Old stoves and petrol as fuel

[Moondog55]

I am in the middle of a heated discussion with a very young American who tells me that using un-leaded petrol in an old stove will cause it "BLOW-UP" with catastrophic consequences.
I had to laugh, we all ran our stoves on petrol when I was a kid, Shellite was too expensive to use all the time.
I am probably paying for the use of leaded fuel now with exposure to the lead fumes but nothing as bad as swallowing bullets and air rifle pellets.
SO
How many people here have used petrol in the old stoves, how many of those used leaded petrol in the "olden days" and apart from needing to do a thorough clean of the old 8R and SVEAs did you notice any problems??

[Stew63]

When I was a kid (late '60s) my dad had a green twin burner stove for many years that (from memory) looked identical to the current Coleman twin burner shellite stove with the fuel tank hanging off the front. It probably was a Coleman. He used unleaded petrol in that until - with the thought of young kids around I guess - he upgraded to a gas stove a few years later for our family camping.

[Ent]

Hi

Used unleaded petrol with no issue. Sure there are a few nasty things in it but it is not going to blow the stove up. Lead petrol is asking for poisoning trouble and blocked jets.

Sure for absolute safety use white spirits as no potentially nasty additives. Like all fuel stoves avoid indoor use. I use the big Coleman only outside and run the MSR on white fuel as it might be used in a hut.

Cheers

[eaglehawk]

Yep, we have a 20yr old MSR XGK that has been run on petrol more than any other fuel.

Mainly because petrol is the easiest fuel to find in foreign country.

No explosions, but do find it to be more sooty.

Now we have kids around we only use shellite.

[Miyata610]

I had a choofer as a teenager in the early seventies. I only ever used Shellie because unleaded fuel didnt exist then. I would happily use unleaded now if Shellie was unobtainable. I see no reason not too.