the old zinc wire full of lead balls trick

[zardoz]

We have all seen the differing types of these things. They supposedly either 'up the ocatane' or 'put the lead back in the fuel' whichever they are trying to sell you. However i have of the heard the rumour to go with it, that the RAF used them in the 1940s when petrol was hard to get into the country because of the U-boat patrols, and our usual juice was not to be had anywhere for love nor money. So this lower ocatane stuff was amped up with the lead balls in the tank. I heard similar stories about the same device being used to combat 'knock' in engines in the 1940s.

Are any of these old 1940s rumours in the remotest bit true ? Im not arsed whether it works or not, its the truth of if they were used by the RAF or not that im interested in. One of the old guys at a garage i frequent, swore truthfully he remembered them being used in the war ?

 

[knoba]

I've heard those rumours, in the past, too. Lead does slow down the burn time, on combustion, giving the explosion a more even burn & less of a punch. (Remember when 4 star was phased out in favour of lead-free? ...pinking was like that year's trend!) As to weather those rumours are true or not - it'd be nice to know.

 

[TechnicAl]

Balls of lead in the tank. Ive never heard of that one. There is no actual Lead in Petrol, its Tetraethyl Lead thats added. This forms metallic Lead on combustion.

I dont see how the Lead balls would work.

 

[drjim]

I had a problem with my track car project - couldn't get the fuel syphon pipe into the tank to drain it, so I had to dismantle it with several litres of petrol in. There were two wire/lead ball things in the filler neck. The balls all looked the same size so clearly hadn't been dissolving!

 

[Shug]

I found some lead balls wrapped in wire mesh inside petrol tank of my project car.
Car had been sat since 1994 and still had old petrol in tank. Lead looked immaculate and untouched.

 

[TurboShed]

I thought the lead lubricated the valve seats, older cars had to have harder valve seats machined into them... I had a 2.8 Ford V6 that I had to add an additive to as it hadn't had the seats done.

 

[andypocock]

I thought the lead lubricated the valve seats, older cars had to have harder valve seats machined into them... I had a 2.8 Ford V6 that I had to add an additive to as it hadn't had the seats done.

As they used to say at school - see #3 above

 

[fingers99]

Yep, and Avgas was coming over from the USA. If they had the lead, they could make tetraethyl.

I'd not rule its being tried out (so many hairbrained things were) but -- as it doesn't work, I can't see it being used.

 

[gordon stephenson]

Hi all,
Been reading this thread, Being a little older than most of you, Tha balls you refer to were certainly used but they were not lead but some sort of zinc.They were sold untill not too long ago. supposed to make it possible to run engines on very low octane poor quality petrol,They were sold in two forms, 1.Pellets in a stainless steel mesh bag fordropping into the petroltank or pellets inside an aluminium canister with hose tail ends for inserting into the fuel line.I still have one of these in my garage,I think they do actually work a little and mine was swapped from vehicle to vehicle for many years, Last used on one of my Discoveries about 2005.
Hope this helps, Best regards Gordon,

 

[Wozzaaah]

1.Pellets in a stainless steel mesh bag fordropping into the petroltank

We used to sell 'Carbonflo' ones.
I remember we had a customer with a mk4 cortina who had his engine reconditioned then had one of those unleaded doodahs dropped into his tank. He was back within weeks with a wrecked cylinder head .
I think that may have been the only one we ever sold .