[updated:LAST EDITED ON 09-Aug-02 AT 06:30 PM (EST)]Graphite motor oil, I forgot who the company that introduced them was it ARCO? I remember my brother inlaw X that is, had to have his engine completely rebuilt after about 50,000 miles due to that crap. He was really proud of his new ride too. He bought a brand new Buick Riviera when he got out of high school. Everyone thought he dealt drugs . Actually he just had a really good job delivering Coca Cola. Very similar to drugs though. Anyone else have any stories about that?

 

Yep, but just barely do. That stuff came out in the late 70's didn't it?

 

The graphite probably got filtered out by the oil filter, just like the "Teflon" additives do. The oil filter is made to filter out tiny particulates, although some filters do a better job than others. That graphite probably plugged the filter and made it bypass. With the oil filter on bypass, unfiltered oil was circulated in the engine.



Speaking of remembering...

Does anyone remember the "High Quality -Low Cost" filling stations?

Those places made a bundle off additives for gasoline to make up for the "low quality" of the gas. By the time people paid for the gas additives that were already in the major brands of gasoline it certainly made it "high cost" -hehe

This doesn't even cover the cost of fuel filters that were plugged up and replaced, the water in the gas, and all of the engine/carb repairs required.

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 21-Aug-02 AT 04:32 PM (EST)]Yeah I do remember about the additives. How about when Gasohol first came out. I had a friend that if you saw him you would have thought he was a country bumkin that didnt know a thing hahh He fell off a scaffolding that collaped at a construction site and got a 20 some thousand dollar settlement and researched gasohol when it first hit it big and invested in it and made like 100 gs in a very short amount of time and pulled out before it busted. In all reality he was very good with the stock market It wasnt just a fluke for him.

 

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 21-Aug-02 AT 05:18 PM (EST)].....when gas was $0.27/gallon AND with a fill up you received a beautiful glass tumbler? Some of these sat a little crooked and had odd variations but mom eventually acquired a service for 12 and used them proudly at the next wedding reception.

Further back, my first car had a starter 'button' that was a solid metal rod stretching from inside the cab all the way out to the starter. Stepping on the end of the rod activated the starter contacts. This car also had an optional heater that was a 3" metal tube strapped to the exhaust manifold ending just before the firewall. At the firewall was a corresponding hole with a simple slide cover. Open the cover for heat, close it for less heat. (Heat was free, it was just a matter of how much you could stand). Any guesses as to what car this would be?

 

I sold gas back when it averaged about $.25/gal for premium. I have sold gas for as low as $.03/gal.

I don't have any idea what that car was but my friends Ford 9N tractor still uses some sort of a manual button for the starter.

 

Eric, you got me beat, my first job was pumping gas for Enco (the renamed Esso) at $0.27 for premium. It sure smelled a lot better compared to the reformulated stuff we have today.

Barry

 

PURE PENNSYLVANIA (SP) crude oil was Valvoline,
when oil was in cans,when gas was red,purple, green. the last
2 were avaition fuel. (maybe still is it denotes hi test
purple was 114/145, and the green was 100/130 performance number.

 

In my farmimg years, I saw purple and red being used to dye farm gas for subsidy purposes. (farmers only)
Red came after purple, and I don't know why, maybe cheaper?
Anyway, I haven't done the conversion lately on our fuel prices in US dollars per US gallon.. We are paying 70 cents a liter here, in Canadian money.
Mark


https://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gallery/displaythumbnail.php?&photoid=5362&.jpg
Ford started it; Ford will finish it!

 

When oil cans used to include the term "virgin" because you could also buy remanufactured motor oil. I used to buy it in gallon cans because I had an old inboard boat that took 10 quarts to fill the pan. Another guy told me he bought reclaimed oil from a scrap yatd for 15 cents a quart. Said it looked like clean oil but he believed it was just heavily filter oil from junked cars and fleet oil changes. No weight was ever specified.

 

You could buy that reclaimed oil in cans or bulk 5G cans or 55G drums at some farm stores etc. You could also bring your own container and pump it out of the barrel. I pumped a lot of it out of 55G drums at a Western Auto store. It was just oil that was collected from service stations etc and was filtered fairly well. Some guy brought some in to service his car with at the Phillips 66 station I worked at and when I looked in the bottom of the can there was a thin gray film of fine sediment on the bottom of the can. Just enough to show on a finger when swiped across it. There was no "weight" since it was a mixture. From the pour characteristics and feel I would have said generally about a 20 weight, but I suppose that varied with the mix:-) The additives in different brands of oils are often incompatible and when the oils are mixed the additive packages react with each other and settle out as a heavy sludge. That reclaimed oil was probably devoid of any additive package and may have even been acidic. Bad stuff for an engine.

The Phillips gas was always red. I don't remember what color the av-gas was. I would have to ask my father-inlaw about the farm gas colors. He was a Standard Oil bulk agent that delivered to all the farmers and the local Standard stations. It always pissed him off that I couldn't run Standard fuel. My 63Ford had 12.5:1 compression and my 68 Plymouth, I bought after I married his daughter, wouldn't run on Standard regular (pinged like the devil) but it would run on Phillips regular:-)

-btw, I worked for Phillips66 from 1967 thru 1972

 

'32 ford roadster ??? or was that old enough !

john

 

A WINNER!!! John, your guess is old enough and close enough... a 1931 Model A Tudor Sedan...strange first car for a high school student but loads of fun to repair and drive.

 

...seeing gobs of STP "jelly-goo" in the bottom of an oil pan?

...Toilet paper oil filters?

...Oil bath air cleaners?

...Flatheads?

...Distributors with oil cups on the side?

...Sealed driveshaft tubes?

...Leaf springs with metal enclosures and grease zerks?

...Generators and "buzz box" regulators that you could adjust?

...Point adjustment tools?

...Spark plug "blast" cleaners?

...Hidden gas tank caps?

...Patching tire tubes?

Bicycles with...

...Thorn-proof bicycle tubes? -they still have these don't they?

...Balloon tires, and banana seats?