This may be a recycled question, but I am looking at getting and older Ford vehicle and was wondering what to do baout the lack of leaded gasoline. Is this a genuine concern? I thought unleaded did not help protect the valves in older cars.

 

CD2, Super Concentrated Lead Substitute! ("for off-road use only", yeah, right) treats up to 320 gallons. Go to your local Farm and,or Fleet store and get the big bottle for $10. The neighborhood Autozone or whatever charges $3 per tank treatment for generic lead substitute.

 

you are right about the lead
in addition to raising the octane of the gas, lead served as a lubricant ro reduce wear.

I just had about 500 $ of work done to a pair of '70 302 heads with the small combustion chamber. Most of the exhaust valve seats were completely shot as a previous owner of the heads had ran them on unleaded. they were replaced with hardened seats. The stem diameter on the valves was also too small and the guides were really worn. I needed new valveguides as part of the conversion to unleaded service anyway so I got them plus new valves.
it cost a lot by my standards but now I have good heads that are updated to run woth no problems on unleaded fuel.
I am fixing to go install them now, just have to pick up the gasket set & hit it so I'm out. good luck.
the CD2 stuff works fine tooo... i had a 240z that required it after hey finally stopped selling leaded gas here in the 90s...I just had these nice heads I wanted to run and they needed new valve seats, guides etc anyway so I killed 2 birds with one stone. g/l with your classic Ford if you choose to buy it. whatever you do.. don't run un treated unleaded gas in it or it will be toast, real quick.

 

Yeah, it's weird to think back to the days when "regular" meant "lead".

I'm of the opinion that unless it's a super-low mileage motor, or if you absolutely don't have the time/skills/cash to do take the heads off and put them back on, it's worth it to go ahead and switch to hardened valve seats. If you've got a really strong, low-miles motor then maybe adding lead is the better idea, but unless the previous owner never drove the truck, or was on the ball enough to actually add lead, he or she may very well have been running it on straight unleaded for a long time, which means it's time for a valve job anyway.

 

Yeah, I'm looking at a 1970 Mercury Grand Marquis convertible with a 429 2V with 102,000 miles on it.

 

Does anyone know when Ford started using hardened valve seats?

 

didnt unleaded start being phased out around 1990? Sure miss that good 'ol pink premium. Always wondered if the lead substitute would hurt a motor if it already had hardened seats. In the old days lead boosted octane, but I doubt this stuff does. I do know that in the summertime if I'm pulling my boat my 390 likes a little more octane. Sure hurts to pour that premium into the tank now.

 

well the fe series got them starting in 1972 with the D2TE heads. lead gas is stil made and sold. its is still sold as off road race fuel at about 6.99 a gallon.