Is toluene still available? Last time I tried to find (in a pharmacy) some I was told it was carcinogenic and had been withdrawn from general sale.
So the higher the octane the better it is for older (pre-unleaded) engines?
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Fran saying something like:
Try at an industrial chemical suppliers. If they're fairly sure you're not a bomber, you'll get some.
Only for those engines that were designed to make use of the higher octane fuels available then. Most ordinary cars didn't need high octane, but did need the lead. Running a Morris Minor, for example, on 100 octane fuel would be a total waste of money, since the engine can't make use of the extra power potential of the fuel - too low a compression ratio, you see.
An original Rover V8 was designed to use 100 octane (or 5 star), but over the years was redesigned slightly to be able to run on crappier fuel.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Fran saying something like:
It's a start. Just multiply it by 4 and add on a few bits.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember snipped-for-privacy@aber.ac.uk (Andrew Robert Breen) saying something like:
At the rear on the R8 and R10, for definite. I had a close acquaintanceship with both models. At the time, I fancied a Gordini lump, but if I were doing it now I'd heave in the later R5 turbo whizzery.
Not recommending it, just looking at the possibilities... It is legal to drive a car without an MOT or Road Tax to an MOT testing station for a pre-arranged MOT provided it is insured. It is also legal to drive that car home or to a repairers to make repairs if it fails that MOT. If (supposedly) the engine won't start because of a flat battery, it would make sense to deliver it to the garage for an MOT, because they would have the means of charging the battery and starting the engine to conduct the test. And the easiest way is with an A Frame. If you are spotted by a tax checking camera, then provided you can show that it is insured and that you were taking it to a pre-booked MOT you should be bullet proof. They might think you are taking the p**s booking a car parked in Essex to a garage in Devon, but the regulations don't specify a maximum distance. Now, if you move the car on Sunday for a Monday MOT, it would be quite reasonable for you to park it off road in Devon, ready to take it to the MOT test booked for Monday. And if you checked it over and decided that you had spotted a fault that would definitely fail it, and cancelled the Monday MOT, to be rearranged at a later date (after you had repaired the floor) then that would be a reasonable thing to do. All you need is a cooperative MOT testing station in Devon!
Jim
Most cars of the '50s,'60s, 70s and 80s where designed for 4 star ie 98 octane, and will need ignition adjustment to run on Premium Unleaded (95 octane) which is nearer 2 star.
Since most small classics are marginal power wise for modern traffic it makes no sense to reduce this power even more by retarding the ignition for the sake of a few pennies per gallon - especially since few classics do a large mileage where fuel costs are significant. So use Super Unleaded and standard ignition timing.
Of course the lack of lead may be a bigger problem on engines like the Minor with cast iron heads and no valve seat inserts.
No, having had both early and later model 105s, I can assure you they were at the front.
In message , Chris Bolus writes
I apologise for that. What was the number of the 'old shape' rear-engined Skoda? (Pre the 120-series). I know they had the rear fan mounted on a rather nice alloy casting.
That would be the 110. Essentially the same engine/chassis, different capacity. Nice-looking car, I always thought, but with a strong tendency to dissolve to iron oxide!
IIRC bog standard thinners is toluene.
Is it? I thought thinners was white spirit or turps.
It is, but you can get toluene as thinners for some marine paints. Unfortunately they tend to mix it with other stuff.
I used to use it for removing the marks left by those ghastly old sticking plasters. I daresay acetone would work for that just as well though.
Not for cellulose paint which is really the only stuff for use on a car at home.
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