The best small engine gasoline for the best cars

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Rare collectable cars run on pure small engine gasoline.

Cars have been Max Treuthardtʾs hobby for the past twenty-odd years. He is not interested in any specific make or style. Instead, he collects unique vehicles. In his garage, you can find a silver-gray 1960 Jaguar Mark II with a 3.8-liter engine, a summery light 1963 Triumph Spitfire sports car, a cheery 1979 Morris Mini, and – the oldest car in his collection – a fire master's car built from a 1956 Land Rover.

"I bought the fire master's car to use when getting firewood and doing other heavy work on the very bumpy road leading to our summer home, but I couldn't use such a nice car for work that dirty, so I bought a Massey Ferguson tractor for that purpose – it's an old one, too, from 1958," Treuthardt explains.

Problems with modern gasoline

All of Max Treuthardtʾs cars have been restored by an expert with original spare parts, honoring the spirit of the old engines. Treuthardt has also obtained certificates of origin for the cars and registration certificates that show all of their owners over the years.

Modern fuels pose problems in the engines of old collectibles that have plenty of mechanical parts, such as crusty deposits in the carburetors, clogged seals, and constant problems with starting the cars.

One of the key problems is that the cars are not used very often, which means that the fuel does not circulate enough in the engines. The carburetors and other parts of the fuel system, in particular, need to be cleaned when the cars have been standing in the garage over the winter.

Help with all problems

Treuthardt heard about Neste's gasoline designed for small engines a couple of years ago. "Land Rover guru Svante Eskelin from Sipoo has been servicing my cars for years. He told me that people have been able to avoid fuel system problems by using small engine gasoline. There used to be crusty deposits in the rubber seals, but those problems went away when I started using small engine gasoline." Heartened by the good results, Treuthardt started using small engine gasoline in his Jaguar as well. The problems heʾd had with the Jaguar became history, too.

"I was instantly converted into a small engine gasoline believer," Treuthardt says, laughing. "The fuel systems of all of my cars are now clean and there are no longer any problems with starting them. The carburetors work perfectly."

In his Triumph, Treuthardt uses a mixture of regular gasoline and small engine gasoline until the fall, when he switches to pure small engine gasoline to make sure that there will be no regular gasoline in the fuel tank and fuel system when he retires the car for the winter.

"I have also started using small engine gasoline in all of my machines at our summer home. Our outboard motor used to be clogged up in the spring, but now it starts right away," says the happy Treuthardt.