That might have been due to the Beetle, not the fuel... was it the #3
cylinder? That one is the most likely to burn various bits such as
pistons and valves, since it is a little short on cooling air. In fact,
the #3 lobe on the distributor has 2-3 deg. retard built in for that
very reason.
Here, most of the manufacturers which still depended upon carburetion in
the `80s tended to set them from the factory a little too lean, to keep
carbon monoxide within limits, and still maintain adequate levels of
unburned hydrocarbons. There were also fleet mileage requirements which
inclined manufacturers to meter a bit on the lean side. Was rather hard
on valves and seats. Fuel injection was and is a bit kinder to engines,
not only because the metering was more accurate, but also because the
mixture distribution was much better. American manufacturers were just a
bit slow to adopt that method of fuel distribution (discounting early
attempts at throttle-body injection, which was much like carburetion in
its effects).
> But I don't think the fuel is to blame for that little incident...
> More so my heavy right foot, the downhill slope and tailwind. ;-)
Ah, be generous with yourself, Odd... blame the gas!
> Geographical Position: N 60deg15min E 18deg23min
> ------------------------------------------------------------
North 60 deg.? Odd, that's _too far north_! Of course, that could be my
point of view... SE New Mexico, USA... about N. 30 deg. <g> It's about
75 deg. F (~24 deg. C) at the moment... and getting warmer. By July, we
here will all be ready for a bit of Sweden.... <g>
Cheers.
--
My other Triumph doesn't run, either....
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