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8 & 10 cyl Bristol cars Type 407 onwards - restoration, repair, maintenance etc

Diesel V8 - or straight six

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  #21 (permalink)  
Old 27-03-11, 02:12 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Janne View Post
Are you boys discussing US gallons or Imperial gallons?

Talk Metric so all of us understand!
If it comes from the states, you can bet it's US measure. Surely your cell phone has a calculator!

There are a very few places here where one sees distances in both miles and kilometers on our Interstate system, but only a few. It's basically a waste of paint putting it up on the signs.

Though most cars sold here will show kilometers and miles on the speedometer, I suspect that's primarily for the convenience of the maker.

In day-to-day activity no red-blooded American is going to use that foreign invention, metric measurement. Scientifically, some industrially, yes.

I've never seen fuel sold by the litre here.
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  #22 (permalink)  
Old 27-03-11, 02:29 PM
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OT: My reason for asking is, that using "gallons" can be very confusing, as a US guy talks one gallon (3.785 liters) and an Aussie talks one gallon (4.546 liters)

I know the difficulty the US population has accepting changes. I live close, and have to go there from time to time...
UK are not much better, 10 years of enjoyable living there taught me that!
UK is Metric now, but older folks still use the Old measures.


Not sure what a red-blooded American is. I understand most of you are 3rd or 4th generation immgrants? Sweden and Norway lost about 25% of the population to the US and Canada in the 1860-1890. Hyge impact on your culture it was. A good one.

But I do believe the times are moving to a more universal systems.
The vast majority of us are Metric, and our numbers grow every day! The only countries left not accepting the Metric system are USA, Liberia and Burma...
The US are in good company then!

Last edited by Janne; 27-03-11 at 02:40 PM.
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  #23 (permalink)  
Old 27-03-11, 02:32 PM
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Too much bickering for a Sunday -- I'm off for a PINT !
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  #24 (permalink)  
Old 27-03-11, 02:46 PM
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Greg, enjoy!

I too will get some liquid bread today...

BTW, a quite important question:
What petrol do you guys use?
Here we have the US style petrol, and I thought I use a 50/50 mix between the Higher Octane and the Lower octane.
What do you recommend?

Edit: What you guys do not understand, is the reson why the Metric System was developed by the Frenchies 200+ years ago.

It sounds better in Centimeters than Inches!!!

Last edited by Janne; 27-03-11 at 03:16 PM.
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  #25 (permalink)  
Old 28-03-11, 12:02 AM
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Originally Posted by Janne View Post
Here we have the US style petrol, and I thought I use a 50/50 mix between the Higher Octane and the Lower octane.
What do you recommend?
What is "US style petrol"?

I don't see much point in mixing lower octane (91 RON?) petrol with higher octane (98 RON?), surely you may as well just use one or the other.

I use 98 RON petrol in my 411 S5 but since the engine was rebuilt it has a higher CR. The original Chrysler V8's had a relatively low compression ratio so 91/92 RON petrol should suffice.

The 400 CID engines used in the 411 S4 & S5 actually have a lower CR than the 383s in the earlier 411s.

If you don't drive it very hard then you probably don't need to worry about VSR (valve seat recession), but you could always put in an additive to guard against that.

That said, if the engine number in your car (411 S5?) has a "J" series number (or later) it will have hardened valve seats anyway.

As for the metric vs imperial argument, given that the metric users on this site far outnumber the US Imperial users, I suggest we use litres from now on when discussion fuel prices. Then Lou can use the calculator on his cell phone instead of everyone else
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  #26 (permalink)  
Old 28-03-11, 12:36 AM
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As my engine has been restored and upgraded, I guess I will need to use the highest Octane.
Sometimes we get good quality fuels here, sometimes bad. All fuel is imported from South America (cheaper I think). The Diesel oil here is disgusting.

I think the highest here is 96, but not sure (wife does the refuelling on our cars except the Diesel Defender).
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  #27 (permalink)  
Old 28-03-11, 03:44 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin H View Post
As for the metric vs imperial argument, given that the metric users on this site far outnumber the US Imperial users, I suggest we use litres from now on when discussion fuel prices. Then Lou can use the calculator on his cell phone instead of everyone else
I'm happy to use my calculator, thanks.

What's a "US Imperial user?"
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  #28 (permalink)  
Old 28-03-11, 04:03 AM
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A US citizen that thinks the US has an empire....

Not sure either what the US non-metric measurements are called.
The British ones are called Imperial.
US Insular?
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  #29 (permalink)  
Old 28-03-11, 05:18 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by browning l View Post
What's a "US Imperial user?"
I meant people who use the US version of the Imperial weights and measures system.

Perhaps I should have said users of the "United States customary units".
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  #30 (permalink)  
Old 28-03-11, 09:03 AM
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Don't forget that USA octanes are different from European Octanes. European Octanes are Reaearch Octane Number (RON) and USA Octanes are an average of RON and Motor Octane Number (MON) and are consequently about 5 points lower. So 91 Octane USA Gasoline is about the same as 96 Octane UK Petrol. I think what we generally called 'Unleaded' in UK is like 87 or 88 Octane in USA.

USA Gallons are only 3.79 litre, compared to Imperial Gallons at 4.55 litres.

Do Americans ever talk of pints (other than when visting a pub in UK) ?

Thor
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  #31 (permalink)  
Old 28-03-11, 11:30 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin H View Post
I meant people who use the US version of the Imperial weights and measures system.

Perhaps I should have said users of the "United States customary units".
{;>), since your icons options isn't working.
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  #32 (permalink)  
Old 28-03-11, 11:34 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Thor View Post
Don't forget that USA octanes are different from European Octanes. European Octanes are Reaearch Octane Number (RON) and USA Octanes are an average of RON and Motor Octane Number (MON) and are consequently about 5 points lower. So 91 Octane USA Gasoline is about the same as 96 Octane UK Petrol. I think what we generally called 'Unleaded' in UK is like 87 or 88 Octane in USA.

USA Gallons are only 3.79 litre, compared to Imperial Gallons at 4.55 litres.

Do Americans ever talk of pints (other than when visting a pub in UK) ?

Thor
Sure. "pint" is commonly used here. And, it doesn't mean like a "pint" on a compass, the way it does in OZ.

Probably it's most common usage now is a pint of whiskey; less common now is a pint of cream, or milk. Few markets here offer milk in sizes smaller than a quart, but cream, whipping cream, and "Half-and-half" - use your imagination - is most often bought in pints.
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  #33 (permalink)  
Old 28-03-11, 01:04 PM
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Well I had a "few " Pints of Guinness, and at £3.50 / pint it costs more than a gallon of USA petrol !

I will consider drinking Diesel from now on -- pink diesel for the wife
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  #34 (permalink)  
Old 28-03-11, 04:00 PM
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Whiskies all used to be sold here in fifths, pints and half-pints. They still offer the latter two.

Now it's liter and half-liter; many of the producers are foreign, i.e., Seagram

Who cares?

I know, it's off topic...so, take it back.
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