"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
You will get conflicting opinions. You just have to try it and make up your own mind. I pour a bottle of Lead additive into every tank at fill up. When I don't do it, in my opinion my engine knocks and pings more than if I add it.
I thought that lead was supposed to protect pre-1980 valve seats.
That was pretty much a myth like "Keep a hot engine running while pouring water into the radiator". I call those tidbits of advice "Old mechanics' tales", sort of like old wives' tales. Lots of hard valve seats have been installed unnecessarily because of that advice. Stellite exhaust valve seats are only really needed when running very "dry" fuels like LPG or liquefied natural gas in engines that see a lot of full throttle heavy load situations. The way most stovebolts get pampered, hard seats and/or lead additives are an utter waste of money. A 5% mix of Diesel fuel (1 gallon of Diesel to 19 gallons of gas) provides a little valve guide lubrication, and it's a whole bunch cheaper than any sort of gas tank mouse milk gullible people add. It also raises the octane rating of unleaded gas about 5 points by increasing the specific gravity and slowing down the burn rate a little. Before an idiot assistant principal trashed all my dyno run files, I had lots of documentation on the diesel trick. Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
I work in the wholesale petroleum industry. Ethanol is very destructive to fuel systems that sit for prolonged periods: 1) It is hydrophylic (water loving) and attracts moisture from the atmosphere into your fuel system, and 2) it is quite corrosive - you should see what it does to our pumping equipment! For hobby vehicles that sit a lot in winter, by all means locate a source of ethanol-free ("clear") gasoline for your old truck.
For a list of such stations visit this web page and click on your state:
When I worked for Ernest and Julio Gallo (yep, the wine guys) they had a still that was capable of producing 2,000 gallons per hour of Ethanol, which they used to fortify some of the wines they produced. If you've ever had a drink of Boone's farm wine, or a Bartles & Jaymes cooler, part of the alcohol in your drink went through that still. The rest was a generic white wine made from apple or pear juice that would only ferment to about 8% by volume alcohol concentration because the juice didn't have enough sugar to give it more of a kick, so alcohol and artificial colors and flavors were added.
All of the plumbing for the still system was either stainless steel, copper, or some other corrosion resistant material. The pumps were solid brass. Even with that setup, there were still probles with corrosion. "Stainless" is simply "corrosion-resistant"- - - -it isn't totally immune to it. Rubber parts like O rings, gaskets, etc. are even more vulnerable. Carb King calls the stuff "deathanol"- - - -he's right! Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
I would agree the topic valve recession controversial.
Google "old chevy valve recession" you will get dozens of hits with photos. Articles in several magazines and hits from sites like HAMB.
Problem is when the valve recession is present it is hard to confirm the mileage, type of use and the true root cause. Does running the SIX at 3800-4200 rpm for three hours qualify for "hard use"?
If I had to choose additives vs hardened seats and new high quality valves and guides ........I choose the valve job done right.
url="http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/unleaded-gas-vs-non-hardened-valve-seats.827920/#post-9183072"]unleaded gas vs non hardened valve seats[/url]]Picture from JJ[/url]
quote=Hotrod Lincoln It also raises the octane rating of unleaded gas about 5 points by increasing the specific gravity and slowing down the burn rate a little. Before an idiot assistant principal trashed all my dyno run files, I had lots of documentation on the diesel trick. Jerry
Interesting, I do have a source for and use no-ethanol gas, the octane is fine for the 51 216, however the 70 Duster with original spec 10.5 ratio 340 is less happy with it. Having diesel tractors and a Cummins Dodge that's an easy fuel fix for the Duster. What about smoke, any noticeable issues?
None that we noticed, either on the race track or the street. We were required to buy our gas from the pump at the Nashville Fairgrounds track, which was actually 106 Octane and was really too slow-burning to run right in the 9:1 compression engines we were required to run. I found during dyno tests that using street-grade premium gas made the engines run better, particularly with a little Diesel mixed in. The gas was dyed blue so the tech inspectors could take a sample and see if we were running the track gas. Sneaky Pete time- - - -mixing a little machinists' DYKEM blue layout dye with the gas made it look just right! The track gasoline cost about $6.00 a gallon, back in the late 1990's! Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
A blind tech inspector could have found my cylinder head modifications if they had known what to look for, but the track was not famous for hiring inspectors who could find an elephant in a phone booth! Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
Hi, I was watching some YouTube videos and saw this video from Jay Lenos Garage-Nano Lubrication, It looked like additives that would be good for all the old trucks. check it out and is made in USA Roger
I was at a World 600 in Charlotte when I read it in the "race program" and attributed to Jr. ....but gosh, who knows. The good part is its the truth. There is, or was a couple years ago, quite a collection of "illegal" parts used in racing at the Charlotte Racing Hall of Fame. A visit I recommend to anyone. And some at the old Darlington Race Museum when it was in its prime.
A favorite trick back in the flathead Ford racing days was to bore one side of the block .060" oversize (maximum legal bore on a "stock" engine track)and bore the other bank .250" over. It could be done, if the machinist knew how far to offset the centerline of the two center cylinders! Just pull the correct head for a bore and stroke check after the win! Jerry
"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt! There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!
