So I have a chevy straight chevy pickup, and motor from a 38. I do believe back then that they used only leaded fuel, which is now all unleaded at the pumps. Read something about it will be ok for a little while but after some time it's not good for the motor. So I'm looking to see what kind of fuel people use or add to fuel from the pump. I can get race gas which is a high octane, think like 112 and that is leaded but also very pricey. Anybody know if you can use unleaded or if you can add something to the fuel to make it leaded? Thanks, Jeff.
I have a 390 in mine and run the cheep stuff since it doesn't ping on 87 at all. I also run a bottle of lead additive per fill up. Cheep insurance and piece of mind if nothing else. Valve guides are hard to reach if u burn them up.
race gas that is unleaded but high octane wont help do anything but lighten your wallet (price that stuff lately). The lead is used to cusion the exhaust valve seats and keep them from being beat into the heads under severe use. The cure is to have the head cut and nickel stellite (hard) valve seats pressed in then cut with a nice valve job. or dont run it very hard. there may be some lead substitutes/additives still available.
But in an old motor the lead tends to build up and condition the valves and seats and as long as you don't replace any valves or do a valve job, you should be able to get about as many miles as the remaining life of the engine is good for, without a problem, by the time you start having issues it will be rebuild time anyways and then you can go for the hard seats, or just replace the whole works with a 235, 261, 250 or 292.
I rebuilt my 235 about 30,000 miles ago. I did not do the hard seats on the ex valves. I used to run 93 octane unleaded and MTBE was in it. Then they switched to e-10 here. Now I run 87 e-10 and it's still OK. I drive normal most of the time but sometimes wide open cause it sounds so good. And getting up over 100 mph takes a while so it's working real hard to do that.
Thanks, ya i heard something about having the head machined and such, but didnt really want to go to that extent with this little motor. I'll see if I can't come across some lead additive such as el shad runs just to help hopefully with the valve seats. The little 216 won't be ran to hard anyway, or else it will probably just blow up anyway using the babet bearing oiling system still.
The octane increase wont help. Its the lead. My lady has a 54 merc with the original 292 and its till ticking away. Just add a lead addittive to every tank. The hardened valve seats in more modern heads are compatible with unleaded fuel.
what kind of oil do you use?? its a fact you need to run ZDDP's in your oil and you still havn't heard that in the '70's they thought that unleaded fuel would burn your valves, yet its never happened in 35 years... yes put the high octane in that 6 to one comp. motor at $6 a gallon
The only reason why i said the race gas, is cause it is a higher octane obviously but it's also a leaded fuel unlike at the pumps. Only problem, its about $6.50 a gallon here and thats a little hard on the pocket.
I was putting lead additive in my sons car every 3rd tank, but that's gone. If it's not your daily driver, don't worry about it. I think what'shis name Goss on TV said that it would take 60-70k mile to really F up. If ya really want to keep 'er a long time and rebuild get the hardened valve seats then. Low comp doesn't need high octane like they said.
Put the cheapest fuel in it you can find, and don't think another thing about it. For the use/loading you will give it,it will run untill the rest of the engine is ready for the scrap yard.
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