[bruter]

Has anyone had experience with using a lead substitute in the fuel system? Or is this just another "snake oil" product?

 

[ChadInman]

Lead substitutes [octane boosts] are supposed to improve gas mileage and clean your valves and all that junk. I don't know If they actually cleaned anything but it did improve my mileage a little. I picked up about 2-3 mpg using the lead substitute. In my boat I use it to prevent die celling. I don't know why or how it works for that [it isn't supposed to], but it does. I use "NOS" brand octane boosts in my vehicles when needed. - Chad

 

[sixt9coug]

hmm, or you can , errrr, uh hem, get real lead from certain catalogs............ in California its only for boating use of course. i have never used it for that of course, because i dont own a boat........ i would name the place, but i dunno. well, lets call them A. Krafters no no no, too obvious how about Auto K.?? its not cheap but i dont know if it works. i never found a benefit from using octane boosters though, just made my wallet a little lighter. esp the NOS brand ones, like $8 a bottle or so. for that price, i can get a couple of gallons of 100 octane around here and make my own gas.on the plus side, i used that RESTORE stuff before. ( silver an, all blue crap in there ) i liked it. the engine did run smoother, and a little cooler to. my milage sucks anyway i stopped tracking it. i got too depressed when i saw it.

 

[calcat]

Wait - I think octane boosters and lead substitutes are two different things. Real lead substitutes, like Toulene, work but can do really nasty things to your body if they are handled wrong (like inhaling).
Octane boosters on the other hand are not worth jack. It may increase mileage, but put some in your gas on a engine that's detonating because of too high a cr and it won't do squat.

 

[ChadInman]

Toluene is the main ingredient in many octane boosts. If you use octane boosts properly you will get your money's worth out of them. Here's a good informative website... http://elektro.cmhnet.org/~charlie/photos/cars/audi/toluene.html -Chad

 

[bruter]

???

My concern was with the claim that the lead substitute was needed to protect valve seats... since the removal of lead from gas way back when. Maybe I'm missing the point but the container makes no reference to boosting octane?:1zhelp:

 

[calcat]

Bruter - unless your running your Cat at sustained high speeds for great distances, I would'nt worry about valve recession. Get some hardened seats next time you do your heads and no worries.

 

[cougar1]

Bruter, don't worry about adding a lead additive. Here's my story. I did the heads on my '68 when lead was still available therefore no hardened seats. I susequently drove the car for 17 years and 60000 miles with forged pistons, cam, hedders etc with 93 octane unleaded and never had a problem. Pulled the heads off a year or so ago (broke a valve tip with a new real high lift cam) and the seats looked fine.

 

[TheRktmn]

I had read a couple of years ago that older Fords didn't need to worry about using unleaded fuel (unless of course your doing sustained high RPM stuff) because Ford was nice enough to use a higher nickel content in their head castings.
Dunno how true that is, but my father's 66 Mustang is still running it's original 289 4V heads after 36 years, 25 of them as a daily driver, and no problems at all.
I have never seen a "leaded" Ford head go bad due to normal driving with unleaded fuel. That's not to say that you shouldn't replace the seats if you're doing head work anyway, just don't loose any sleep about it until then.

 

[bruter]

Thanks guys!!!!!!!!!!!