Can anyone help. As a newly paid up member to the Beetle fraternity, I was very excited about purchasing my 71 1600 convertable. I then tried to buy some fuel and found that all of the gas stations in my area have decided to discontinue lead replacement fuel. I know this is probably the most basic question ever but I'm sorry!! Can you fill up on premium unleaded and does it end up burning your valves etc. Any advice would be much appreciated

yes but add some valve master to your tank or you will burn valves

and btw welcome to the forum, your life has just changed in a big way:thumb

Has any used the Lucas lead replacement before?

Or is the valve master stuff the best to use on a vw engine?

I use premium unleaded with some valve master each time i fill up.:thumb

i judt use two stroke oil.

i use flashlube and have for 2 years works great

you do not need any additives with premium unleaded or regular unleaded in VW's
Unless you have shares in the additive company or too much money
I have run PU for 5 years without any additives and without any trouble.

Welcome, there's all good advice up there, so decide for your self. Go the dak daks.

I use Premium unleaded and add "Red X Lead Replacement" AND "Shell Advanced Racing M" 2 stroke oil..
My motor is still very fresh and doesn't miss a beat..

I use an additive when I remeber........

hey, welcome to the club. I have been filling with optimax or ultimate which is the shell and bp range of premium unleaded and adding flashlube. I have not had a problem to date and to be honest my beetle is getting 8.5litre per 100km's. Best it ever has so things are only getting better. Thats 8.5 litres per 100km's driving my style

:thumb

mate u can buy a 90 dollar fuel converter from repco, lets u use unleaded or premium all the time. thats the way out for people who cant afford $1.30 a litre for fuel!

welcome to the dubclub

Volkswagen Engines have always had hardened valve seats
can You imagine a valve seating in Aluminium-Magnesium alloy?? It wouldn't last too long...
Same with valve guides....

What is the 90 dollar Repco fuel converter???

Lee --

Well it may be $1.20 or $1.30 a litre but my car gets 20% better fuel economy and it doesn't ping, so it ends up costing exactly the same and is better for the car. Some cars don't need the higher octane though, but I do. Best to try a fuel economy experiment on your own car and see if it makes a difference. I only use Ultimate or Optimax too, and no valve anything. It's been fine for 2 years, and the engine is apart at the moment. It's all fine.

Does it really change regular unleaded into Premium High Octane Unleaded????

All for $90... WOW...

thanks Oasis for the info on Your engine...
looks like the way to go... for sure...

Lee

I have retracted the info i gave because i have been enlightened by someone.

I will never use optimax again, But use it if you like it and you aren't having any dramas with it.



[Edited on 21-12-2004 by manx_xtc]

Our dub mechanic recommended using premium when we asked him about the converter.

He said he wouldn't put the conversion kit in our beetle as it is a waste of money and he runs all his dubs on premium.

Only just started using premium but she seems to be running pretty damn good.

i got a converter and still run ultimate from bp get about 600km to a tank

Been using plain unleaded in the Beetle for a couple of years. Runs no probs.

The Bus has been running premium for 5 years and 100,000 k's Had to take the heads off a while ago and the valves were fine.

No additives.

Check this link out.

http://www.aussieveedubbers.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=32680#pid277998 

Basically because your beetle has hardened valves, you can run unleaded with no additives.

Squiz....

My little buggy runs OK on unleaded fuel. Since he doesn't come out too often I fugure what the hell and use premium unleaded. It does run OK on regular unleaded though as well.

im interested to know what this problem was with BP ultimate as its the only thing i fill up with.

Using Flashlube or similar products will lubricate the valve stems & guides but it will NOT stop the dreaded dropped valve...
This is when the head of the valve breaks off....

You need to adjust the tappets every 6,000 miles or every 2nd oil change...
This is Not a hard job, get someone to show You how to do it
and Your Volkswagen will love You for it....

Lee

Everyone's talking about valve seats, what about Valve guide's. If this unleaded fuel run's hotter, whats it's flowon effect in this area. When I got my BMW boxer heads (aluminium) converted they also changed the guide's to a different material, it was explained to me by the head machinist that it was nessasary and my usual mechanic agree'd.
Rob...

Well maybe with the Beemer it was a good idea, but with the old VWs, the engines and hence the valve train were originally designed for running on standard fuel (now retagged as unleaded) in foreign countries, and in Germany it was planned to be able to run them on carbon monoxide/methane (producer gas) which had no lubricating properties whatsoever...

Never heard of producer gas or standard petrol? You're not old enough then... Umm, damn, I guess that means I am. Bugger...

[Edited on 31-12-2004 by last celtic warrior]

Damm it I have heard of Standard petrol
My forst job was at a BP petrol station and one of the pumps was a mixer........you could have 25% standard and 75% super ans so on !
Now that is showing my age badly

If you have a look at the article at http://www.vw-resource.com/leaded.html  then I think much of this discussion will be re-solved. Paying too much for petrol seems like wasting alot of money to me. My 1600cc runs equally well on unleaded as on any premium petrol, so think about it!!!
cheers
Jeff

I have higher compression so need premium. It pings otherwise. Not everyone does though.