Hi everyone, i'm finally recovered from knee surgery enough to begin working on my 60 F100 with a 223 I6. First thing I want to do is get the engine running. I spoke to the guy who I bought the truck from yesterday and he told me the truck last ran about 1.5 yrs ago but he did turn it over about 6 months ago. Needless to say, I have to drain the gas tank and add more gas to it. He also mentioned that I should also add a "lead additive" to the gas each time I fill it up or risk buring the heads with "unleaded" gas is there any truth to this? Also, i'm looking for an air-filter assembly kit for the holley one bbl carb. The engine currently has one of them wire screen air filters and it's rotting away. I want to add a traditional air filter to the engine.

Thanks and I look forward to begin working on my truck and getting helpful hints from this site.

Dave

 

You'll get both sides of the issue here. Sorta like asking about preferences between blondes, brunettes or red heads. I run a flathead V8 daily without lead additive and have not seen any valve erosion that I can blame on unleaded gas. I started out using the stuff, but it was hard to keep on hand or find on road trips so I finally quit using it.

Do whatever you feel is best. Additives won't hurt it, might help some. If you choose not to, your truck will probably run just as long.

 

If you take the head for a valve job the machine shop can put in hardened seats to take care of the "no-lead " problem.

 

The lead added a molecular cushon to the valves to give them a "soft" landing. Without it, the heads will wear a little faster, but I seriously doubt you would ever notice it, Modern heads have hardened seats to keep them from wearing. During a routine valve job, it costs about $8 per valve seat to upgrade. I would save the money now by not buying the additive and worry about it later. Plus the gas is expensive enough anyway.

 

Texasbob has it right. Hardened seats will take care of the seats. No lead gas has no effect on the actual head itself. IMHO

 

I use the additive in my 55 to be on the safe side. Cheap insurance.
Fred

 

Dave,

I wouldn't worry too much about using it in every tankful. When I had my 65 Mustang I used to put the lead additive in about every third or fourth tankful and never had any problems. I don't think you need it in every tank of gas.

Vern

 

Many years ago all I ran in my 57 Ford was unleaded gas. I don't think you can put enough miles on it to erode the valve seats. The only thing helped is retailer that markets the snake oil.

You cannot buy gasoline additives containing lead now at all anywhere in this country. It's been banned by the EPA since the 80's. (you can still buy avgas, albeit not legally[that is you can buy it but you cannot legally use it in anything except an aircraft engine]...100LL contains about 3 ml of Tetra-ethyl lead per gallon). Leaded gasoline is BANNED by the EPA. Avgas is exempt for now.

Most of the aircraft that used to use AVGAS 80 (0.5 ml lead per gallon), Have been allowed by STC (Supplemental Type Certificate) to use unleaded auto gas. The FAA has allowed this for more than 25 years. and every aircraft engine that uses unleaded not only runs fine but the plugs last MUCH longer, the oil stays much cleaner, and the engines seem to have less problems in the long run. Oh.... for an airplane that uses 10 gallons per hour (like mine)... Locally, Auto gas costs around $2.30 per gallon. ($23/hour)

AVGAS costs around $3.50 per gallon (avg). That's more than $10/hour savings. Over 1000 hours that's $10,000! Gasoline is probably the most expensive thing you put in your cars and trucks.



If you're really worried about it then remove the head and get a valve job done and have them install hard valves/seats and replace the rings. You'll probably save more money in fuel in the long run than the rebuild job costs! You'll also save oil too...

If you'd like to read a little about gas additives go here: http://www.lubrizol.com/ReadyReferen...ls/default.asp

The above company makes additives that are used by just about ALL of the refiners around the world. "Over-the-counter" additives are more snake oil than anything else.


Cheers,

Rick


legally

 

if you want an air filter with a replacebly element, look for one off a passenger car with a 223, I've got 60,000 on my last rebuild, didn't put in hardened valve seats and don"t use additives, and so far no problems