Sale of LRP to stop

LRP was produced by Enemalta by adding octane booster and valve seat lubricator to the unleaded fuel it imported.

Lead replacement petrol will not be available for retail in Malta after the end of this year and owners of cars powered by LRP will have to modify the engine or add additives.

LRP amounts to just over 10 per cent of total consumption. Leaded petrol was banned in the EU about a decade ago due to air quality standards and health issues. However, Enemalta added additives to unleaded petrol to produce LRP after the country obtained an extension.

Enemalta said it was urging owners of vehicles that run on LRP to seek the advice of a professional mechanic to check whether unleaded petrol could be used instead. If not, they would be advised on what modifications and/or adjustments were needed to make such a changeover.

A spokesman for Enemalta confirmed that in the case of classic cars, which could not use unleaded fuel with additives, the owners could seek a permit from the Malta Resources Authority to import a limited and controlled amount of leaded fuel in the same way some people imported racing fuel.

New EU fuel quality directives, which come into force on January 1, will affect the composition of LRP fuel by reducing the metallic content to a third of that found in LRP, the spokesman explained. This reduction in metallic manganese additives will affect the performance of LRP by reducing octane numbers and by reducing exhaust valve seat protection.

He explained that the reduction in octane might induce engine-knock and the simplest remedy might be to have the spark-timing retarded and adjusted by a professional motor mechanic. If this was not enough, an octane booster, bought over the counter from petrol stations, would have to be added to the unleaded petrol.

With regard to solving the valve seat protection problem, which unleaded petrol caused in engines running on LRP, the simplest and cheapest solution was to add a suitable fuel additive to unleaded petrol to protect the exhaust valve seat from excessive wear. Another solution was replacing the existing exhaust valve seat to a hardened one, although this option was more costly.

LRP was produced by Enemalta by adding octane booster and valve seat lubricator to the unleaded fuel it imported. This type of fuel has seen a steady decline in use over the past five years, with consumption levels dropping from 23 per cent in 2006 to 20 per cent in 2007, 16 per cent in 2008, 13 per cent last year and down to just over 10 per cent until last month.