Old Gas powered Tractor..Need Lead Substitute?

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I am the (proud?) owner of a 1963 Case 830 tractor with a 4 cylinder gas engine. We have always used 87 octane farm gas in it, and I never really thought about it maybe needing lead substitute since unleaded gas became the standard years ago.

It crossed my mine a few days ago, but all the googling I have done has yielded zero results. Do any of you guys have any ideas if I ought to add a lead substitute from now on?

The tractor runs pretty decent but needs carb adjustments and new plugs every couple hundred hours and hates ethanol even in 10% blends. We run 15w-40 in it for engine oil.
 
WOW Bubba GREAT LINK!! The antique cars with 10-1 compression are having trouble lately with pinging and overheating on todays gas. This SHOULD be a solution.

Thanks
 
Great timing... finally dug the old Mustang out of the garage after a year of being entombed and am driving her for a few warm and light traffic days this week. I've got a bottle of Redline Lead Sustitute that I forgot to open and dump some in last night. I'm interested to see how it works...

http://www.redlineoil.com/whitePaper/12.pdf
 
"Do any of you guys have any ideas if I ought to add a lead substitute from now on?"

Probably. The Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs approves the following lead substitutes to prevent valve recession:

Millers VSP Plus, (manganese)
Red Line Lead Substitute, (sodium)
Superblend Zero Lead, (potassium)
Castrol Valvemaster & Valvemaster Plus (phosphorus)
Carplan Nitrox 4-Star (potassium) & 4-Lead (manganese)

All of these have the advantage over Tetra Ethyl Lead of being non-toxic when handled. Tetra Ethyl Lead could cause some nasty problems if gotten on the skin.


.
 
I also have classic tractor fever!! LOL
For years I have added Marvel Mystery Oil to both my gas tractors (Allis-Chalmers D17 IV and a Farmall A)and these are hard woking tools I rely on. I will run Seafoam in the winter just because "I believe" it is a better choice to stabilize the gas but less top end lube.
 
Redwing: Good Idea on the MMO I use it
religiously in all my vehicles,boats and lawn
equipment. Russ: The tetra Ethyl Lead actually
has mixing instructions on the side of the can
telling how much to use to aquire the octane
you need or how much to use for valve seat protection.
 
Just remember we are talking about an engine that is below 7.5:1 com ratio. 87 octane is plenty for this engine.
JUST LUV THE SOUND OF AN OLD 4 CYLINDER GAS TRACTOR.
 
Strjock81,
No, most old gasoline tractors do NOT need any fuel additives. Most came with hardened valve seats so lead additives are a waste of money.

Don't know if you're familiar with it, but there is a great forum for old tractors at www.mytractorforum.com. It's a great bunch of old geezers who have a wealth of knowledge about old iron.

I currently have a 1947 Ford 2N and have had and restored a 1952 Case 310 Utility and a 1949 VAC.
 
"A federal sponsored study of older gasoline-powered farm equipment showed some performed satisfactorily on unleaded gasoline, but most experience valve-seat wear, especially during the water pumping portion of the testing. As discussed previously, operating at light load, replacing the valve seats with hardened inserts, or using lead substitute additives can help solve the valve-recession problems in critical engines."
http://www.chevron.com/products/prodserv/fuels/bulletin/unld-gas/


Ken
 
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