fuel

[ourlilyellacar]

Is there any need to use fuel additives for my little Sprite?

[1mgbgt]

In my opinion, probably not. Like most lbc’s the compression in your engine isn’t high enough to warrant octane booster and since you don’t have injectors you shouldn’t need cleaning additives. Lead hasn’t been present in gasoline for a long time now and I haven’t heard of anyone prematurely wearing out valves so I think you’ll do fine without lubrication additives. However, if you think you have moisture in your gas you can use an additive for that, but only until the moisture is gone. The only suggestion I have is if you don’t have a fuel filter you may want to consider installing one.

[ourlilyellacar]

Thanks Jon,
Someone asked me. It made me wonder. Carthage has a Christmas Parade on Dec 7th at 7:00 if anyone is interested meet at the fire department parking lot at 6:30. It is on grand near downtown.

[ourlilyellacar]

Thanks Jon,
Someone asked me. It made me wonder. Carthage has a Christmas Parade on Dec 7th at 7:00 if anyone is interested meet at the fire department parking lot at 6:30. It is on grand near downtown.

[mgguythorn]

We may put one of the MGs in the Parade this year. In the past some of the GOBMC folks have showed up to drive in the Christmas Parade. Always alot of fun!

[curtis]

I would respectfully disagree if we are talking about a 60s era sprite/midget/mg or triumph engine ? My old engines with Alluminum heads and fitted seats like on the Jag or an Alfa have hardened valve seats so they are fine, but I don't know when the brits started hardening the seat area on their cast iron heads. Soft seats mean deteriorating performance and frequent valve jobs without lead to lubricate them.

You can buy a very inexpensive lead substitute at OReilly and add it to your gas once in awhile. I sometimes buy a 1/2 tank of CAM 2 race fuel just to get everything coated. Run just a little race/street fuel in a 50/50 ratio through an engine once in a blue moon and the inside of your exhaust pipe will turn grey with the lead coating.

Don't do as I did and put it in your mower or four wheeler to avoid a trip out as I did once. The exhaust system, mufflers, spark arrestors ect will all get plugged up very quickly.

[JDD]

O.K. Guys,
Here is a link to the real reason to install or change seats in older cars, there is a lot of info in this that does not pertain to our subject but read it all for a good understanding......

http://www.sbintl.com/tech7.html

JD

If you have questions I will try to answer them.

[curtis]

JD,

That is a interesting article, thank you for posting the link. Now since you said we could ask questions..........

The article referred to seat "inserts" like I was referring to on old alluminum heads. What about old engines with valves seating right into the head material. Don't these require the "hardening" effect ?

Curtis

[JDD]

Yes Curtis,
As long as the heads are cast iron, after the seats are ground / cut they will be too soft for unleaded fuel. The hard layer is ground or cut away to expose the softer metal. The valves are of a harder materiel so the seating area of the head becomes the anode if you wish. they basically weld the valve to the seat everytime the valve seat's and pull away metal from the head therefore the head erodes way and the valve recess's. Leaving you with a valve with a excessive stem height and lower compression because of the greater chamber volume. If you find you cannot keep the valves adjusted because the lash keeps closing up, this might be the cause.

Generally after 1974 to 1978 or so most heads have hard seats in them but the British were the the exception, it never hurts to be proactive on this point. Its not that costly to put the hard seats in for the exhaust valves which is all you need to do due to the heat. The intake runs cool enough that they do not need hard seats.

JD

[ourlilyellacar]

Who could perform such a task?

[JDD]

Any good machine shop could do this work, Of course I have one I would recommend
But this does not need to be done if everything is stable, meaning that the valve lash stays pretty steady and there are no other issues with the head you are probably O.K. Just when you do a valve job then it is time to fix it right.

JD