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Question Category:

Oils, Fuel & Fluids > Fuel & Fuel Additives

What fuel options do I have for an old muscle car since leaded fuel is no longer available?

My motor has not been rebuilt in recent times and I'm concerned about using unleaded gas. I bought if off a guy who says he ran 93 Octane and never had any issues. The valve seats have not been updated (hardened). I've heard using higher octane fuel is fine. Others say adding a lead additive will do the trick. Should I just have the valve seats updated, use lead additive, or just up the octane?

Asked by: chevelle69

Asked on: June 30, 2008 19:17

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TheRipper (6 months ago)

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I don't know if you can still find 'Real Lead' additive, but I think RedLine makes a substitute additive that is supposed to help the problem. It does have the "For Off Road Use..." warning. It would be wrong to use that or most of the other additives in your car ;-) My thoughts back in the day was... if I have to induction hardened the seats I might as well wait until I have a problem, by that time I will have saved up enough $$ for a set of nice aluminum heads. Using Higher Octane fuel makes no difference as far as I know. I do know where you can get leaded racing gas, but it is a long drive to the race track, and the fuel is expensive. You might also get some 'to go' and mix some in, but I would not expect it to make a huge difference in blended quantity but some has to be better then none!