240 General: Unleaded fuel 1981 240 with a carburettor

[volvobusman]

Hello, is unleaded fuel okay in a 1981 244 DL with a carburettor fitted, I run a 940 as a daily and fine with unleaded but might be purchasing a 240 with this set up, any answers to this , thanks Andy

[john.wigley]

Unleaded should be fine and cause no issues, 'busman'. I think back in the day Volvo advised fitting a second H.G. on the higher compression motors to lower the C.R., but you should be OK with the B21A engine. Although not essential, I think that I would use E5 where available, rather than E10, not so much for the higher octane but more for the lower ethanol. It's a tad more expensive, but you should recover that with increased MPG.

Regards, John.

[Moomoo]

Apart from a 1.8 , 40 model, all Volvos post, 1976 are happy with E10 but you may benefit from E5 as John says.

[classicswede]

As soon as unleaded became available we ran all our 240's on it. You do need to adjust the timing

[Clan]

Originally Posted by volvobusman

Hello, is unleaded fuel okay in a 1981 244 DL with a carburettor fitted, I run a 940 as a daily and fine with unleaded but might be purchasing a 240 with this set up, any answers to this , thanks Andy

all volvos from 1976 onward are unleaded safe.

[Bob Meadows]

If you can get leaded fuel in Chorley or even Lancashire please let me know:~
Bob.

[john.wigley]

Originally Posted by Bob Meadows

If you can get leaded fuel in Chorley or even Lancashire please let me know:~
Bob.

Good point, Bob. I think what 'busman' really wanted to know was if he needed to add an LRA of some sort to the unleaded fuel now universally dispensed at the pumps. The answer is of course that he need not.

Incidentally, many years ago, I asked a similar question apropos a 1960s 2T moped when U/L first came out. In fact, practical experience went on to show that the bike ran much better on it, with much reduced plug 'whiskering', than it did on leaded. I'm not sure that it would have liked the modern ethanol based fuels quite so much, though! Funny old world, isn't it?

Regards, John.