Lead Replacement Fuel / Unleaded

[Rod]

I have done a search on previous postings and have not been able to find any reference to this topic. I found this hard to believe. Are we all happy with the current situation with LRP?
The purpose of this posting is to ascertain what everyone else is using particularly for the old grey. The fuel companies will assure us that LRP is safe for our pre unleaded motors. But I continually here stories of spark plugs fouling up quite regularly particularly when the motor is run for a short period of time as it doesn't get hot enough to burn "shit" in the fuel.
My old grey ran like a chaff cutter when I first used it early last year, but now it seems to be OK (they have picked their game up I think). The question is, "Will it be safe in the long run?"
A mechanic friend of mine has recommended to use a product by Wynn's - Octane Boost. They have two products, one increased the octane rating by 3-5 points while the other increases it by 5 - 8 points which increases ULP up to approximately Super octane. It has a valve lubricant in it as well. He has had great results with it on trucks that couldn't handle the LRP and has notced that fuel economy has improved significantly that it almost offsets the cost of the additive if you take into consideration cheaper ULP. One question is, is a product such as this required if our old greys were originally designed to run on Standard / Regular which had a lower rating than Super anyway?
What other additives if any are people using and are you pleased with it? Are we going to be still in danger of costly head repairs in the future? What head modifications if any has people made?"
I am sorry the post is a little long winded but I trust that it may offer further discussions.

Rod

[craiga]

Rod,

I have a standard bore 149 red in my FC (20-60 cam fitted) and had lots of difficulty with LRP when I got it back on the road last year. Timing could not be set to Holden documented setting and fuel mixture needs to be set rich but after much trial and error I have found that I can get it to run 'pretty good'. It won't idle as evenly or slowly as I remember it on leaded fuel and the spark plugs get a copper coloured coating after a couple of hundred miles, which just cannot be removed.

Some of the guys in the NSW club recommended Premium ULP with an additive and I find this is much better - more even idling and lower temperature.

I would be interested, as you have indicated, in other peoples experiences. Has anybody tried one of those in line lead cartridges? If so can anybody give any feedback?

Cheers,

Craig.

[ChrisB]

Hi Rod,

A subject I have been trying to get answers for for a while. There is as many opinions as people you ask.
I put a towing cam in my old grey and after the rebuild I used Mobil LRP petrol. Yuk, ran hot rough and I had alot of trouble, even to the point of thinking the new steel timing gears I put on that came from "Chips Fearon" could be the trouble. After alot work and time I tried the additive (forgotten its name) that the guy who races T model fords pushes. You run ULP only and one bottle of additive. The car performed like it should have and got 28 MPG, did not get hot or run rough. Tested this over a 220 mile trip. I then went back to Mobil LRP and now it seems satisfactory.
A few guys in ACT run ULP and have had the heads done for hardened seats and valves. These cars are running successfully with no troubles.
I now have decided to just run the car till it needs head work and then worry about it. My old girl is only a low mileage usage car any way.

Hope this helps

Regards ChrisB  

[ChrisB]

Hi Rod,

Remembered, it was "Millers" it is good but at $11/bottle it gets very expensive.

PS If you want a good set of timing gears "Chips" steel sets work really well. Ken would be the one to put you in touch with him

Regards ChrisB

[Rod]

ChrisB,
The Wynns product which increases the Octane by 5 to 8 points is about $18 and treats 120 litres (about 3 tank fills).
I am interested why you are recomending the steel timing gear. I had the misfortune last week to be stranded between Horsham and Stawell (in Vic) when my timing gear in my old ute decided to shit itself. Anyway it won't do it again as I have put in steel gears that my mechanic friend was able to source. Maybe the same type you are recommending. I pleased with the result because everyone say they are noisy in comparison to the fibre gears. These seem great at the moment.

Rod

[ChrisB]

Hi Rod,

Yes I had that same trouble but I had to trailer the car home as I was in the middle of nowhere. The steel gears I put on I think the Vic FE FC club have been working over a period and this generation they have now is a culmination of there experience.
When I put them in I covered them in a good coating of Molybond, the same as I used on the camshaft before I bedded it in. I am pleased to say the gears are hardly noticable.

ChrisB

[EJ_Dave]

My EJ runs a standard 138 grey motor (except extractors and 2 inch system) and is used as my daily transport. I had the motor rebuilt and hardened valve seats fitted 2 years ago. Since then I have run it exclusively on ULP with no problems- idles smoothly, doesn't get hot, spark plugs fairly clean.

Octane shouldn't be a problem because greys were designed to run on 79 octane Standard (went to 85 in 1963) and regular ULP is 91. The higher octane and lack of lead have allowed me to advance the timing about 5 degrees more than spec and run cooler plugs (no lead deposits to burn off).

Valve seat lubrication is the only problem with ULP in standard greys.

So my suggestion would be to use ULP with or without valve lubricant added and upgrade to hardened valve seats when its convenient. And don't fit a red motor- with their higher compression they will be much less happy on regular ULP than a grey. Unless you want to always fork out more for high octane ULP, that is.

David

[EJ_Dave]

I have finally found the source of most of the wisdom in my previous post above. Also plenty of other useful tech info. The source is the Southern Sydney Early Holden Club website.

http://www.geocities.com/ssehcc/tech.html

David

[Hewart]

Thanks Dave for the pointer to the SSEHCC website...

I'm from that club, and in our many discussions about leaded (LRP) vs unleaded, a few of the guys recommend running a mixure of the two. Something like every second or third time you fill up, put in a tank of ULP.... and they never seem to have any problems... though I have to say I've not done it myself yet...

Also about a year ago, there was an article in Restored Cars magazine on the topic, which said something about you should only use the one "brand" of LRP... for example if the first one you used was from a BP station, you should only use BP LRP... Anyone who drives around like I do, would know that is a near impossible thing to do, and not practicle ... often you can only fill up where you are... and its something "they" never told us before so its too late anyway....

cheers...
Les.....