Red fuel Yellow fuel

[Jerther]

I live in Quebec, Canada... My father who is about 55 years old, often talks about the fuel they had back in the late 60s. He says engines usualy ran on yellow fuel but if you wanted extra power, you would fill the tank with red fuel. Then the engine runs like a beast and woohoo get out of the way...

 

What was so special about that red fuel? And while talking about it, what were those fuels? were they leaded ones? How were they different from the unleaded octane rated fuels we have today?

 

And.. what would happen if you use that so called red fuel with todays engines?

[HyperBuzzin]

They were certainly leaded fuels. Unlead fuel didn't show up till a good while later (around the 70's)

 

As far as the colors, that may have been what a particular station used, as many companies had different colored fuel for different octane ratings.

[Jerther]

Leaded fuels...

 

I found this:

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline[/url'> ]The discovery that lead additives modified this behavior led to the widespread adoption of the practice in the 1920s and therefore more powerful higher compression engines. The most popular additive was tetra-ethyl lead (TEL). However, with the discovery of the environmental and health damage caused by the lead, and the incompatibility of lead with catalytic converters found on virtually all US automobiles since 1975, this practice began to wane in the 1980s [...]

 

In the U.S., where lead was blended with gasoline (primarily to boost octane levels) since the early 1920s, standards to phase out leaded gasoline were first implemented in 1973.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetra-ethyl_lead '>One of the greatest advantages of TEL over other anti-knock agents or the use of high octance blend stocks is the very low concentrations needed. Typical formulations called for 1 part of ethyl fluid (prepared TEL) to 1260 parts untreated gasoline. Competing anti-knock agents must be used in higher amounts and/or have a much lower energy level than natural gasoline. The higher energy content of ethyl gasoline leads results in greater fuel efficiency.

 

And while i'm there...

 

 

Fuel type 		   MJ/L	  MJ/kg  BTU/Imp gal   BTU/US gal   Research octane number (RON)Regular Gasoline 	31.60 	42.70 	151,600 	126,200 	Min 91Premium Gasoline 	32.84 	43.50 	157,500 	131,200 	Min 95

 

Source

 

What? Premium gazoline has a higher energy per volume ratio? I recall a topic here where it was said that regular gazoline had more energy per volume because of some chemical reasons... Doing my homework...

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating...f_octane_rating ]However, premium grades of petrol often contain more energy per litre due to the composition of the fuel as well as increased octane.

 

A simple explanation is that carbon bonds contain more energy than hydrogen bonds. Hence a fuel with a greater number of carbon bonds will carry more energy regardless of the octane rating. A premium motor fuel will often be formulated to have both higher octane as well as more energy.

 

Well that explains about everything... I'll try to know what fillstation my dad went to

[07SilveradoClassic]

I live in Quebec, Canada... My father who is about 55 years old, often talks about the fuel they had back in the late 60s. He says engines usualy ran on yellow fuel but if you wanted extra power, you would fill the tank with red fuel. Then the engine runs like a beast and woohoo get out of the way...

 

What was so special about that red fuel? And while talking about it, what were those fuels? were they leaded ones? How were they different from the unleaded octane rated fuels we have today?

 

And.. what would happen if you use that so called red fuel with todays engines?

 

My guess he was using AV gas. it is dyed by octane rating.