Harden valve seats?

[Stang54]

I have a 65 Mustang coupe with a 200 in it. cyl compression is between 155-160 an all 6 cyl's. Back in the day they all used leaded gas an now it is unleaded. I don't know the history of this engine as far a valve seats, if they have ever been changed. Is there a way to look at the engine with out pulling the head. Or will it hurt it to run unleaded in it or will it hurt it to start using a leaded addived if they sell it.

 

[CoupeBoy]

Can't tell without pulling it. I have been running non-hardened valve seat motors since 1990 and I have never added lead additive or had a valve sink. Your milage may vary. But I have no plans on changing my ways until I have a problem.

There is a post on here about using another additive TW-3C I think to help with this issue. I know nothing about it, but he has some linked sites.

 

[rbohm]

8) when unleaded was first introduced, there were issues using it in older engines not designed to use it. these days however there is no need to spend the money for hardened valve seats as the refiners have added a lubricant to their fuel blends to prevent valve recession. save your money for more important things.

 

[chad]

can U help me out with a cite or resource? I've been thinkin - all these yrs I've been damaging my motor w/o the lead additive - like to see something with authority??? May B a hot rod article or something?

You may be correct but I just don't know
:

Thanks

 

[thesameguy]

I don't think AVWA was ever a thing in the US. Other countries did it, but I'm not aware of any specific such additives that ever made it into US fuels.

But, there has been pretty much zero evidence that dumping lead did anything to hurt cylinder heads in normal use. All the science that has come out since the '70s shows that there has been no effective change in the incidence of valve problems on pre-'71 cars with post-'71 gasoline. Several studies have been done with military vehicles, postal vehicles, and utility service vehicles and none of them showed any evidence of problems. There are piles of studies about this on the 'net - just do Google "valve seat recession" something similar. Here's the first result:

http://www.unep.org/transport/pcfv/pdf/ ... lDraft.pdf

I'm with CoupeBoy - not something I'm worried about.

 

[rbohm]

can U help me out with a cite or resource? I've been thinkin - all these yrs I've been damaging my motor w/o the lead additive - like to see something with authority??? May B a hot rod article or something?

You may be correct but I just don't know
:

Thanks

8) while i cant cite others, i can tell you that every pre 1974 engine that i have torn down has had virtually NO evidence of valve recession despite the fact that they have had a steady diet of unleaded fuel since the early 80s.

 

[bubba22349]

Back when they pulled lead out in Ca I lost a few exhaust guides in my 300 (was a fresh rebuild) on two different heads mid to late 60's castings. Been using the later 74's and up heads since.

 

[chad]

Thank you to ALL (U know him?) who answered.
I wonder, now, where all the bru-ha ha came from then? The lead miners & sales people?

 

[rbohm]

Thank you to ALL (U know him?) who answered.
I wonder, now, where all the bru-ha ha came from then? The lead miners & sales people?

8) actually there were issues in the early years with running unleaded gasoline in engines designed for leaded engines. what would happen is people would use the unleaded gasoline in their older cars, mostly because it was "better" for the environment. but as with all things, the refiners figured out how to replace the lubricity the lead provided with something far less toxic, and the rest is history. these days since we only get unleaded fuel, the fuel had to work with older engines as well as newer ones.