Re: Unleaded gas

Posted by Owen_Dyneto On 2017/11/8 11:53:00

DaveB845, thanks for the good information. Just a few comments:

AMOCO premium was lead-free (white gas), their regular grade contained TEL.

Lead also plays a role in protecting valve seats and faces, probably more important than lubricating guides and stems. On the seats it prevents or minimizes what has been called "micro-welds" which form and break as the surfaces separate. The micro-welds are what causes seat and valve face erosion, and with it what was the typical valve grind every 40,000 miles or so. On a broad scale it was induction-hardening of seats that brought that problem to an end, though some makes like Chrysler used hardened seats in some of their engines for many years before that.

I do thoroughly detest E10 gasoline but it's primarily on political and scientific grounds, it just isn't sound science, or economics either. But I've never had a problem with it in either Packard. The carburetor on the '34 was rebuilt back in the 1970s the Rochesters in the Caribbean in 1998 - both have proven completely trouble-free.