Do not use lead free gasoline

[Soddy]

I purchased a 1973 Grew 17 foot I/o with Kiekhaefer Mercury 165 hp engine. The manual says "do not use no-lead or lead free gasoline. Use any good grade automotive regular gasoline that has a minimum octane rating of 93 (research method)" To my knowledge most auto gasoline now is lead free.
I have asked several sources and the only suggestion is to use a premium gasoline such as Esso Supreme at 91 octane. I read that I should use Marine gasoline but I could not find any information on properties. Any advice would be appreciated. Soddy

 

[JASinIL2006]

Re: Do not use lead free gasoline

Don't they sell lead-substitute additives for just this purpose? I think any good auto parts store would carry it.

 

[southkogs]

Re: Do not use lead free gasoline

I've been told a number of times by a number of mechanics that there's nothing to worry about. I've been running unleaded 87 from the local gas station with no problems for a few years now.

 

[Don S]

Re: Do not use lead free gasoline

Sure is a lot of people running those engines on todays unleaded fuels with no problems.
Might want to look outside and see if the sky is falling too.

 

[HT32BSX115]

Re: Do not use lead free gasoline

Howdy,


I wouldn't worry about it. You cannot easily buy leaded gasoline. (except some racing gas and AVGAS 100LL which is illegal under federal law to use in a marine engine on any waterway in the US)

You can easily run any regular unleaded gasoline in your engine and MANY people here have been running unleaded regular in their 6cyl engines for years........

 

[Soddy]

Re: Do not use lead free gasoline

Thank you all for your replies to my post. I can now proceed with the additional knowledge. Soddy

 

[keith2k455]

Re: Do not use lead free gasoline

The problem with no lead will be valve wear. After maybe 1000 hrs of no lead your valve seals will be worn and you'll need a compete valve job. Performance will eventually suffer, but not much you can do other than the valve job now

 

[jkust]

Re: Do not use lead free gasoline

You can buy lead additive. I've have a bunch of it from way back when the switch from unleaded came. I still use it in my old Force engine.

 

[HT32BSX115]

Re: Do not use lead free gasoline

The problem with no lead will be valve wear. After maybe 1000 hrs of no lead your valve seals will be worn and you'll need a compete valve job. Performance will eventually suffer, but not much you can do other than the valve job now

My previous engine ( Mercruiser 6cyl inline) ran 39 years on unleaded fuels from 1966 to 2005. The hour meter failed at 1500 hrs in 1985.

I don't know if it had valve seat wear. The head was never off And it ran fine all those years.

Instead of blowing money on fuel additive snake oils, it might be better to just save the money so you can buy gas.

 

[Tail_Gunner]

Re: Do not use lead free gasoline

You can buy lead additive. I've have a bunch of it from way back when the switch from unleaded came. I still use it in my old Force engine.

You have won the jeporday challenge

http://www.autoeducation.com/rm_preview/valve_train.htm

Stellite Valves

Stellite valves have a hard metal coating that prolongs valve life. Back in the days of leaded gasoline, the lead additives coated the valves, providing added protection. With unleaded fuels now being burned, the hard metal coating does the protecting.

However todays oil's are so vastly superior i believe they negate that effect...Who know...

 

[HT32BSX115]

Re: Do not use lead free gasoline

Yeah. I knew many people using propane back in those days that didn't have any valve wear at all! Think it was largely old wives telling this stuff......(I don't think propane has any lead in it.......)

 

[Tail_Gunner]

Re: Do not use lead free gasoline

Never worked on propane engine's back then.. generally they were large fleet cars or the maverick who did the conversion on his own car. I do remeber it was quite expensive and ridden with problems..It's been so long i cannot remeber but some mfg's had issue's and some did not.

 

[jkust]

Re: Do not use lead free gasoline

You have won the jeporday challenge

http://www.autoeducation.com/rm_preview/valve_train.htm

Stellite Valves

Stellite valves have a hard metal coating that prolongs valve life. Back in the days of leaded gasoline, the lead additives coated the valves, providing added protection. With unleaded fuels now being burned, the hard metal coating does the protecting.

However todays oil's are so vastly superior i believe they negate that effect...Who know...

We've had the additive so long, we've just always used it on the Force. It's never see gasoline without lead and so far hasn't had any malfunctions of any sort. Don't know what to make of that. Just lucky, built on a Wednesday, don't know. I have the additive in a bottle that is like what Stabil comes in. You squeeze a little bit in and add oil to the tanks and done. Takes an extra 30 seconds.

 

[Chinewalker]

Re: Do not use lead free gasoline

We've had the additive so long, we've just always used it on the Force. It's never see gasoline without lead and so far hasn't had any malfunctions of any sort. Don't know what to make of that. Just lucky, built on a Wednesday, don't know. I have the additive in a bottle that is like what Stabil comes in. You squeeze a little bit in and add oil to the tanks and done. Takes an extra 30 seconds.

Absolutely NO reason whatsoever to use a lead additive with a 2-stroke Force outboard. The only reason the lead additive was ever warranted was for the valve seats in 4-stroke, old-school inboard motors. Save your money and spend it on good oil... It'll do much more good than adding faux-lead to your fuel.

 

[jkust]

Re: Do not use lead free gasoline

Absolutely NO reason whatsoever to use a lead additive with a 2-stroke Force outboard. The only reason the lead additive was ever warranted was for the valve seats in 4-stroke, old-school inboard motors. Save your money and spend it on good oil... It'll do much more good than adding faux-lead to your fuel.

I've used the cheapest oil available to date as well.

 

[HT32BSX115]

Re: Do not use lead free gasoline

We've had the additive so long, we've just always used it on the Force. It's never see gasoline without lead and so far hasn't had any malfunctions of any sort. Don't know what to make of that. Just lucky, built on a Wednesday, don't know. I have the additive in a bottle that is like what Stabil comes in. You squeeze a little bit in and add oil to the tanks and done. Takes an extra 30 seconds.

So since you've never run it without the "additive" you have no idea what would would happen?

 

[Tail_Gunner]

Re: Do not use lead free gasoline

So since you've never run it without the "additive" you have no idea what would would happen?

Why speed up the reed valves of course...Calm down..

 

[Tail_Gunner]

Re: Do not use lead free gasoline

So since you've never run it without the "additive" you have no idea what would would happen?

Slow down the reed valves of course.....Calm down..

 

[HT32BSX115]

Re: Do not use lead free gasoline

The reed valves calm down............ I didn't know stern drive engines had reed valves.....

I learn something everyday!

 

[Tail_Gunner]

Re: Do not use lead free gasoline

The reed valves calm down............ I didn't know stern drive engines had reed valves.....

I learn something everyday!

Reference to the Force 2 stroke...hmm in your opinion do the reed valves slow or speed up ....