Petrol question?

[GothicKidd]

Okay so my kingswood runs on 'Leaded' petrol, They dont produce leaded petrol anymore so I need a lead replacement additive..
Now one of my dads mates mentioned he uses premium in his old ute, he has a leaded petrol engine aswell..

Now the question is? Can you use premium instead of Unleaded + additive?

[Astranomical]

Are you sure your Dad's mate doesn't use premium in addition to the additive? My parents have a WB and I'm pretty sure they actually have to use premium in addition to a lead replacer, since premium on its own doesn't actually contain any lead, or really anything to protect the valve seats from VSR, while at the same time, regular unleaded isn't at a high enough octane for the old motors, meaning you really have no choice but to use premium.

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

The old "super" as it was known had a higher octane that standard unleaded. Using premium will be better, but in most cases you will need to run an additive to lubricate the valves as this is what the lead in petrol did.

Either an upper cylinder lube kit that draws lubricant in via vacuum, or a fuel additive.

[edals]

Well I Would check to be sure. The old Toyota FJ54s we had on the farm required leaded fuel, when it was gone we just used unleaded and that was all, still runs today and what it was about 15 years ago when it was cancelled out? But thats a tough old cruiser lol

[Brett_jjj]

The old "leaded" petrol had an octane rating of around 96-98 depending on the brand, it had tetraethyl lead added with it to lubricate the top of the cylinder,the valves,the valve seats etc, and to also increase the octane rating of the fuel.The other available fuel was called "standard" which had an octane rating of around 89.Years ago,you could specify a low compression engine when buying a new car to run on the standard type fuels.Unleaded first started to replace standard fuel back in either 1986 or 1988 (in NSW anyway),it was 91 octane,just as we know it today.My oldies have a HQ ute,shes a 202 red engine(which was designed to run on 98 octane leaded fuels),and we run it on 98 octane unleaded fuel,if its ran on the 91 octane unleaded,it pings and pre detonates heaps badly under acceleration,not good at all for an engine to be doing that,so all that you can do is either wind the timing back,or just run the 98 octane unleaded fuel and the valve saver fluid,it doesnt ping at all on the 98 stuff.We also run valve saver fluid as well which is squirted in with the fuel when filling her up.The old girl has been running like this for probably 7 years now with no problems.Usually if unleaded is used in an engine not designed to run on it,it will cause valve damage,they run dryer and hotter,the valves end up recessing into the valve seats and from there they start to leak and burn out etc..so what they do is fit hardened valves and valve seats in the heads,once this is done it can run on unleaded fuel with no problems...Most engine reco shops can fit hardened valve seats and valves.. The valve saver fluid works like the lead used to by protecting the valves etc...

[monkeys437]

There would be no immediate effects but as others have mentioned the standard valve seats would wear over time. My dad had a VK which he kept for 2 years after leaded fuel stopped being available and towards the end of its time it was starting to run a bit rough and a bit down on power. Could have been due to other factors as well, but if it was me I would get the heads reco'd with hardened valve seats

[jr689]

The old "super" as it was known had a higher octane that standard unleaded. Using premium will be better, but in most cases you will need to run an additive to lubricate the valves as this is what the lead in petrol did.

Either an upper cylinder lube kit that draws lubricant in via vacuum, or a fuel additive.

Yea that would be the go. You can get a Flashlube Valve Saver Kit for Leaded and LPG vehicles from supercheap for about $70 from memory. Have a look on eBay cause I got mine off there for about $50 which wasn't too bad I guess.

[Drewie]

We have a VC with the Blue 202 motor, we have been running it on the 95 octane fuel with the additive for the past 6 years or so with no problems, it probably should have the 98 octane but it seems to run ok on the 95 octane and we don't drive it hard at all, when we changed over to the 95 and the additive I bought one small bottle of the additive I think it was a 50ml bottle that treated 50 litres of fuel, just squirk it into the tank prior to filling up and I also later bought a 1 litre bottle of the same stuff and just refill the 50ml bottle and keep it in the glove box for the next fill. I have been using the 'Flashlube Valve Saver' product, I buy it in a 1 litre bottle from any of the auto stores, the 1 litre bottle treats 1000 litres, from memory it was around $12 to $15 for the 1 litre, I haven't bought any for quite a while.

[Banicks]

Off topic a little. But i was driving behind an old Kingswood today, ahh the smell was awesome. Global warming all nicely purring.

[Tree cutter]

You can run the old motors on 92 octane unleaded if you use water injection to stop it pinging. You still need to use flashlube unless you have a head that has been modified for gas use.

[GothicKidd]

Yeah Drewie I got a Flash lube Valve Saver for it. So use to just putting unleaded in with out having to squirt other stuff in.. Dont know how Id go with remembering.. I got bad memory
Hmph, I had a think about it.. Do you think I could rebuild the engine to suit unleaded petrol? The engines done atleast 400,000 K's itll be needing a engine recon or some sort soon..
Whatd be required to make the engine handle unleaded without troubles?

cheers