Re: what kind of gas do you use?

Posted by Ken McWilliams on August 03, 2001 at 19:44:19 from (152.163.194.202):

In Reply to: what kind of gas do you use? posted by Randy on August 03, 2001 at 10:40:30:

Use unleaded gas and detergent oil.

The lead was used to lubricate the valves and seats, but as the 70's autos were weaned off lead the seats and valves were changed to endure the heat and slamming of the valves. A gas tractor at full speed will work about 1/3 to 1/2 as many RPM's as an auto engine. Also, the compression is lower on a tractor because it has to make the torque at the low RPM's.

You may want to use 92 octane when pulling hard such as plowing. Otherwise regular is fine. I find that my gas tractors will "ping" or have pre-ignition under heavy loading in plowing. If I know I'm going to put it to this type of work, I'll use 92 octane premium.

The purpose of detergent oil is to clean the engine. If non-detergent has been used, then the by-products of combustion have probably built up in the crankcase over the years. Detergent oils were first a necessity when autos began using hydraulic lifters and needed to keep the engine oil passages clean, particularly the small orifices in the hydraulic lifters.

If you use detergent oil after non-detergent oil,the detergent oil will tend to get dirty quickly. Also, the sludge may have helped to form seals at the gasket surfaces and helped to seal oil leaks. If it begins to drip/leak oil then the detergent oil is doing its job, the problem, however, the gasket and/or seals are leaky in the engine.

My preference would be to use detergent oil to help clean the passages. If it leaks, I can tolerate a reasonable amount of oil leakage. If the passages are clogged and the moving parts get starved for lubrication, then irreversable damage will occur to the components and engine failure results.

When the oil loss is enough to justify new seals and gaskets to prevent oil loss, then that's the time to take the engine apart and re-seal or rebuild.

Ken McWilliams
Dayton, OH

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