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Redex

G

Goffy

master brummie
Who remembers the "Redex Refresher", Injected into your fuel pipe by an oversized oilcan at the time of buying petrol. This was supposed make your car run better and quieter, It cost a penny (old) a squirt and usually injected at the rate of 1 shot per gallon. All I found that it did was to gum up the valve stems, but you did feel your car ran better for it. Goffy
 
Yes,i remember from the 1950s my dad saying to the petrol station attendants(we had them in those days) "two and two shots" meaning Redex. It was a Regent garage if I remember. we had an Austin A35.
 
A quick de-coke 50s style. Start engine runing fast, remove air filter, pour neat redex into carb. Wait for neighbours to complain about the black smoke.
 
mike-g said:
A quick de-coke 50s style. Start engine runing fast, remove air filter, pour neat redex into carb. Wait for neighbours to complain about the black smoke.
Click to expand...

Brings back memories, coming home on leave from Plymouth my Morris Minor kept cutting out every time I was caught in traffic ( Exeter by pass before M 5 ) went to a garage in Exeter and they did just that, couldn't see down the street for smoke, it did the trick though.
 
Mike, from what I remember, it was white smoke, not black from that Redex treatment ?

Richie, it was an A35 van I had in those days, the recent Wallace & Grommet films took me back a bit

Goffy
 
I cant remember the colour of the smoke, only the tatering I got from dad for doing stupid irrisponsible things and upsetting the area residents
 
hi mike-g it was known as a working mans decoke,the smoke was a light blue to white,
i used to work in a service station in Sheldon heath rd south Yardley,as a grease monkey, but when the petrol pump girl went to lunch,i would help out by serving on the pumps the redex used to be 1d shot and people used to swear by it.
the green shield stamps now that was another story. happy days regards dereklcg.
 
Being from the West Country we did have Redex but a lot of garages had a similar thing called Carburol at 1d a shot. Was that one around Brum at any time?
 
I used Redex definitely good stuff !!
Do you remember the many different brands of petrol, probably all came out of the same tank. Tiger tails hanging out your boot. I remember a petrol that supposedly had alcohol in it, can't remember the name of it, but I used to get it from a garage on the Chester Rd near the Parson & Clark.
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RedEx was described as an 'upper cylinder lubricant', if ever you needed your upper cylinder lubricated....

I used to perform the RedEx de-coke on my 1952 Morris Minor about every 2 months, and it certainly was white some that poured out of the exhaust. But the old banger seemed to run better for it.

When attendants served you in garages we used to ask for "Five gallons of RedEx and a shot of petrol, please", and more than once we were told to go away....what wags we were!!

Another trick was to pour a small shot of ether (I worked in a lab and could get it) into the air-intake for quick starting on cold mornings. That worked explosively well!

The petrol supposedly containing alcohol was Cleveland Discol. The garage near the Parson & Clark is now a Renault dealer, one of about 6 petrol-stations along the Chester Road that have now closed.

Big Gee
 
Cleveland Discol - I'm used to think my engine ran cooler, the car went a bit faster !! It was more interesting buying petrol in those days - all that so- called 'choice' compared to buying today. I'm trying to remember about having my tank filled by a forecourt attendant, but I can't - it would certainly slow down things at Tesco's etc.
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The right hand picture in Otherhalf s post is of the Redex in-car flow control kit. I had this evil thing fitted to a Ford Anglia 1200 E in about 1972. The middle dial has a clear glass tube in which the Redex could be seen flowing neat from a special tank into the engine. The small dot is a rotary switch which controlled the flow ( supposedly) . If you did not keep a constant check on it, it was fitted in the dashboard, the car would do a very good of an impression of a WW2 destroyer laying a smoke screen. The other guages were, I think, for manifold pressure and oil pressure. I had it taken out , more trouble than what it was worth.
Did anyone find that the oil consumption rose after a Redex decoke on older engines with worn bores? The joy of fitting oversized piston rings.
I could go on all night but the mrs is asking when feeding time is.
 
I can't remember carbural around the midlands. The use of Redex became a way of life, it was natural to always ask for shots with your petrol, this was in the time when petrol pump attendants where around, no serve yourself in those days. Thinking back, I also remember amongst the petrol pumps where oil dispensers, If your engine was using a lot of oil, and they did in those days either out of the exhaust pipe or dripping from the bottom of the sump,
you could buy a pint of oil and they would add it to your engine. My first motorbike was a two stroke engine, when I bought petrol it had to be mixed with a ratio of oil, hence the reason for oil dispensors, but then came the "two stroke pumps" which mixed it automatically, have we any two stroke engines nowadays ? can,t remember seeing a two stroke pump for ages.
Talking about smokescreens, that A35 van I mentioned earlier, used to do less miles to the gallon on oil than it did on petrol, after a long downhill run you hit the accelerator and wow, the trail of smoke began, we have something to thank for MOTs and legislation these days.

Goffy
 
Goffy said:
I can't remember carbural around the midlands. The use of Redex became a way of life, it was natural to always ask for shots with your petrol, this was in the time when petrol pump attendants where around, no serve yourself in those days. Thinking back, I also remember amongst the petrol pumps where oil dispensers, If your engine was using a lot of oil, and they did in those days either out of the exhaust pipe or dripping from the bottom of the sump,
you could buy a pint of oil and they would add it to your engine. My first motorbike was a two stroke engine, when I bought petrol it had to be mixed with a ratio of oil, hence the reason for oil dispensers, but then came the "two stroke pumps" which mixed it automatically, have we any two stroke engines nowadays ? can,t remember seeing a two stroke pump for ages.
Talking about smokescreens, that A35 van I mentioned earlier, used to do less miles to the gallon on oil than it did on petrol, after a long downhill run you hit the accelerator and wow, the trail of smoke began, we have something to thank for MOTs and legislation these days.

Goffy
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I worked in a garage ( Greenhill Moseley ) 1947 petrol was still POOL and rationed, Redex was asked for and DE - cokes where all part of the day's work. We had four pumps one for RED !. I remember the companies coming and fitting the new globe's four different brands !!. We had a oil cabinet outside from which we would top up customers engine oil. Some garage's had petrol / oil dispensers but the modern two - strokes do not use a petrol/oil mixture
 
Hi Louis, Thanks for that, Im out of touch with "two strokes these days".
Those petrol pumps, and all the fancy ingredients, used to be based on the Octane rating of the fuel. Used to be well known that if you used the High Octane mixture you would burn your engine out much quicker.

Goffy
 
Anyone any idea what this one is all about. I used National Benzole petrol and also Regent (Ride Regent, the lively one) but never came across this Regent Benzole with 'Volatane Control'
 
Mike, haven,t got a clue about "Volatane control" but used to swear by "National Benzole petrol" in the fiftys.

Goffy
 
Petrol company adverts were complete hype before the Advertising Acts. Modern day face cream adverts are similar...Promising Miracles.
One of Redex competitors was STP ( separate petrol and oil treatments) the results were similar . I have not used addatives for a long time. My present car the new style Citreon Picasso has service intervals of 20,000 miles. Amazing ,when you gapped your plugs every few hundred miles and services 3 to 6,000 miles not so long ago. Contaminants in garage petrol tanks in days gone by would gunge up fuel lines. I think Redex did its best job by keeping these lines free and clean.
 
I couldn't agree more Arkright, I used change oil and filter twice a year, regularly clean plugs and points, but now it as all changed, with todays technological improvements in manufacturing techniques and fuel improvements, we can forget about whats under the bonnet and concentrate on the enjoyment of driving.

Goffy
 
Goffy,
It did, before I moved to Brum, I lived next door to petrol station that sold Shell, BP, Power and National Benzole and we could always tell when the National Benzole was being delivered.
Mike
 
Alf, thank you - I knew I had heard somewhere National Benzole came from coal. Did it go off the market when Maggie demolished our coal industry I wonder.

Meanwhile here is another one for Richie
 
Goffy said:
Hi Louis, Thanks for that, Im out of touch with "two strokes these days".
Those petrol pumps, and all the fancy ingredients, used to be based on the Octane rating of the fuel. Used to be well known that if you used the High Octane mixture you would burn your engine out much quicker.

Goffy
Click to expand...

I think what the vintage boy's do is carry the right amount of oil ( some times two stroke ) with them so that they can just add petrol at the filling station and use there own oil at the same time giving the bike a good shake. I rode Bantam's and Leaders for many years but with the low octane fuel not made any better by mixing oil with it spare plugs where always carried. Lou Dalby Ex BSA Test
 
I have just discovered that National (owners BP-Shell dropped the Benzole bit) were responsible for the introduction of SMURFS to Britain as part of a marketing campaign. The little devils were given away at filling station.
Its all coming back to me now, and so will the nightmares.
 
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