Mk 2 Carrier water can

[Ron Pier]

Hi Robert. I've never heard of Flimsy's being used for oil. 80 was the octane rating (pool petrol). You can actually see 80 on a couple of the cans in this stack. Ron

[Grant Bowker]

I agree with the 80 being more likely octane than oil viscosity.

Consider that many cars now use 0 weight oil for fuel economy and ease of cold starting. In the WW2 period 30 weight was fairly common. I've never owned a vehicle tha called for anything heavier than 20W50 (motorcycle and 1976 VW and the VW only called for 20W50 for sustained very hot weather driving, mabe a holdover from the aircooled Beetle?) Oils in the 75 and above viscosity range are more often gear oil for transmission or axle use.
In that period, 50 octane gas was still in use, 70 considered regular, 80 a great improvement 100 for high powered aircraft engines and I don't think 130 and 145 aero fuels came along until post war. To further confuse things, fuels were often dual rated (eg. 80/87 or 100/130 for lean and rich mixtures - more commonly seen when dealing with aircraft where the pilot can directly control the mixture).

[Mike Cecil]

I agree with Grant & Ron: I've interviewed a number of Aust WW2 vets (many years ago now!) who served in North Africa, and the norm described was flimsys for fuel, more robust, reusable 1 gallon cans for oil.

A transport Sgt told me he always had a long sharp-pointed piece of steel in his truck, as did others. To refuel, hold the flimsy against the petrol tank spout, jab the steel through the flimsy top, all the way through the bottom in line with the spout. No pouring needed: air in the top hole, fuel out the bottom. Once emptied enough, chuck flimsy away.

The funnel in Ron's image is interesting: these had a gauze filter, and were still being made for the Aust Army in the 1980s, to drawings dated in the 1930s.

Mike

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by Ron Pier

Hi Robert. I've never heard of Flimsy's being used for oil. 80 was the octane rating (pool petrol). You can actually see 80 on a couple of the cans in this stack. Ron

I've seen lots of Women MT Drivers in Wartime pics before, even a smattering of Pilots.
I think this is the first pic I've ever seen of female Motorcyclists.

[Ron Pier]

Blimey Tony! I can show you loads of them. How about this group? The girl fourth from the left is actually Honor Blackman. Ron

[Ron Pier]

Oops! Forgot to download. Ron

[Niels V]

Here is 4 gallon I was lucky to get recently, the cap is a newly cast.

[Lynn Eades]

Heres a thing. The (minimum) octane rating on a 16 April, 1942 Jeep stated "68" Maybe the "80" refers to specific gravity of POL products for the weight calculation? Oil and petrol being approx. .8 sg?. Just a thought....

[Bruce Parker (RIP)]

Sure, some of you are looking at the tins, other for some strange reason at the women. But for me it's the battledress and markings on the bikes. The formation flash seems to be SHAEF Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force with trade or other badges below. British obviously otherwise the bike number would be "CC". If it is the supreme headquarters you have to wonder just how all the cute DR riders happened to be attached there.

[Grant Bowker]

Originally Posted by Lynn Eades

Heres a thing. The (minimum) octane rating on a 16 April, 1942 Jeep stated "68" Maybe the "80" refers to specific gravity of POL products for the weight calculation? Oil and petrol being approx. .8 sg?. Just a thought....

I think Octane remains more likely. If 70 octane rating was "regular", with lower numbers being still available it would be reasonable if the Jeep required a minimum of 68 to specify the minimum to avoid someone using lower values. Surely the point of marking the tin is to ensure the correct product ends up in the correct vehicle but I've never heard of specific gravity of fuel or oil varying much (except with temperature - jet aircraft plan their required fuel load for a flight by weight since the energy content varies more accurately by weight than volume, then convert to volume, depending on temperature, for ease of measuring when pumping into the aircraft).