VortecBowtie

Safe for rotarys?

I was just curious as to know if it would be safe in these motors? I don't have a need for it. Just wondering since it lubes the valves on regular piston types if it would have the same effect on apex seals to lube and help seal?

DavidHolmesIII

Where could you get leaded fuel these days?


The only thing I know of is a lead additive you add to unleaded fuel. (My dad had to use that additive in his 240z.)

As far as whether or not its safe. . . Don't trust me 100% but I don't see why leaded lubrication would be harmful to the seals, however I could see it building up somewhere and causing long term problems.

Rocking Rotary

iTrader: (14)

C116 is leaded which VP sells in mass quatites at rediculous prices. It wont hurt your engine one bit. It will hurt your O2 sensor thought so keep an eye on that.

BurntOrangeT2

iTrader: (30)

god i laaa dat c16 maine! I'm buying a 55 gallon drum for my shop thank the lord i laaa the way it smells too.

peejay

No, it doesn't. The lead leaves a coating of gunk everywhere in the combustion chamber, including the valve seats, and this coating of gunk helps prevent the valves from micro-welding to the valve seats if you have a really crappy cam lobe design and/or your valves are adjusted too loose so they hammer the seat.

When lead was introduced, a major problem was the stuff accumulating so MUCH that it would break off in chunks, leading to "guttering", which quickly burnt valves. Lots of money and effort was spent in developing scavengers that would clean the lead out of the combustion chamber.

Ever notice that we don't have to do valve jobs every 10-20,000 miles anymore?

VortecBowtie

good point, but how come they run it in most ever race car you see at the drag strip? just because of the octane rating? If it were because of that, how come not run unleaded fuel equal to that?






O that smelll.....

lol

peejay

Tetra-ethyl lead (TEL) is a very inexpensive method of boosting the octane rating. I don't recall if the highest octane rated fuel involved TEL or not, but it was NOT cheap. I think on the current scale it would have been a 145 octane.

Most reasearch into anti-knock quantities was done during or just before WWII. Aircraft engines were knock limited, not pressure limited, so the better the fuel, the more performance could be gleaned from the engine. Important when you had a Zero or a Me-109 on your tail...