Unleaded gas

MrMcD wrote: A buddy Gene bought a 69 Chevelle SS396, 4 speed, 4.11 Posi, With 4 boys it seemed we always had one car being fixed on the driveway.    Your choice of a 340, 1970 engine was a good one, that 340 was probably the most powerful small block engine produced back then because of the X heads it used. Those were very quick cars and the engine was durable.

Made me smile. There were 4 boys at my house and we were all in high school in the mid 70's. Muscle cars were our daily drivers. I had a Plymouth Duster with the "Twister" package. 340 V8 with a 4-speed manual. No posi diff, so burn-outs were easy. We went through a lot of tires. One fun trick was to buy a can of cheap re-refined oil. It was under $1 and made for great smoke. We would pour a puddle in front of each rear tire, grab 2nd gear, tach up the Mopar and slip the left foot off the clutch. Smoke and stripes.

JQ

Thank you Mr. McD for bringing memories back to life. My favorite burnout was a friend Gary who had a 76 Camaro in which he installed a 427. I can still smell the rubber. My mother gave up long before yours did. She used to go to the strip with me. I miss her very much this Christmas. Thank you for the memories.

My parents were horrified by the race car garage that became of the space they kept the family car. We had two street lights one on either side of our house that represented a benchmark for burnout length. A few rear ends and driveshafts gave themselves up between them and necessary repairs took place in the driveway since nobody could afford to have anyone fix their cars. The neighbors were pretty glad I’m sure to see the four boys in my family head off to college and allow the tranquility of our street to return after the onslaught.

I suspect many of us in this site gave our parents tremendous grief due to our natural mechanical curiosity.

tryathlete wrote: I wanted a civic or a rabbit but we wound up with a disappointing substitute that I’m ashamed to even mention.

Holy smackdown Mervin, what could possibly be more shameful then either of the above? Was it hard to drive with a constant wedgie?

My first car was a 66' GTO that I bought at 15yo, my folks were horrified when I came home with it, as it turned out, justifiably so, lol

You guys. OMG how I love this place.

KENO WINS! Well the reason I wanted a rabbit was that it could run from 0-60 in under 10 seconds and the forgettable Ford was closer to 12. I got my Rabbit many years later as a GTI, but zenithed at an early Honda CRX that turned into a serious trophy-getter. Yeah there wasn’t much in the way of corrosion protection on the Ford but it usually died of other causes before rust took its toll, especially in the hands of two high school boys.

Or the distant "cousin" to the Pinto:


AKA "the pregnant lemon"

Must have been pretty bad Pete if a Rabbit was your top pick

Some Reading about things Manganese Phosphate is used on today.
The piston in this flyer is for the Cummins ISX, one of the most popular Diesel Truck engines on the road. These use over 30 pounds of turbo boost and are expected to live as much as one million miles. This is a long term coating used to help the part under severe pressure live. https://dieselcranks.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/FP-Diesel-ISX15-QSX15-Powerforged-Pistons.pdf   The initial comment was this was used on some Valve guides as an upgrade many years ago, at least back to the 1990's.. Piston applications of this are new in the last 10 years.
The flyer does not state it but the same coating was also used to coat the piston ring landing on this piston. Same reason, they want the ring lands to live longer for better ring seal as the engine ages.

Here's a link to an easy to read article from somebody not on their own self proclaimed soap box

link

My take on ethanol...

Ethanol (ethyl alcohol) in motor fuels in the USA is commonly derived from corn. As such ethanol is “corn alcohol”. Ethanol blends very well with gasoline. However, ethanol is hygroscopic to the extent that it readily absorbs water from the air. Ethanol is also hydrophilic, so it dissolves in water. Ethanol likes to be blended with water better than with gasoline. The problems start when water is introduced into the fuel system. The bad ju-ju happens with ethanol-blended gasoline when the ethanol portion takes up enough water to cause phase separation in the fuel tank. “Phase separation” occurs when water in the fuel system is attracted to the ethanol, causing the ethanol and water to mix and separate from the gasoline. This ethanol/water mixture is denser than gasoline, so it sinks to the bottom of the fuel tank. Mix in a little oxygen and that ethanol/water mix is a good formula for rust. It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out how a little water can get into a boat’s fuel system.

On the positive side of things, ethanol has some motor fuel benefits. Pure ethanol has an octane rating of 113. As such, using ethanol as a gasoline additive can increase the octane rating of the gasoline. This is one of the main reasons why ethanol is used. As MdD pointed out, racers have been using alcohol successfully for many years. One note, however, ethanol contains about 30 percent less energy per unit volume than gasoline. As a result, a 10 percent ethanol-gasoline blend will have 97 percent as much energy as gasoline.

Other octane boosting additives are also used in the refining industry, such as MTBE or BTEX. MTBE is an acronym for Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether, and BTEX stands for Benzyne Toluene, Ethylbenzene and Xylene (aromatic hydrocarbons).

MTBE has been blamed for groundwater contamination and its use in motor fuels has diminished significantly. BTEX is fairly widely used today but has also been blamed for groundwater contamination. Let’s face it…the "B" in BTEX is benzyne -- and benzyne is a known carcinogen.

Refineries have the ability and technology to produce high-octane gasoline that has NO ethanol, BTEX or MTBE. It just costs more. John Q. Public wants low gasoline prices, so additives are needed. Of the 3 mentioned above, ethanol may be the best low-cost, environmentally-friendly choice for today's modern motor vehicles and engines. Personally, I prefer a higher-quality gasoline without the additives. I'm willing to pay more. Ethanol-free gasoline is available in Utah. That's all I put in my vehicles. It typically costs 20¢ more than mid-grade. I work very hard to keep ethanol-blended gasoline out of my Ski Nautique, houseboat and small engines.

Now, how about Universal Basic Income?

JQ

Jonny Quest wrote: McD: When I was turning wrenches for a living, the phase-out of leaded gasoline was in full swing. I believe that catalytic converters were mandated in late 1970's model vehicles and forward. The full ban on leaded fuel was in the early 1990's if I recall.

I believe it was 1975 for catalytic converters and air pumps. Dad had a 71 Caddy with a 472ci towing an Airstream. Got a great deal on a 76 with a 500ci. Didn't pull as well as the 71 so he bought a how to book on how to remove all the emission controls. Converters,air pump and removal of the gas filler restrictor made it as good as the 71.

It is my understanding that Ford started to induction harden their exhaust seats on cast iron heads which eventually would work through the PCM system.

JQ, I think you did a good job of explaining the fuel change away from Lead.
One thing I think you may have mis understood. It was the Valve Seats that were failing not the Valve Guides. Lead lubricated the valve seats and enhanced valve seat life.

Engine rebuilders soon figured out that an old engine that had been running on leaded fuel had no problems with un leaded gas. The theory was that years of running leaded fuel pounded enough lead into those seats that they were protected and worked fine.

If the shop rebuilt head, and ground the seats while doing the valve job they would send out those heads and they would fail quickly, the valve seats would pound out and the valve heads would be recessed into the seats.

The solution became installing hardened valve seats which avoided the pound out issue and lasted a full life. Prior to unleaded fuel the valve seats in the heads were cut right into the cast iron head material and this worked fine with leaded fuel but cast iron was not hard enough for un leaded fuel. Hard valve seats allowed them to fix cast iron heads so they would work with unleaded fuel. FYI: for propane or natural gas engines there is even less lubrication for the valve seats so it is mandatory they run hardened seats.

I've been running ethanol blended fuel in my 88 for 18 years and have never had a fuel issue yet ( knock knock knock on wood). I do recommend changing the main fuel line from the tank to the fuel/water separator and from it to the Fuel Pump with a Coast Guard to an ethanol approved fuel line as ethanol fuels will deteriorate the OEM neoprene fuel line.

8122pbrainard wrote: Matt, If you want to fatten the coffers of the "lead additive" manufacturer, then go ahead and use the snake oil. If not, then take Tom's advice above. EDIT: Matt, now I'm confused. 359 wrote: How concerned should I be about running unleaded in my boat when the engine tag says to use unleaded only? It's an 1988 2001. What type of fuel are you concerned with? Your post states unleaded twice.

sorry, I meant to say the tag says to use leaded only and unleaded only in an emergency.