James Charles Ruwaldt wrote:
>
> 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
> >
My '75 Spit does not have a catalytic converter,and the Haynes shop
manual seems to verify this. It seems the converter was not installed
until '76.
I seem to get the feeling from all the responses I got that using
unleaded fuel is not a problem.
Thanks to everyone!
Glenn
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