Stupid question time. Last time I did any serious mechanickin' leaded gas was around 40 cents.

While I was looking at a 63 F350, my parts guy told me that the heads would have to be re-machined because of unleaded fuel. That deal didn't work out, and now I'm looking at a 49 F4 with the flathead V8. What kind of modifications, if any, will have to be made to the valves to accomodate unleaded fuel?

 

I know a lot of places are saying that you need Hardened valve seats to run the unleaded, some of the discussions I've seen are about 50-50 on if it is needed or not.

some of the things I've picked up are if it's going to be a daily driver to go with the hardened seats, if it will not be seing a lot of use then they may not be neccesary.

at least that's what I got from most of the discussions.

 

Thanks, Jeff. I did a bit of searching through old posts, and came up with about the same conclusions as you did.

Kevin

 

While the conclusions you two came to hold true for most pre-unleaded fuel engines, the flat Ford 8 is a little different story. The seats were hardened right out of the box when it was built, so you don't even have to worry about it. The biggest valve problem with these engines is that they tend to develop stuck valves if they sit around very long without running. This is a nuisance, but even still, they can usually be freed up with a little efffort and patience without even pulling the heads. I've got several of them and have finally resorted to shooting a little Marvel Mystery Oil at the valves through the plug holes while turning the engine over before I park them for an extended period of time.