VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 FUEL

I HAVE A 1938 CHEVY MASTER DELUXE WITH THE ORIGINAL 216 CID MOTOR. DO I NEED TO ADD A LEAD ADDITIVE TO MY FUEL?

I don't think you need to add anything. I have been driving a 31 with the 194 CID engine for over 40 years. When they changed the fuel I didn't change anything on our car. I have had no problems.

No...............

https://vccachat.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=001060#000000

The experts on this forum have convinced me that I should use Unleaded Regular Gas and 10W30 motor oil in my "41 Chevy. There has been a lot of discussion on both gas and oil. On unleaded gas the best argument is that the old ones didn't have leaded gas so why should you used it now. And on oil, the only reason they did not use multi-viscosity oil is because they did not have it years ago. JIM

i have a 1948 stylemaster...does that need a fuel additive?

I am not sure when leaded fuel was first introduced here but since its demise I have not used any additive in any vehicle and not had any problems that can be attributed to the "lack of leaded fuel".
My daily driver is a "leaded fuel" motor running lpg which has very similar burning characteristics to low octane unleaded petrol.
Tony

"I have a 1948 stylemaster...does that need a fuel additive?"

No! Your car will run just fine on regular unleaded gasoline.

The so called lead additives really do no good anyway.They are just a money maker (or waster).

IMHO chevgene is right they dont seem to do anything beneficial, only lighten your wallet.
Tony

I've burned unleaded fuel in everything from stock 54's with 235's to a 42 with the 216, to a 68 Impala convertible with a 327, 275 horse engine to a 55 pick-up with a 350 and a 41 Cadillac Five Passenger Coupe with a Chev 427 in it.

NO PROBLEMS that relate to unleaded fuel or NOT using lead additives.

I DID have trouble with the higher compression ratio of the 327 while using the 87 octane crap "they" call fuel. But it had nothing to do with "lead."

Bill.

The 327 engine would require premeium 93 octane if the timing is set correctly.

We don't have added corn juice in Texas or Oklahoma (the places we have driven our 275 hp 327 Impala) and I can't see any difference in using the 87 or the 93 octane unleaded gas. No pinging. The timing and dwell is set to the shop manual specs.

Speaking of fuel, just returned from a 300 miles or so jaunt, with the 52 in 90+ degree weather, most of the fuel purchased was in an area considered a special needs area or oxygenated fuel required. Noted that with a real warm car when I shut it down and returned 15 minutes to half an hour later it would start well using the tried and true method but ran really poor, missing, bucking, acting like it wanted to be somewhere else for about 2 or 3 miles, as the engine heat disapated the engine ran smoother. Being around a bunch of older cars parked on a day like that you can smell gas fumes for a long distance away. New gas do not smell like old gasolines, gives me a headache.