Morris Minor Owners Club

After doing some Minor related searches on the internet recently I came across this company selling inline fuel catalysts.

http://www.fuelcat.co.uk/index.php

It all sounds great but what's the general opinion? Has anyone installed one of these? Does the club approve?<br><br>

Total waste of money and have be proven NOT to work at all.

Complete waste of time and money! Has no scientific merit whatsoever.

Ohh - ohh - negative comments about a product - we're for it now!

Most if not all classic car mags have refused to take adverts for these type of things - as they don't work.

rayofleamington wrote:Most if not all classic car mags have refused to take adverts for these type of things - as they don't work.

Surely they must work-look at the testimonials they are showing

Charles Ware were selling this type of 'converter' dont know if they still do though.

bmcecosse wrote:Complete waste of time and money! Has no scientific merit whatsoever.

Ohh - ohh - negative comments about a product - we're for it now!

Carefull Roy you dont want to get an ASBO this close to Christmas

" Charles Ware were selling this type of 'converter' dont know if they still do though. " Exactly!

They DO work, they prove how far you can drive a Morris Minor on unleaded in normal conditions without doing obvious damage to the engine.

But you can drive a Minor on unleaded in "normal conditions" (whatever they may be!) without doing any obvious damage WITHOUT adding a pointless "converter".

The facts are (a) a number of classic car magazines ran some very controlled tests and found that the "catalyst" type appliances did not work. (b) The FBHVC recommends only a few "lead replacement" products, and they are all additives, not catalyst solutions.

If you're doing high mileage / high speed, and/or need to service the head anyway, then fit an unleaded head. For lower mileage use something like Castrol Valvemaster, For very low mileage and speed, then don't bother with anything; but don't waste your money on inline filters or similar.

simmitc wrote:But you can drive a Minor on unleaded in "normal conditions" (whatever they may be!) without doing any obvious damage WITHOUT adding a pointless "converter".

I was trying to suggest that the device takes advantage of the vehicles normal operating conditions to suggest function without directly using words like useless or fraudulant to hint that I think it may not work as buyers expect it to (sorry if I have created any confusion).

Yes - I got that Arnie!! Thought it was quite obvious.

bmcecosse wrote:Yes - I got that Arnie!! Thought it was quite obvious.

Reply comes across as rather sharp. Have I caused offense? If so I unreservedly apologise

No - not at all meant to be in any way sharp! Just making the point that I completely agree with you - the Fuel Cat (or Fool Cat?) does a good job of showing that Minors run perfectly well for many a mile - without needing additives or 'unleaded' conversion!

Theyre not totally useless as it could be used to join two pieces of rubber hose together

bmcecosse wrote:No - not at all meant to be in any way sharp! Just making the point that I completely agree with you - the Fuel Cat (or Fool Cat?) does a good job of showing that Minors run perfectly well for many a mile - without needing additives or 'unleaded' conversion!

Thats a relief (I hate to think I had inadvertantly annoyed someone). Perhaps you can help me lay some myths to rest. This whole tin ball cat thing started around boosting RR Merlin engine performance in ww2 ( the engine went from about 900hp to about 1700hp during the war and on to 2000hp after). It was high levels of supercharging, high octane fuels and nitrus that achieved these power levels. But much later in the classic car mags a story developed about Russians using tin as an octane booster and engine protector It was a version of this idea that became a packet of additive that was dropped into your car fuel tank and hey presto you could run your soft valve seated car on unleaded without any expensive machining. There were a few road tests done and the idea seemed to work until Practical Classics took a B series engine that had been recently rebuilt and ran it in the running condition that causes valve set recession to be most active (high revs and high engine load). The result of this was the engine lost compression within 10000 miles due to valve seat recession. The tests done which appeared to endorse the product were helped by a natural mechanical hardening of the seats with age (rather than the freshly cut seats of the test engine) and residual lead on the seats and valve (remember you could protect an engine by running it 1 fill in 3 with leaded fuel). Once the reputation of this drop in the tank product was destroyed it went away but I understand the in line cats are tin based products. I'm sure I have missed details in this ramble BMC can you fill in any gaps?

As far as I know - Tin does absolutely nothing for an engine. Except of course - in the big-end bearings which are Al/Sn alloy! The only additive even worth considering is Tetraboost - it actually contains Lead Tetra-ethyl - the rest contain sodium and/or potassium - and a great deal of hocus pocus. What they 'may' do - is boost the octane number slightly so the engine doesn't pink - but they won't protect the valve seats in the way lead tetra-ethyl does! Best way to protect the exhaust seats and valves - set the gaps to 15 thou - and check/re-set them every 3000 miles. You need do nothing else.

Which did a test of "Octane boosters" that was damning, they wouldn't recommend any of them.

The "Broquet" drop-in tank version claims to work by some mysterious interaction between the tin alloy and the steel of the tank. As they claim it also works on reducing diesel emissions/consumption, and as most diesel tanks have been made of plastic for years........