petrol: lead replacement or fuel additive

[whos dave]

So my cortina hasn't been converted to run on unleaded so what does anyone reckon is the best to use
the lead replacement 4 star stuff
or unleaded with the fuel additive stuff

the 4 star stuff is a couple of pence dearer per litre and the additive is about a tenner for a bottle i think, but i can't remember how much you get through. Reckon the difference in price must be negligible.

[rainking]

I used to use Unleaded with an additive in my old Landy....

[Davenger]

I forked out £70 to a local engineering firm to tup hardened valve seats in my mini's cylinder head, so now I can just fill her up with unleaded

[DerbyDan]

I've felt that the Derby runs a little better on unleaded with additive rather than LRP, I've heard also that running with additive + unleaded is safer.

I reckon the castrol stuff is probably the best, simply because its the easiest to use and dispense the correct amount (has a reservoir bubble at the neck of the bottle). I'm using some Redex additive at the moment which was a little cheaper - but I seem to be getting though it quicker as its harder to guage how much i've put in.

[lukeB]

I just use unleaded with no additive in the beetle-I only do low miles though. Should be ok if you only do low miles.

[PhoenixC]

what i have always done with non hardened valve seats is run a couple of tanks unleaded and then one tank LRP. Never had a problem so far and I know a few other people do the same and none of them have had a problem either.

[PhoenixC]

just re read your post. Is your cortina a pinto or not? If it is why not get a head off a sierra (e-reg or newer) should be able to get a decent one of ebay or a scrappy for around £50 or less then another £10 for a head gasket. If its not a pinto then Ill just shut up ;D

[rustingdeathtrap]

My cortinas a 72 with a crossflow and I've been running it on unleaded for the last 4 years with no problems whatsoever. However if you don't wanna take any chances your best bet would probably be to use lead additive as LRP still wont contain any lead, its just full of chemicals to boost the octane rating.
Pinto's and Crossflows are strong old engines anyway and theres probabaly 15 - 20 years of lead in the valve seats anyway, but like phenoix c says, if you want an unleaded head theres plenty out there.

Edit; if your running unleaded with no additive you might wanna back the timing off a couple of degrees.

[Pillock]

lukeB said:

I just use unleaded with no additive in the beetle-I only do low miles though. Should be ok if you only do low miles.

VW motors have been unleaded-friendly since the 60's anyway, and since most dubs pre-1970 have been re-engined anyway at some point, they're ok to run on unleaded as much as you want. My 1973 1303 never had anything but the cheapest unleaded i could find and did 18000 miles a year, then when i scrapped it the engine went in a VWDRC car so it was still running strong

as for the original post... a decent lead additive is usually better than LRP, as that's made as cheaply as possible. however you might want to hunt around some little country filling stations, as some still sell 4* - some daft rule like max 4% of all petrol sales can be 4* so the big filling stations don't bother.

phoenixc... when did ford start making unleaded heads? My uncle had a sierra sapphire 1.8 company car which he had to put 1 tank leaded in for every 4 unleaded, that was an E plate i'm sure - just be careful hunting those scrappies, get the latest head you can!

[PhoenixC]

as I remember it was feb 87 when pintos where all unleaded