best fuel for our trucks?
 

Hello all. I was just thinking about how bad gas has gotten over the years. When our trucks were made there was no ethanol, it was leaded, and higher octane. There's a station near me that sells 91 non ethanol...would probably be a good idea to run that...Anyone here use lead Additives?

Re: best fuel for our trucks?
 

http://pure-gas.org/

or

BP or Shell...

Re: best fuel for our trucks?
 

WOO HOO! There is a station near me! :-)

Re: best fuel for our trucks?
 

So would a lead additive be a good idea?

Re: best fuel for our trucks?
 

You motor should be able to run on the gas fuel that is on the market today - what octane is determined by how your motor is set up (built). To me, lead additive is not a solution for a fix or more Horse power or longer motor life.

This is how I run my 72 SBC, mild build - 355:

I run Shell or BP 89 octane (ethanol) one tank, then one tank of 89 octane(non-ethanol) - vise-verse.

Change the plugs every 6k / Champion RV19YC / gap .045. You can see the corn crud on plugs!

Change oil every 3 to 4K, Rotella synthetic blend, 10w-30w / add a small bottle of zddp oil additive.

Run a can of sea foam fuel cleaner through a full tank of gas (18gal) every oil change.

That is my routine, hope it helps.

Re: best fuel for our trucks?
 

Totally depends on your engine. If it's been rebuilt within the past several years, it probably has hardened valve seats, so lead / lead substitutes aren't needed. I believe one of the few (maybe the only) benefits of leaded gas was to lubricate the valve seats to reduce wear. As to octane, it depends on what your engine needs. Mine is happy with 87 octane regular, doesn't matter what brand.

Re: best fuel for our trucks?
 

I know there are other engine factors that contribute to it, but when I run low octane (87) I experience frequent dieseling, higher octane (93) no dieseling whatsoever. I understand the basic principal as to why this is, but I wondering if a hotter plug would work better with the lower octane fuels??

Re: best fuel for our trucks?
 

all my trucks cars are happy with 87 any brand, i don't have any crazy builds. i'm glad!

Re: best fuel for our trucks?
 

I keep St-Bil Marine ethanol treatment in my tool box. One ounce per 10 gals and I run 93 octane as I've got a bigger cam in my bored .30 over 402. I rebuilt the carb a couple of times over a couple of years and even with the ethanol treatment its still really dirty inside when you pull the carb apart.

Re: best fuel for our trucks?
 

email your Congressman and tell him ethanol sucks and to quit subsidizing it.

Re: best fuel for our trucks?
 

I have a stock vortech 350 with a carb and i run 87 octane with no problems, Tried some 91 non and got spark knock.

Re: best fuel for our trucks?
 

I add a quart of diesel fuel every time I fill the tank in my vehicles that don't have hard valve seats. It seems to work to lubricate the valve seats? My 402 dieseled almost every time I shut it off no matter what fuel I ran in it. And it broke a valve spring and dropped a valve. Ive found that the resistor spark plugs coupled with the sorry fuel a points type ignition just don't perform. So I convert everything to electronic ignition. Even my 1944 M farmall tractor has a petronix electronic conversion.

Re: best fuel for our trucks?
 

Colder plugs would be more likely to stop dieseling.

A lot of the lower performance engines from the '60s will run happily enough on 87 octane; it depends on the compression ratio and other factors.

I'm running 87 octane... but there's not much '60s about my engine now.

Re: best fuel for our trucks?
 

diesel :)

Re: best fuel for our trucks?
 

HEI distributor and widen your plug gap to 45 , you can also play with your timing.

Re: best fuel for our trucks?
 

Never added lead. I just ran all my trucks till they smoked (took years),then did the hardened seats.

Re: best fuel for our trucks?
 

Valve seat recession is not from "lubricating or not " . They momentarily weld together , lead keeps that from happening. When they brought the hardened seats, it created dissimilar metals, so they were less likely to bond and keep tearing away the seat over time. Many people get away using stainless valves on soft seats for this reason( like my big block I did this) but is not recommended to use to replace hardened seats....besides ford and olds people doing this have higher nickel blocks..
Even though I run stainless valves I run about half the dose of lead replacement.. 4 bottles of red lines stuff, haven't gone through the first one
Also over time seats work harden, so if it was fine before, but you recut the seats... Beware!

Re: best fuel for our trucks?
 

The Paddock has folded, I hear, but they used to sell a product called "RealLead'' which was a quart of n-tetra-ethyl lead additive. One quart to 20 gallon tankful.
I tried it back in the '90s and got a speeding ticket. It ran real good in my 292.

Re: best fuel for our trucks?
 

Couldn't have said it better myself. If feeling cheap, you can always run son some WMO.