<![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded! - Jalopnik Comments]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded! - Jalopnik Comments]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> My '89 244 has "UNLEADED FUEL ONLY" written on the dash.

We hadn't quite gotten rid of leaded gas at that point...

FuzzyPlushroom

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> @ppiddy: I remember leaded petrol, and I'm "only" 28. And I'd like you young whippersnappers to mind your manners, and stay off the lawn. And don't get any fingerprints on my paint.

[/cane waving]

the good dr zero

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> Don't miss out on Vitamin Pb!

Murilee Martin

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> I pumped gas when there was still a choice between leaded and unleaded.
Explains my short attent..... what was I about to say?
I recall guys in big block US iron and euro cars blending so many gallons of this grade and so many of that, all to lubricate the valve seals and get the right octane. Some dudes even went to the airport for "AVGAS" from a buddy who would sell them a few jerry cans,
Guess what? all high performance cars and bikes need occasional tear downs to maintain the big HP numbers and run at 100%.
With platinum over $2000 US an ounce all cats are going to be stolen for the metal anyway so no worry about plugging up what ain't there.

BRING BACK LEAD AND ...and........and... oh I forget what

smart42

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> @Thirty-Nine: Nope, not until 1980. C'mon, when the body style changed! Everyone knows that....right? .....guys?

OK, maybe just me. I am not an early Civic dork at all.

mydogisdexter

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> @Glenn126: My '75 Pacer bought used in '78 did not have a cat. When it was up on the lift for the required Pennsylvania inspection, the mechanic told me that that was an illegal mod and that I'd have to pay to have a cat installed. He went into his office to look up the price and returned with a surprised expression on his face: the book said that my car didn't need one. He said it only applied to the 258 six with three-speed manual with overdrive (my car.)

@ppiddy: Yes, I'm fifty, but I use my 300 baud acoustic coupler to connect to the intertubes. :)

I know, I shouldn't admit to having owned a Pacer...

NewCaledonia

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> Some of you guys are OLD TIMERS if you remember using leaded gas. Jesus. By my maths, there are people pushing FIFTY YEARS OLD here. I bet you guys remember playing those apari video games and listening to 9-tracks and watching frickin' Three's Company.

I'm amazed you know how to turn on your computer, let alone dial up your 1200 baud modulator/demodulator and post on this "web" site.

ppiddy

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> That guy should concider himself lucky. Most people had to push their 128s with a full tank of gas!

Mysterious Utility Bento

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> I had a 1975 Pacer bought used in 1977 which did not have a catalytic convertor, and I don't think AMC sixes had cats until about 1977 or 1978. Except in California. I remember thinking "wow - expensive" when I went to price the Pacer new in 1975 and found that for California buyers, the catalyst cost $150 extra. In today's money, that'd be like an extra $600. I remember buying a 1975 Ford Pinto new, and it was an "MPG" version (brought out mid-year) and it had a catalytic convertor with a retuned engine, since the original 1975 Pintos didn't use cats. The car was so strangled with crude emission equipment, that Ford yanked some of it off and put on the more expensive catalyst to control emissions, which actually improved the MPG in that case.

Glenn126

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> The yellow car is almost definitely a Fiat 128. Interestingly, gas engined Rabbits ran without catalytic converters until 1980 when the emissions regs tightened. I used to run my 78 Scirocco on leaded regular in the late 80's when it was still available.

slowjoecrow

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> @newfmike: That is the most spectacularly asinine, ill-considered, and self-indicting comment I've read in months. Or at least since the last time we had a cross-posting flood of Consumerist folks in here.

Sheer awesomeness on speed. Keep it up!

beercheck

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> @DisConform: Awesome.

Mokers

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> I learn so much on Jalopnik! We have some of the car-smartest commenters anywhere. What unleaded will do a lead-based car, that Europe measures octane differently, Honda R & D, catalytic converters..
Hope there's not a quiz!

NovaloadMissesPolar

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> Good riddance. The elimination of lead in consumer products is the most plausible explanation for crime reduction seen over the past 20 years. Sorry Giuliani.

newfmike

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> +1 on the fuel additive for use in engines designed for leaded fuel. it's available at any decent auto parts store over here.

otherwise, you will eventually get sunken valve seats and the associated loss of compression.

rusty68

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> FYI that 98 octane in Europe is roughly equivalent to 93-94 octane in the US. The measurements are different--the US uses an average of two octane numbers (MON and RON), while the EU uses just one of them. That's why all the pumps in Europe have higher numbers on them, even though the fuel is almost identical to what we have here.

The Name's Ash78, Housewares

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> A little history and background on this subject from a recent speach by Honda CEO Takeo Fukui...

"My first project was emissions research for a catalyst system and I tried a new concept which had never been used before. We were using the trial and error method. Unfortunately, it didn't work and my effort actually made the exhaust more toxic.

Mr. Honda was still running R&D at that time and I remember he began yelling at me. He was passionate about meeting this challenge. And after we failed again, he said: "Don't just think about a system to treat the exhaust like a catalyst. Think about making a clean engine system from the beginning."

Then we began developing an engine that produced fewer emissions without a catalyst. Honda had only been selling cars for a few years. So, I don't know if anyone believed we could do it. But in November 1974 I visited the United States for a certification test at a government emissions lab. In that test, Civic became the first vehicle to pass the new standards of the U.S. Clean Air Act based only on engine performance. What I remember most was that the government inspector congratulated me for achieving the industry's top rating for fuel economy. This was a big surprise because we hadn't even been thinking about fuel efficiency."

DisConform

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> Burgess Meredith narration seems to fit this commercial perfectly. Could use more Penguin though.

30 years later and the availability of diesel is still an issue. Do the oil companies have plans to increase the number of pumps, what with the soon-to-come influx of diesels to the US?

HansStuckJr

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> @beta.rogan: thx, I'll look into that. Wouldn't want my precious pile of french rust to go bust...

franzouse

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> The oil companies should reintroduce leaded gasoline. As this spot shows, there was tremendous affinity for leaded gas in the 1970's. America loves a throwback product; look at the Mustang.

Andrewpetty

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> I recall that my dad's 86 Chevy C20 pickup (350 I think) was built to run on leaded gas, so my dad would keep a bottle of lead additive in the truck. I'm guessing it wasn't originally sold in California, even though that's where we lived.

LTDScott, Porcubimmer pilot

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> @franzouse: I've done some reading up on valve seat wear due to loss of the lubrication afforded by leaded fuels, and I know in England they have additives for use in cars which originally used leaded fuel only. I'm sure that could be in use in France as well.

beta.rogan

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> @danio3834: I use 98 octane because I'd been told that (in France at least) there's an additive or something in it that enables you to run the car without damaging it. This is worrisome.

franzouse

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> There wasn't a strict cut-over from leaded to unleaded gas. For all the 70's and most of the 80's every gas station in America had BOTH leaded and unleaded gas pumps. You had to know what to put in your car, just like with diesel today.

Here's the problem. Cars with newer emissions and catalytic converters had to use unleaded ONLY, and had little decals and notices in/around the filler cap and usually on the dashboard also.

So why is using leaded gas a selling point? Because it was actually cheaper to buy leaded gas than unleaded. The difference was about like buying regular versus premium today. So for the "thrifty" customers who would be buying a Honda this was a big cost-of-ownership savings at the time.

commander205

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> Wasn't it just the CVCCs that didn't have catalytic converters? I can't remember if my non-CVCC '79 Civic had a cat or not ...

Thirty-Nine

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> @franzouse: The only real problem youll run into with using unleaded in a car that was made for leaded will be premature valve seat and guide wear in the heads.

Thatll occur over a long period of time depending on how much you drive them

danio3834

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> You know, it just occured to me that the engine from the '76 Nova (over whose memory I've been known to bliss out on around here occasionally..), the one that was never apart and has to be well on its way to half-a-million miles now in another vehicle, ran all of its early life on leaded, well into the 80s. The catalyst was swapped for true dual exhaust before the nipples wore off the factory G70s.

beercheck

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> The yellow car appears to be a Fiat 128. Were they still being sold in the U.S. in '78? At least it would have been easy to push.

graverobber- My Yugo Nova!

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> Didn't know that was an issue anymore with modern fuels; I run all my older cars (a 2CV, my mehari, or grandpa's 504 Pug) on lead-free 98 octane.

franzouse

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> The lead will also plug up the converter itself.

But what they said in the commercial was not that your Civic can run fine on leaded fuel, but can run without a catalytic converter...

danio3834

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> @danio3834: The lead will eventually kill the 02 sensors, which in today's day and age can get pricey. But yeah, they'll run it all day long until that point.

beta.rogan

]]> <![CDATA[1978 Honda Civic: Make Mine Leaded!]]> Pretty sure all IC gasoline car engines can without a catalytic converter.

danio3834

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