FE-FC Holden Discussion Forum

 :)hello keith here im serously looking at buying an fe 57 holden  all original  i have seen the veichle  and need some advice regarding carbon in the exhaust when motor is started  up  the guy im getting it off tells me it has too do with the lrp fuel  he now uses hi oxtain with  upper cylender lube and tells me he is running a slitly cooler plug but hasnt had the time too see if it has made any changes  too the carboning in the exhaust on start up ect   can som,e body please give me some advice on this area  and is it a major problem , as far as fuel and engine problems go. it has a 138 original motor and has been fully rebuilt 18mths ago  the rest of the car is in excellent condition  in and out and looks like it has had a fdull resto 2-3yrs ago thanks any help and info on fe would muchly be appreciated  sincerly  keith.
an fe holden luverTEXTany other further info please email me if possible to keithun@froggy.com.au cheers guys .

kieth pm fcfrom scratch in wa he works for an oil company and is a wizz with fuel questions

thanks kiwi mate ok ill do that   hey i read your  messages from all the mob in here and wa your a popular fella kiwi he he cya mate ccheers keith ;)

U can run on LRP but you may have to use a hotter s/plug and slighty retard the timing.
U can also use normal ULD and add a upper cyl lube, such as Flash Lube.
High Octain Fuel is not normally needed for Low Compression engines.
Usually engines with a Compression Ratio of 8.86:1 or greater should run on the higher octain fuel.

Seb

Mis-spelt  ;D ULD should read ULP.

Hi Keithu,

haven't heard from you in a while....

just saw this post while dredging through my "backlog"

I have to agree with Seb that high octane fuel is unwarranted in the lo -comp grey engine.  also agree that if you are running higher octane that a hotter plug is better than a cooler plug.  there's some info from my company's fuel tech experts about LRP and plug heats in the Tech Info section of the NSW club website...and I think it talks about hotter plugs to help reduce carbon deposits.

basically, if you have carbon deposits that are coming out the exhaust, there is significant unburnt fuel which is costing you money.  usually the unburnt fuel in an engine only leads to minor deposits on the plugs and combustion chamber walls and a bit of smoke when rich.   assuming sizes ranging from smoke particles to matchhead sized flakes(??), I'd have thought the the bigger the lumps of carbon, the more likely they are to do some damage to the pistons/bores  (but I'm no expert here...maybe the carbon is soft enough that it won't harm the metal) but in general, less must be better.

the upper cyl lube additive...not sure about these...do these do the valve seat protection job as well?  if you're running ULP or PULP, you should be adding valve seat protectant to your fuel....or else you should buy LRP which already has it in it (but be aware that many think LRP is "crap" fuel)

is it a major problem with the engine...??  the carbon in the exhaust could be symptomatic of engine problems...but if it was recently rebuilt (properly) and has not been "thrashed", I'd be thinking that the engine is OK and you just need to get back to ULP with valve seat protectant additive, perhaps return to designated plugs for the original engine.

you could also ask any of the Oil Companies via their freecall help lines and see if you get a different answer...

cheers.....Brad

anyone rebuilding an engine should be having hardened valve seats fitted to the head as part of the rebuild,this way you can use unleaded without the worry of it damaging the head and the added bonus of not needing expensive additives every time you fill the tank even though there is a lot of us who have used both premium and standard unleaded for over ten years without having heads and valves or pistons stuffing up like the experts tell us.

 ;)thnks for the chat guys hey youve been really helpfull  hows things mate  and what u been up too ive been overseas visiting my rely in uk from yrs ago so thats why havent been here in while but im back mate so look out he he  hope your cars are going well too see you soem were on the road or at the nats hey  :P keep the old gals movin  along.