Lead Additive for Gas

[kjerchinger]

with all the talk about engine oil I thought it time to bring up another topic I think about often. I will start by saying I am no mechanic and not really very mechanically inclined either. As far as oil goes, my manual for my 85 Advance calls for 10W-40, so this is what I use, always thought Penzoil was a good brand, so I stick with it.

  when I bough this boat 10 or so years ago the original owner said he always used a lead additive mixed in the gas, this because you can no longer buy leaded gas, and again, the specifications on this original 350 Ford call for leaded gas.
  does everyone else with an older boat use a lead additive ? are you missing an important step to properly lubricate your engine ? or,maybe I am wasting money continuing to do so.
    thoughts anybody......

         Keith
 

[Mike Harry]

Ive owned ....... 1965 F100 with 240 6 cyl (later a 302 out of an 80 model only as a power upgrade), an 82 F100 with 300 6 cyl, and 3 boats older than 1988 (in family not all mine all with V8's chevy and ford) that have never run any lead addatives.

Ive never had a problem, except the last 350 which I have narrowed down to mechanical part failure.

Im going to thow out the wasting your money card but that is just my personal opinion.

As a side note, the old man I purchased my 65 F100 from decided to add lead pellets from shotgun shells to the fuel tank every couple of months. When you turned corners you could hear all the lead shot moving from one side to the other. I didnt figure out what it was for about a month after purchase. Very loud. Old truck has metal tank behind the bench seat. I thought is was some kind of vent or fan or something for a while......

I look back at that and laugh now!
 

[kjerchinger]

Thanks for your input Mike,
  I love the lead Pellet story !

[backfoot100]

Like Mike said. Pretty much everybody I know say the same thing. It's snake oil.
After unleaded gas bacame the norm, the auto manufacturers had to start using hardened valve seats and valve stems in the engines to prevent early failure. The general consensus now is if the seats and stems aren't hardened, when the enige does finally give up the ghost, rebuild them with the hardened seats and stems and run the piss out of it again.
This concern only applies to early to mid 70's time frame engines and earlier. It was about that time the feds mandated unleaded gas. I don't remember for sure what year it was mandated but it was sometime in there.
Your 85 engine already has the hardened seats and stems so you're just wasting your money.

Oil is definitely another thing. You due diligence is needed to make sure that you're using the right stuff.

[backfoot100]

As a side note, the old man I purchased my 65 F100 from decided to add lead pellets from shotgun shells to the fuel tank every couple of months. When you turned corners you could hear all the lead shot moving from one side to the other. I didnt figure out what it was for about a month after purchase. Very loud. Old truck has metal tank behind the bench seat. I thought is was some kind of vent or fan or something for a while......

I look back at that and laugh now!

There could be another reason for this Mike.
While I was working on my boat, I syphoned out the gas tank as I knew it would be out of commission for a while. There was still 1/2 to 3/4 inch of gas in it that I couldn't get out at the time. When I started wetsanding and buffing the hull (after the small amount of gas in the tank had sat there for 3 years), I had to remove the tank to remove all the hardware on the transom. When I looked in the tank, there was just this ugly goo that was laying in the bottom of the tank. I looked more like molasses than any kind of fuel?
I started calling around to find a place to clean the tank as radiator shops used to do this. No more with the stiff mandates from the feds I believe for the caustic cleaners that they always used. I heard from several old timer motorheads and speed shops to throw a gallon of mineral spirits in it with a handful of nuts and bolts and shake the hell out of it. Are you kidding me? they said they do it all the time to clean out rusted tanks.
Well, I knew my tank wasn't rusted and I only ended up putting a gallon of mineral spirits in it, shaking it up and letting it sit for a couple weeks. It cleaned it out perfectly.

That old timer could have very well been putting the BB's in it to keep the steel tank clean. Just a thought anyway.

[Mike Harry]

That's some crazy chit too!!! No, I called this ole boy and he told me he was putting them in to add lead to the gas...... at that point I just said thank you (shook my head on my end of the phone line) and went on my way. I'm just glad none got sucked up into the fuel line. There was a filter in place, but one of those pellets could wiped out everything if it went through the paper cartridge.