Unleaded in South America
 

I read on a website I've now lost that unleaded petrol can be difficult to get hold of in some parts of South America.

Does anyone have any experience of this for the west coast run to TdF?

My f650gs has a catalytic converter that would be damaged by leaded petrol. I am trying to decide whether a conversion would be advisable.

Many thanks

Richard

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Richb

Hi Richard,

In all Latin America you can find unleaded petrol, don't worry.

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Ya verás como quieren en Chile al amigo cuando es forastero (traditional song)

Jose Pedro Espinosa
Curico, Chile

Hi,

I had the same horror (wife has same bike). We have never had a problem in Bol, Arg, Chi, Bra, Uru, Par.
In Brasil is sometimes alcohol in the petrol, but no problem.
Cheers
Frank

Hola Diadeplayas. Planeo enviar mi moto en avion, desde Australia a Chile. Sabes la tarifa aerea or puerto de retiro de la moto en Stgo o Valparaiso.

As I understand it, your bike will run fine on leaded fuel but it will knacker the catalytic converter if you do it for too long. A conversion is simply replacing the cat with a piece of pipe.
Argentina and Chile both have standard 93 to 97 octane unleaded and aren't going to cause any problems.
Bolivia has low octane (79?) leaded petrol. For me, the biggest problem has been with my stove which burns yellow and smokes on Bolivian fuel. The bike (1991 Tenere) doesn't care.

We run a fleet of 10 f650's in south America and never had to put leaded in them.

Yup - what these guys said. You won´t have a problem. But remember you are going to be doing some bid distances with often little inbetween towns. Always fill up when you see a station, even if you are only 1/3 or 1/2 empty.
P

Oh yeah, if your catalytic converter does get knackered, your bike will run fine but it'll fail emissions tests, that's all.

Dunc.