Leaded Race Fuel Still Available?

[SuperDave]

I heard today that Sunoco leaded fuel is no longer availabe at Road Atlanta or Lanier National (across the street).

Have any of you racers (actually racing as opposed to project-building and dreaming about racing like me) had to run on unleaded fuel?

My machinist says I should put hardened valve guides in my head to cope with unleaded gas. Since they cost the same from Victoria British, it sounds like a no-brainer to me.

I'm planning on running a high-compression version E88 with a stock block and standard rings. In the next block rebuild, I will probably bore it .040 and use a set of oversized pistons from my first race car.

Based on this and the possibility I'll have to run leaded fuel, do I need to do anything special to the head other than the valve job with hardened guides?

[Bambikiller240]

When I had my Hi-comp E88 head rebuilt by Dave Rebello (http://www.rebelloracing.com/ ) he recommended hardened Valve SEATS not guides to deal with unleaded gasoline. It's the seats, not the guides that get pounded upon.

[240ZX]

I second what Carl said!!! Dave Rebello is a very knowledgable guy with tons of race engine experience. Someday, maybe soon, I'm going to break down and buy one of his 3.0 L 285 HP 50mm su'd motors for my 240. The additional 125 HP will be sweetamous!

[SuperDave]

Right...I wasn't looking closely enough at the VictoriaBritish catalog. So I guess I will want to put in new hardened valve seats as well as premium manganese-bronze valve guides. Thanks for straightening me out on that aspect.

[TomoHawk]

I used to see different "lead additives" in the stores and in magazines, but that was in the 90s, and I haven't seen it since. I t was mainly for the British cars, because they didn't havet he parts available to convert the engines to unleaded fuel. I think those parts are now available, so the lead additives are gone

[Dans240z]

How serious of a problem is this? How bad would the wear be on an engine that has spent most of its life running on un-leaded gas?

[LanceM]

Serious is a relative term here, without hardend valve seats a valve job will last a little more than half of what it would have with hardened seats, so if you don't plan on keeping the car forever or don't mind doing a valve job every 30-40 thousand miles with "normal driving" it's not that big of a deal.

[PrOxLaMuS©]

To answer your question..

YES they still sell leaded "race" fuel...

go to the airport... any airport with a container.. and you can get 100LL or even 110LL octane.. usually BLUE in color...

same stuff as automotive fuel.. just AVFUEL.. which has color added in it.. more oxygen and lead

[TomoHawk]

Right, Avgas is color-coded, so you know what type is is. If you mix grades, it turns clear:

80/87 Red

110LL Blue

100/130 Green

[Bambikiller240]

A recent issue of Racer magazine still had an advert from Sunoco listing several race fuels they supply. NASCAR still uses one of them.

[gramercyjam]

Most of us bring our own race gas. VP fuels C12. Just because we like the sweet smell.

[dogma420]

PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong....

My head is original, I've never put lead in it...I was told a long time ago the L series aluminum heads have hardened seats by default.

My head has over 125,000 miles on it with unleaded gas, totally original head. No problems with the valves.