I'm pretty sure American-made cars have had catalytic converters since
1975. European cars didn't come over that way consistently until about
1980. My parents' '77 BMW 320i took leaded gas.
Jim Ruwaldt
'72 TR6 CC79338U(being restored)
On Mon, 2 Jun 1997, Douglas Mitchell wrote:
> On Jun 2, 3:32pm, Jonathan Miles wrote:
> > Subject: Re: Unleaded fuel
> >
> > > I have a question about unleaded fuel.
> > > >There seems to be some debate as to the negative effects of running
> > > >unleaded fuel in my '75 Triumph Spitfire.
> > > **************************************
> > > Glen,
> > > Your 75 _WAS_ designed to run on unleaded fuel - nothing to worry about.
> > >
> > >
> > > Barry Schwartz in San Diego,CA
> > >
> > > Bschwartz@encad.com
> > > 72-V6 Spitfire ( 5 speed's mounted, working on tranny cover )
> > > 70 GT6+ (daily driver for now)
> > > 70 Spitfire (body repair on hold see above)
> >
> > That's interesting; was this modification only for the American
> > market do you know?
> >
> > Jonathan
> >
> > '77 Spitfire 1500
> >
> >
> >-- End of excerpt from Jonathan Miles
>
>
> Yes. By 1976, the great majority of new cars sold in North America were
> equipped with catalytic converters. Cat-Cons require the use of unleaded
> fuel to keep from destroying the catalyst. I thought that the Spit
> didn't require unleaded until 1976, rather than '75. I could be (and
> quite possibly am) wrong on this point.
>
> I put an article in the SOL ftp archives last year, which talks about
> the use of hardened valve seats in internal combustion engines. It is
> located at:
>
> ftp://www.team.net/sol/valves.txt
>
> I have been running unleaded fuel in my '73 Spit for most of the
> last 15 years. Running unleaded has not been a problem.
>
> Doug Mitchell
> dmitchel@ismi.net
> dmitchel@ford.com
>
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