White Gas

[Andy Martin]

I should know the answer to this, but I don't. Reading the post about the iron pump reminded me: Does unleaded gasoline work in white gas appliances/ Is there any difference? I used to work in a refinery and always meant to ask an old chemist but never got around to it. Anybody know?

 

[auggy53]

it does in my coleman lantern and cook stove ,has for years.my thoughts are if it dont have lead in it it wont plug up the generator .

 

[504]

Unleaded
is all Dad ever used in his lantern.

 

[Steve@Advance]

Best explanation I can come up with, white gas was an early term for unleaded gas, naphtha, (not naptha), and
Coleman fuel. It was simply gasoline without the lead additive.

Seems I remember back in the late 50's, early 60's, white gas was sold at marinas for 2 cycle outboards. Want
to say it was required for some Mercury motors? Anyone remember that?

 

[4play]

Explained to me as refined gasoline without all the additives and junk they put in gasoline. They have dual fuel stoves and lanterns available.

 

[Greg1959]

Andy Martin- When I ran the Octane engine lab, everybody came in and drained Iso-octane from my
tanks for use in their Coleman lanterns, stoves, heaters, etc.
Here is a link:

 

[caterpillar guy]

Yes white gas was just the unleaded as they now call it. I remember it was sold for a different price then too. I think it was cheaper back
then. I recall the older guys complaining, as the price went up when the leaded gas was taken off the market.

 

[Dusty MI]

Late 50s early 60s we bought white gas from local gas stations to use in our Colman gas lanterns when we went sucker spearing.

Dusty

 

[Bret4207]

I run a Coleman stove almost every day all winter long. Unleaded works fine, but real Coleman fuel works even better. I don't believe Coleman fuel has the additives pump fuel, even the high grade stuff, does. I know that when dying traps, straight Coleman fuel does a better job than any pump fuel.

 

[buickanddeere]

Works for a while however the vapourizer bungs up sooner.

 

[ldj]

(quoted from post at 22:22:02 02/29/16) I should know the answer to this, but I don't. Reading the post about the[color=blue:9d0d95f9bd] iron pump[/color:9d0d95f9bd] reminded me: Does unleaded gasoline work in white gas appliances/ Is there any difference? I used to work in a refinery and always meant to ask an old chemist but never got around to it. Anybody know?

Is the iron pump you are talking about the gas fired iron women used to iron cloths with? I have one of those and I use Coleman fuel in it and it works good. Coleman fuel is low octane as was white gas years ago. To raise the octane of gas lead was added. I would use the Coleman fuel because it hasn't got all the additives of modern unleaded gas.

 

[john *.?-!.* cub owner]

It has been a while since I used one to amount to anything, but as I remember, the Coleman stoves and lanterns marked for use both with Coleman fuel and gasoline had a slightly different generator in them. As long as you bought one for the same size ( high output stove versus standard), the gasoline generator would fit and convert the Coleman fuel only models.

 

[wisbaker]

I have a civil defense/military lantern it has instruction to use with white gas unleaded gas and I think kerosene. It's new in the box was always hesitant to fire it for some reason.

 

[Dick2]

Folks had a couple lanterns that were supposed to have white gas. Seems like Dad always had some trouble or other with them so they ended up in the scrap pile and he went back to kerosene lanterns.

 

[jeffcat]

First off real Coleman fuel is not gasoline. The stuff is Naptha. I would bet if you stop in your local Depot or lowes pick up a bottle of Synthetic Kerosene... Not K1. Very clean and easy for it to make a vapor like Naptha. Bet it will work. Let us know.

 

[TomA in CA]

I remember of hearing of an old guy who back in the '50's had a Cat 22. He would only run white gas in it. Bought by the 55 gallon bbl.

 

[GVSII]

(quoted from post at 20:38:49 02/29/16) it does in my coleman lantern and cook stove ,has for years.my thoughts are if it dont have lead in it it wont plug up the generator .

I have a coleman 1 burner military surplus stove,probably from the '50s and a newer coleman single mantel lantern from the late '70s .I managed to screw both of them up using straight unleaded gasoline.I guess the units from the '90s up can function on the unleaded just fine.