Unleaded Fuel and your Classic Alfa

["Ian Preece" <ian_preece@domain.elided>]

This is a question aimed at our friends in the US (and Europe outside the
UK).

Here in the UK, leaded fuel will be unavailable from 1st January 2000. That
is the official line, and comes about as part of the UK governments
commitment to reducing global warming, pollution etc. However, there are
still tens of thousands of cars on the road which cannot run on unleaded
fuel, many of them 'classics'. Depending upon who you speak to, this problem
will be overcome via the use of new fuels, additives etc which are already
available in continental Europe. The effectivity of these additives, long
term, may be in doubt, and the only real solution is to have harder valve
seats inserted into your car's cylinder head.

My perception of the US (and please forgive me if I'm wrong!) is that
places like California, with it's strict emission control laws, must have
outlawed leaded fuel a long time ago. If this is infact the case, what, if
anything, did Afla owners do to overcome the potential problems. Was it a
head rebuild? Have you used additives?

I know that more recent models, like the 75/Milano, certainly in the UK,
could run on either leaded or unleaded, but the none electronic ignition
models would, I guess,  need timing adjustments at the very least.

I was always intrigued with my Twin Spark 75, that while running leaded fuel
the interior colour of the exhaust tail pipe was always that lovely coffee
cream, indicating to me that combustion was spot on and the engine running
correctly. However, tank up with unleaded and the colour soon changed to
black, not exactly sooty, but hardly clean. There was no noticeable change
in performance, but it always made me wonder about the perceived benefits of
lead free fuel......

The reason for asking is that I promised myself another Alfa for the
Millennium, and I would like to know the score before I start looking around
for a suitable car.

Hope someone out there can help.

Ciao,

Ian


P.S. Coming soon.....

'Alfamania', my home page for Alfa nuts everywhere, and 'Andiamo Arese', a
site devoted to a trip ten years ago to the AR Museum and the Mille Miglia.
Watch this space....

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