lead additive

Just wanted to know weather or not I should be putting a lead additive into my petrol? Or weather it would be fine just using premium unleaded. I will be asking the previous owner in the next few days about the matter.
All help would be appreciated

Simple answer - if it makes you sleep better at night, spend your money

I dont - and California hasnt had leaded for YEARS

Read here - most of your questions will be answered.

http://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/viewtopic.php?tid=49875

thank you forgot to type it into the search feature

vw2230 wrote:Just wanted to know weather or not I should be putting a lead additive into my petrol? Or weather it would be fine just using premium unleaded. I will be asking the previous owner in the next few days about the matter.
All help would be appreciated

Hi
Many VW owners do use a lead substitute in their petrol..
VW has had hardened valve stems and seats since the 60s..
it won't hurt... but I've never used it...

I have always been using 95 or 98 Premium fuel in My beetle
with a single port 1600cc engine...

but I filled up last time with regular unleaded and My engine seems to be going better... acceleration and obtaining top speed much much faster...??

so who knows???

cheers

LEE

My stock 1600 Beetle is only ever run on 91 unleaded with no additive. The original motor is low compression, so the low octane is no problem, and the hardened valve seats are already in there.

I have seen a few old Holden cast iron heads that have no hardened inserts that have had the valves drop about 2-3mm into the head.

So hardened valve inserts in the head, or additive.

68AutoBug wrote:I have always been using 95 or 98 Premium fuel in My beetle
with a single port 1600cc engine...

but I filled up last time with regular unleaded and My engine seems to be going better... acceleration and obtaining top speed much much faster...??

so who knows???

cheers

LEE

Lee, cos higher octane fuel is a slower burn you need to crank the timing up a few extra degrees to get the benefit of premium
which is fine if you always run premo but stick a tank of regular in inbetween and hear your engine self destructing
otherwise premium in with stock timing is just wasting money

as has already been said the US hasnt had leaded fuel since the 70s so all twin port vw engines were factory built for unleaded

most single ports have been rebuilt by now with hardend seats or have 30 years worth of lead imbedded in them that theyre right without but as bizzare said if your gonna lose sleep over it......

So Joel what your saying is decide what octane fuel your going to use then tune to suit, but does the higher octane fuel give you more power or mpg (sorry, less liters per 100 km), and how do you know when your on tune for the juice, is it trial and error measuring the power on road or distance travelled? do you have to dyno to find out?

Generally higher compression ratios require higher octane

Standard CR is 7.5:1-ish
You can go to 10-ish on 98

You tune to max advance

A dyno certainly helps

always been running it before i put in my new performance heads..... best alternative is to get a fuel star, which will automatically protect your valves, give u better economy and performance.....

polak wrote:always been running it before i put in my new performance heads..... best alternative is to get a fuel star, which will automatically protect your valves, give u better economy and performance.....

Bullshit.

you know those fuelstars are a wank

right up there with fuel line magnets and electric superchargers

well i cant speak from experience, as im about to purchase my 1st one, but i know of many ppl that have run them for a long time and swear by them.... if anything it will be a good experiment to see if it is all bullshit.... ill let u guys know how i go..... ill put it on in between dyno sessions and see if it makes any difference in the power department as well.

Polak, I have the Emperor's New Clothes and Wonder Woman's jet here for sale - you interested?!

I think we have one at home that came with a bug we brought what are they worth $10 if so I can get rid of it. As I wouldn't put any of them wanker things on my cars. Don't believe everything people tell you especially vw people 😂😂

polak wrote:always been running it before i put in my new performance heads..... best alternative is to get a fuel star, which will automatically protect your valves, give u better economy and performance.....