You could write volumes on it here. Unleaded gas has been available since mid July of 1974 when basically all new for 1975 cars came out with cats. The last time I remember seeing leaded gas sold in NJ was about 81 or 82 when it was banned alltogether.
To me it seemed everyone was running around screaming about valve recession due to the lack of lead but everyone paid little attention to the lack of octane in the leaded gas! Before the lack of lead does any damage, the lack of octane did it's damage WAY sooner! I've seen several cars at the dealer where I worked in the mid seventies with holes in the pistons from the lack of octane.
Over the years I read many articles on the subject, mostly out of curiousity, on unleades gas written by oil companies, U.S. military, taxi fleets ect.. is a lot of negative hype. The U.S Military found no ill effects of un-leaded, taxi companies found prolonged engine life with less cylinder wall wear.And Amoco gas has sold unleaded gas since the mid fifties over here, a engineer for them once wrote that they never had any customers complaints about engine problems do to the lack of lead. One of my old neighbors use to use it specifically in his cars in the fifties and swore by the Amoco unleaded gas. He told me that he would get an easy 150,000 + miles out of his cars without any engine or valve problems or replcing exhaust systems!
Leaded gas came out over here after WW II, all the gas before that was unleaded. I read that when leaded gas came out, there were valve wear problems! They had to change valve seat angles for the leaded gas.
I think the whole thing is blown way out of proportion. Sure the lack of lead will accelerate wear, but it's not usually a problem on light duty vehicles, only ones like trucks that run under heavy load really should have concerns. And the fix is easy, install hardened exhaust valve seats.some big advantages with un-leaded fuel is way less engine wear, cleaner oil, longer lasting sparkplugs and exhaust systems not to mention cleaner air for our kids.
Me, I'm all for the un-leaded gas!
Tom
You can do anything you want to......ONCE!
aka "my 66 coupe"
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Hale Boppe comet shot off my roof. See you can use 100 iso at night with no flash!