Shell Petrol Can Puzzle

I seem to recall my Seagull outboard ran 6-1 or 8-1.

The date code will be two digits roughly in the middle of the base.

Martin P

Hi all, back in my early motorcycling days I had a number of 2 stroke machines, 250cc Excelsior Talisman Twin anyone? In those far off days mixing petroil was a bit of a minefield, one of the worst culprits was the forecourt mixing pumps, set mix ratio then hand pump the required quantity into your tank, simples, except when some lazy person omits to fill the 2 stroke oil tank inside it! followed by a continuous cavalcade of bikes & scooters being taken to repair shops seized solid. Having been warned of this disaster by a friend who was a motorcycle mechanic I resolved to take matters into my own hands, run fuel down to reserve setting, add measured amount of oil & measured amount of petrol, agitate bike to give fuel a good swish round, keep a small graduated bottle of oil for everyday use on the bike, bigger one for longer range expeditions, bit of a faff but never ever got caught out. All made a nonsense by nancy boy modern machines with separate 2 stroke oil tanks & variable ratio pumps Bah Humbug.

Bob H

Thanks Martin. I scratched around the middle and found a circular stamping with 'SM Co' at the top, 'London' at the bottom, '1' on the left and '32' on the right, which I interpret as January 1932.

I also investigated another can I inherited and found the date code for September 1934. All I need to do now is work out what to do with a gallon of petrol of indeterminate age, probably leaded, which it contains.

Another question - the seals in the brass caps look like leather. Would that be right?

George

You could try it in a lawnmower or sniff it, probably wouldn’t do any harm if you top up the car tank that has plenty in it or just use it to clean stuff though best used in a well ventilated area without any naked flames.

Mike

[This posting has been removed]

I wouldn't put the suspected leaded petrol in the car tank unless the car is designed to run on leaded. Google revealed the following:-

"The addition of even a small quantity of tetraethyl lead to your tank will contaminate your catalytic converter, and reduce or destroy its ability to minimize pollutants."

Keep it for the lawnmower.

Dave

Edit to remove ''unleaded''

Edited By David Davies 8 on 25/09/2019 15:25:56

The lid seals from memory were leather but I now use cork sheet cut into the appropriate circle.

Martin P

A good point Dave, definitely don’t put put in an engine with a cat, the damage could be much more than the £6 saved.

Mike

Back in the sixties I had an Ariel Leader two stroke, I used to mix my own fuel, didn’t trust garage dispensers, I used Filtrate two stroke oil which contained colloidal graphite and the recommendation was to halve the oil content of the mixture which I did and the bike ran very successfully on this product, much less oil smoke generated.

Dave W