Lead replacement additive

[chinkamon]

Anyone use any? 

Any recommendations? 

[Rally Pack 2000]

15 minutes ago, chinkamon said:

Anyone use any? 

Any recommendations? 

I do use one but its not one you would get there as its a locally Made one by Nulon. The key is to choose one with a particular base type and stick with that and not to swap and change. The Nulon one I use is potassium based. Others are Sodium or Manganese based. If you have to use another brand due to running out then buy another of a similar base type so your not mixing them. The Potassium ones are the most common so that's why I prefer it and have used one made my Shell themselves that was also a Potassium based type. They have these cool single use syringe type ones that you can keep in the glove box as a backup. The head and camshaft on my Mk2 is the one that it came out of the factory with in 1979 so with over a decade of use with this stuff it seems to be fine. Ultimately I will always be using it where as others get hardened valve seats installed. I have a brand new head for when the old one needs changing and I cant see myself getting a brand new head modified so will just continue to use the stuff.

[chinkamon]

Wow thanks that a lot more information than I expected but perfect thanks! 

I use to use a castrol one in my Essex powered corsair, an old skool mechanic told me I probably wudnt see much benefit as I don't drive huge miles however had a stuck valve not long ago in my cortina so thought it won't hurt to start using again 

Saw this an thought looked OK? 

[caprimk1v4]

I always use the same Castrol stuff as you, but I don't do any miles at all, so have never had any issues.

 

I believe valve seat recession is more of a problem if you sustain high rev's/engine under heavy loads, so our lightly loaded plodders should not have an issue, but measure your valve clearances on a regular basis and you can monitor if the valve head is starting to "Pocket" into the valve seats, but it would only affect exhaust valves.

 

Al.   

[chinkamon]

So I guess it's not worth the additive with octane booster then? Just the normal additive? 

[Rally Pack 2000]

Castrol Valmaster is known to be one of the most reputable and good quality.

The ratio is usually 1ml per litre of petrol so its not that expensive in the scheme of things.

I remember one strange thing in the charts provided when unleaded petrol took over here in Australia and there were three categories of cars, Those that didn't require it, those that you could probably get away without using it and those you definitely should use it with. The odd thing I remember was that Kent engined Escorts were in the probably could get away with it category but that Pinto engined cars definitely needed it. I never could figure out how they determined Kent Engines had harder seats than Pintos but I thought I should mention it as interesting piece of trivia.

[caprimk1v4]

Hi,

 

Sorry, should have read your post deeper, I use the one in the picture, so yes with octane booster, I tend to stay away from super unleaded fuels due to the amount of Ethanol some makers use, it plays havoc with aluminium bodies of the carbs.

 

So I use standard Shell unleaded with the Castrol plus, and the cars run quite well, but nothing is as good as the 1970,s 4 Star blends of fuel, and modern fuels go stale in less than 12 months and produce some horrible resins and gums/varnish, bloody crap fuel to be honest to what we had.

 

[Ray]

tetraboost, mix up your own proper 4 or 5 star

see the tetraboost web site

I even remove the ethanol as well, as its not just the engine that's affected from that crap in the fuel

[Rally Pack 2000]

1 minute ago, chinkamon said:

So I guess it's not worth the additive with octane booster then? Just the normal additive? 

You cant get the plus here in Australia but I was always curious about it. Octane boosters usually have a much greater ratio compared with the Lead replacement additives to have any real effect on raising overall octane levels. So Im not sure there would be any great benefit. That said I would have tried it especially for the Twincam that has such a high compression ratio and see if it made a difference. We went through a phase where the highest octane fuel we could get was 95, lower than the 97 required to make a high compression Pinto happy let alone the Twincam. Fortunately now we have 98 octane fuel but the Twincams workshop manual specifies British 5 star 100 octane but never seen that in my lifetime

[caprimk1v4]

Tetra boost is also good stuff, but for me with my classics only amounting to about 10 miles in total in over 10 years, I don't get any benefit, I also use "BRIGGS & STRATTON" FUEL STABILISER  not cheap but keeps the fuel quite fresh for a longer time.

[caprimk1v4]

Sorry to say I DO REMEMBER 5 STAR fuel, makes me feel real old, all of them, the choice was great, 2*,3*, 4* and 100+ 5*

 

In UK, Tesco do a 99 Octane Super Green fuel, but loaded with Ethanol & GTL muck, that can eat through anything, rubber, brass, ali, steel.

 

Crossflow heads no stronger than a Pinto head, but Pinto does have a greater exhaust valve heads compared to a Crossflow, don't know what effect that would have.!!??. 

[Rally Pack 2000]

5 minutes ago, caprimk1v4 said:

Tetra boost is also good stuff, but for me with my classics only amounting to about 10 miles in total in over 10 years, I don't get any benefit, I also use "BRIGGS & STRATTON" FUEL STABILISER  not cheap but keeps the fuel quite fresh for a longer time.

Yes I use a similar product called Stabil. Octane evaporates first so if you dont go through alot of fuel and it sits in the tank idle then this can be very useful. Unlike the lead replacement additive it is quite expensive I agree with Caprimk1v4 on that one but given how quickly unleaded seems to go off here I use it nonetheless.

[chinkamon]

28 minutes ago, caprimk1v4 said:

 tend to stay away from super unleaded fuels due to the amount of Ethanol some makers use, it plays havoc with aluminium bodies of the carbs

 

Aah that's interesting I read a peice about fuel In classic cars an they rated tesco super as the best, so I have been using that since? 

[chinkamon]

36 minutes ago, Ray said:

tetraboost, mix up your own proper 4 or 5 star

see the tetraboost web site

I even remove the ethanol as well, as its not just the engine that's affected from that crap in the fuel

Sounds dangerous with my hands 😂

[Ray]

you can buy an expensive kit from Fuzz Townsends oil site to remove the ethanol, its just a 20 litre container and a fancy tap, a 3 litre container (think its 3 lires from memory), and a funnel, you put 18 litres of fuel in, then literally just add water, shake it up and wait for it to settle, drain off the water and ethanol into the 3 litre bottle, and that also tells you the ethanol percentage that was in that fuel, then the funnel has a raised outlet, so any water/ethanol mix that you may have missed sinks to the bottom of the funnel and doesn't go into the tank

had a little hair pulling time when I first read the instructions, that i was going to put water in my kin expensive petrol lol, but it works

tetraboost is even easier, as long as you know how many litres of fuel you have, you just pour in a measured amount to that amount of litres, the higher the star rating you want, the more tetraboost is added

 

[Vista]

Another vote for the Valve master plus. 

[chinkamon]

If you hear in the news 

"37 year old man killed in vicious explosion in his garage in Hereford"

you know I tried tetraboost an failed badly 😂😂💥💥💥

[accord83]

I've used Millers additive for over 20yrs, never had a problem with valve seat wear. I have a case full on the shelf. 

https://www.millersoils-shop.co.uk/vspe-power-plus 

[Rally Pack 2000]

29 minutes ago, accord83 said:

I've used Millers additive for over 20yrs, never had a problem with valve seat wear. I have a case full on the shelf. 

https://www.millersoils-shop.co.uk/vspe-power-plus 

Whats the ratio mix on that?

[accord83]

Gawd know, I sling in a good glug and off I go rejoicing! Millers state one bottle to 50 litres on their data sheet, so one bottle a tank full, which is what I sort of do as I only need half a tank at the pump, I don't trust the gauge.  

[chinkamon]

1 minute ago, accord83 said:

Gawd know, I sling in a good glug and off I go rejoicing! Millers state one bottle to 50 litres on their data sheet, so one bottle a tank full, which is what I sort of do as I only need half a tank at the pump, I don't trust the gauge.  

U mean ur guage moves? Mine stays still unless I remove the sender an move it up an down, then it works perfectly til I put it back in the tank 🤔😂

[chinkamon]

38 minutes ago, accord83 said:

 

https://www.millersoils-shop.co.uk/vspe-power-plus 

That certainly ticks all the boxes doesnt it? 👍

[notenoughtime]

I don’t use anything! Not seen any issues on cars I work on day to day and do you do 12000 miles a year?

dont bother is my opinion 

 

[chinkamon]

Can't hurt tho surely? 

[caprimk1v4]

No, it will not hurt it in any way.

 

The worst that can (and will happen), if you really overdose the dilution ratio, is it will foul the plug tips up, the same as if you use far too much REDEX in the fuel, that will produce hard deposits on the plug tips, but ok after a good clean.

 

What you must stay clear of, is using more than one product at a time !!, they can counter act each other.