Hey i have alot of left over leaded gas (from my grandad) over 700L so i was wondering weather it would run better or worse in my '78 Stock exept twin webber carb RX-7.

Thanx Nathan

 

how old is it? old gas goes bad (ask me how I know). I would think it would not run well or at least not run any better because 1. It's old and 2. Your car was designed specifically with unleaded in mind

Jon

 

1.In my manuel it says leaded. 2. Its probly at least 5yrs old. So i wont use it and i know gas goes off but i thought leaded didnt so ok.

Thanx

 

Hmm... you make a good point. I was under the impression that any gas would "go bad".... mine never had leaded, but unleaded definitely goes bad. Might be worth doing a google search over.

Your manual says leaded? Crazy. They haven't sold leaded here since way before the SA was ever released, so I'm sure my manual must say unleaded, but if leaded has been around Australia until more recently, then maybe your cars are tuned to run it.

Care to scan the page in your manual where it says that? It'd be something to see.

Either way, I'd never pump 5yr old gas of a different variety into my car. Especially without knowing *exactly* what that different variety of gas would do even if it weren't 5 yrs old.

Jon

 

Well leaded was illeagle around 95 but u still could get it at 2001 ,2002

but to make sure ill run my lawn mower on the old leaded and see good way to see if it ignights right.

Nathan


P.S MY brother had a 1984 VH HOLDEN COMMODORE 5.0L V8 and unleaded would reuin the engine so he used super. But i know australia has only now got strict emmisions

 

**** i put some in after running my lawn mower for like 10 minutes not a prob . It ran so well man if flogged it i reckon 15% - 20% more performance. TRY IT GUYS

 

yeah leaded in the us stopped being obtainable in the late 80's.. the lead in the gas helps to lubricate the motor and i think it's a little lower octane. plus with it being 5 years old it probably has lost some octane rating more... use it up it's free..

 

Leaded gas lubricated the valve seats and increased the octane rating of fuel. Now days it will ruin the catalytic converter in a car. Polution aside, that is the main reason we can't run leaded fuel in our cars. (in the U.S.)

 

trochoid is right. Leaded is still used in aviation fuel. Without it valve guides get screwed due to lack of lubrication. Its also one of the reasons they have avgas up to 105 or 107 octane.

When unleaded first came out they learned quickly that you needed hardened valved seats and guides. If you put unleaded in say a 68 Mustang, you were due for a valve job pretty soon. My father-in-law has a 73 MGB and he MUST put lead substitute in every tankfull.

On the flip side, unleaded burns cleaner. That's why you see sparkplugs that will go 100,000 miles now. My first cars were all 60's and 70's and you should see a sparkplug from a well tuned car running on leaded compared to unleaded - big difference.

From my experience leaded gas will store longer before going bad. The simplest indicator is bad leaded gas smells like turpentine.

Oh, - leaded WILL completely and totally screw a catalytic converter.

 

I forgot about the spark plugs. My 71 Road Runner was one of the crossover vehicles. The compression was dropped to 8.5:1 from the previous 10:1 and I could run any fuel found at the pump. My spark plugs were changed out every 1500 miles, for performance. Funny thing was, if it started running rough, I could run a tankfull of ethanol and it would clean up the plugs and smooth out the idle, thereby extending plug life.

 

I ran through a honda generator a tank of gas siphoned from a buddy's old Triumph Stag.... had been sitting since 1986... ran the generator just fine.... dunno of I'd put it in my car though...

 

I don't have a cat so ill be fine. Oh and the petrol smells new so i think ill be save to use it.
Better performance i can feel aswell so ok thanks guys.

Nathan