What Colour Is Neat Petrol - Unleaded?

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Many years ago leaded petrol appeared to be a light straw colour. If 2 stroke oil was added it would have a red tinge. Now I have green coloured 2 stroke oil which gives petrol a green tinge; nothing surprising there. However, today I filled up a portable 5 litre can with unleaded and discovered that it is light green in colour, in fact identical to my outboard 2 stroke fuel with the green oil!

Or am I mad and picked up the wrong can twice now and confused myself?

So what colour is neat unleaded petrol?
 
Clear ceratinly ... I'd not use any that wasn't

But a very pale straw colour. (Sainsbury's ordinary unleaded)

Fill a 50ml glass measuring cylinder and look down through it against a white background and you will see the colour.

Think you will find the colour of two stroke oils varies. My outboard oil is blue. My lawnmower oil is red.
 
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When its just been distilled perhaps its a clear or a pale straw colour but I am now sure that the unleaded I bought today has a green tinge to it. I poured it into a clear plastic container and looked into it in bright sunlight. It was BP's basic lead free petrol so perhaps its the colour of one of the additives that is in the fuel, as CreakyDecks suggests.

I would add that last week I added the outboard fuel (the green 2 stroke mix) and the plug oiled up, hence my surprise at the similar colours when I compared the two fuels today.
 
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The top bit is unleaded.
The bottom bit is water.

waterinfuel.jpg
 
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It used to have a slight green tinge here when it was supplied from the Grangemouth refinery,a couple of years ago, but now the tankers load at Immingham, ( so we're told) and petrol has a pale straw colour.
 
I'm fairly sure the 4-stroke I put into my generator has a greenish tinge. That's generally bought from the local Tesco petrol station; I think the fuel side is actually run by Esso.

Pete
 
As of Febuary last year, unleaded petrol now contains 10% ethanol. The problem with ethanol (poor alcohol) is it mixes with water. The additives the the different Oil companies use in their petrol may give a slight colour tinge to the fuel. Therefore your BP petrol may look different to your Shell stuff
 
The Effect of Additives On Fuel Colour

In my OP I mentioned how I may have looked at the same fuel twice, thinking I was looking at two different samples. The picture below shows the two samples from the different containers.

When I originally looked at the fuel samples both looked like the green coloured one, except the one on the left was a slightly lighter shade of green (its not now, obviously, but read on for why its not). I have decided I am not mad and did in fact look at two samples, one from each fuel can.

Now, I ran my 4 stroke lawnmower on the 2 stroke mix and oiled up the plug. I cleaned up the plug and dosed the neat fuel with Redex to clean up the engine after draining off the 2 stroke mix fuel. I didn't take a sample to check back then, hence the sample on the left is straw coloured with a pink tinge. This would be as expected with a neat, light straw coloured fuel dosed with a red coloured additive.

7340964642_0700ba84cd.jpg


The pictures below now shows the 2 stroke mix, green in colour with a cap full of Redex added. A cap full in the jar volume is a massive dose of Redex. As you can see the green colour has completely gone and now looks straw-coloured with a strong shade of pink through it.

7155761985_cc76437ab4.jpg


I might still be mad, as I have not bought any neat fuel so far; all I have done is added fuel to the fire and confused myself further. However, I will buy BP's finest unleaded soon and verify the colour.

Anyway, it is possible to have green 2 stroke mix and change its colour very easily. I shall try Tommyrot's suggestion.
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
Many years ago leaded petrol appeared to be a light straw colour. If 2 stroke oil was added it would have a red tinge. Now I have green coloured 2 stroke oil which gives petrol a green tinge; nothing surprising there. However, today I filled up a portable 5 litre can with unleaded and discovered that it is light green in colour, in fact identical to my outboard 2 stroke fuel with the green oil!

Or am I mad and picked up the wrong can twice now and confused myself?

So what colour is neat unleaded petrol?
Click to expand...

Blue if it comes from St Peter port!
 
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