Leaded Gas

[72RocketPower]

My younger brother is in the market for 67-69 olds, and he asked me how do you deal with the leaded gas issue of that time period. Lead additives? Answers would be appreciated. Thanks!!!

[Oldsguy]

Lead was added to the gas back then and used as a lubricant. It prevented wear on the valve seats. Since a '67 or '69 year model car is over 35 years old one of two things have happened. Either the engine has since had a valve job and hopefully the valve seats were replaced with new hardened items, hence the lead in the gasoline is not necessary. Or, the engine is still on the original heads and the valve seats have long since seen their lifetiime of wear (unless the car has extremely low documented miles. But it is irrelevent anyway as most people agree that the new formulations of gasoline have lubricants in them which perform as well if not better than lead does.

At any rate, don't worry about not being able to use leaded gas. Buy the car you like and drive it, when you start seeing indications that the engine needs work, then just fix it, that's why we buy these old tanks anyway right?

[PetChemMan]

As pointed out, induction hardened valve seats were used in cars meant for use with unleaded gas. Valve seat recession ( premature wear)was a problem using unleaded gas in cars designed for leaded fuel. However, after the introduction of unleaded fuel, it became apparent that the valve seat issue was not as bad as expected, and only vehicles under heavy duty usage were showing valve seat problems. Although nothing solved the problem as well as lead additives, it has since been observed that other additives such as top cylinder oils help prevent valve seat recession. Some octane boosters also claim to prevent valve seat problems. Top cylinder oils are added by the refiners to some premium grade gasolines to help keep fuel deposits off of intake valve tulips. You can add your own to your gas if you wish; Marvel Mystery Oil is a top cylinder oil, and is widely sold at auto supply stores.