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The long-term developments in petrol / gasoline formulation
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NASkeet
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PostPosted: Wed May 17, 2023 1:20 pm    Post subject: The long-term developments in petrol / gasoline formulation Reply with quote

Over the past several decades, there have been various developments & changes in the formulation of petrol / gasoline / l'essance / benzine etc, which has long been a complex cocktail of straight-chain hydro-carbons, branched-chain hydro-carbons, cyclic hydro-carbons and various additives, including anti-knock agents (e.g. tetra-ethyl lead), detergents, spark-aiders and oxygenates such as ethanol.

https://fbhvc.co.uk/fuels

https://www.theaa.com/driving-advice/fuels-environment/lrp

Back in the late-1980s, I acquired from one of my work colleagues, a single copy of a quarterly magazine published by the Shell UK Ltd, the British subsidiary of the Royal Dutch Shell Group – Shell Oil Company, which contains various technical and general interest articles, pertaining to Shell products, personnel and history.

One article of potential interest to owners of all petrol-fuelled vehicles, is about Formula Shell, a reformulated form of petrol (i.e. gasoline in USA parlance!?!) with special detergents to keep the induction-system clean and give better engine performance with leaded & unleaded petrol and petrol/alcohol blends, which was launched sometime during Spring 1986; resulting from research conducted at six Shell laboratories around the World; believed to be in Great Britain, The Netherlands, West Germany, France, Japan and the USA. The magazine-cover photograph shows: “one of the advantages of its effects – a dramatic improvement in valve cleanliness”.

In Great Britain, Formula Shell was available in all three British leaded-petrol octane grades (2-star => RON 92, 3-star => RON 95 & 4-star => RON 98). Once upon a time, there had been lower and higher octane grades (1-star => RON 88 I suspect & 5-star => RON 101).

https://365daysofmotoring.com/star-grading-of-petr...t=cmp-true

Unleaded petrol wasn’t available in Great Britain until the late-1980s or early-1990s; catalytic converters not being mandatory until late-1992 or early-1993 on newly registered cars.

However, these days, leaded petrol is no longer available for cars (possibly as AVGAS for aero-engines), so in the United Kingdom we presently have unleaded petrol (RON 95) and super-unleaded petrol (RON 98), but in some European countries there is reputed to be lower-octane unleaded petrol (RON 91) available.

Formula Shell petrol, Shell Times, Spring 1986, Front Cover & Pages 2~5

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Formula Shell window sticker – Approximate Conversions between Imperial Gallons & Litres

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=2389466

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.


Although petrol (i.e. gasoline in USA parlance!?!) was sold in litres (i.e. 0•21997 Imperial gallons or 0•26418 US gallons) in most of the World including Europe, this was in the days when most British drivers were still accustomed to buying their petrol in Imperial gallons (i.e. 4•5461 litres), which should not be confused with the smaller and lesser-known US gallons (i.e. 0•8327 Imperial gallons or 3•7853 litres).

Since then, it has become the norm to buy petrol in litres in Great Britain, so this sticker is no longer really necessary. One merely needs to remember that the 1968~79 VW Type 2's petrol tank capacity is approximately 13•2 Imperial gallons or 60 litres.
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Much modified, RHD 1973 VW "1600" Type 2 Westfalia Continental campervan, with the World's only decent, cross-over-arm, SWF pantograph rear-window wiper

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Volkswagen Type 2 Owners' Club (Great Britain)

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Root_Werks
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Location: San Juan Islands
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PostPosted: Mon May 22, 2023 2:53 pm    Post subject: Re: The long-term developments in petrol / gasoline formulation Reply with quote

Very cool and interesting reading, thanks!

Take for granted fuel is fuel and not really how much it's changed over time.
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