Re: Re: Lead additive

Posted by Bob Kerr on December 15, 2001 at 17:21:42 from (64.12.103.174):

In Reply to: Re: Lead additive posted by IN Jones on December 15, 2001 at 15:48:31:

I don't want to talk you out of using lead if that is what you want to do, after all it is your tractor, but I would like to let you know what I found out about leaded gasoline from Amoco when they discontinued it. I was VERY concerned because I have a 1970 Olds 442 with the high compression 455. I wrote Amoco and they told me that lead was not acutually the component of Gas that boosted Octane, It was either Toulol or Tolulene( that is part of Tetra ethel lead formula) that caused the octane increase, lead was added because the toulol or what ever it was, tended to Dry off parts of any oil residue and would tend to dry lube some parts and aid in heat transfer in valves. What happened later when lead amounts were very high was the lead would acually build up on valve faces and get a thick coating. if the coating got thick enough some of it could "chip off" and leave an open gap in the valve face and valve seat and then the valve/ seat would burn and have to be ground. Some of the larger gasoline trucks in the 50s and high performance cars made late in the 60s and early 70s had Valve Rotators installed to keep the lead build up from getting too thick and chipping off. the problem happened when lead was removed from gasoline and then the rotators cause the valves to go scuffing along unprotected metal. If you have rotators then I would say you need the lead. other wise it is not nessesary. Remember back when you could only get about 15,000 miles out of a set of plugs? Lead was the big reason for that crud build up on them and caused "carbon" build up in the heads also.I run a 71 Oldsmobile daily and now get 50,000 miles out of plugs and they come out fairly clean , but eroded from the spark jumping. Lead was also that whitish sludge you would see sitting in low spots on the head under the valve cover, there was a little bit of bearing material in that gunk also but the majority of it was lead from years of blow by getting ito the oil and settling out. Lead wasn't a bad thing at the time, but the oil companys and engine manufactures have moved past using it nowdays.Back then it was cheaper for the oil companys to put lead in all the gas they sold instead of having no lead just to use in stationary and tractor engines and having to maintain separate pumps and tanks at the service stations and at pipeline terminals. So anyway I was told if I ran the engine at High rpms like at the drag strip, I should add the lead, but for normal driving(which is hard to do in that car!)Lead would not be needed.The heads have never been off the engine in the 70 442 since the engine was built by Olds in 1970 and I ran a fiber optic scope into a cylinder one time just to see what it looked like in there and it was pretty clean!the valves looked good in the cylinders that had a valve open. That car has rotators! I figured there would be a lot of wear with the 120k miles on it, but there wasn't.It pings a little if I have the timing set where it is supposed to be, but I backed it off 1 degree and it is ok now and still flys like the wind.anything less than 93 octane though is really bad in that car.the 100 octane is surely missed until I go to the drag strip and pay 3.75 a gal for it.

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