Re: SER1 Unleaded petrol?

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Hi there

Some of this depends on the use you put the LR to.  General use in a low
revving engine like ours doesn't do as much harm to the valve seats as using a
performance car that was designed to use leaded.  I used my 107 for years on
unleaded, just with the addition of upper cylinder lubricant without apparent
harm.  The exhaust valves are not hardened, and it is recommended that these
are changed.  After all, they were designed to run on petrol available
throughout the world in the late 30's / early 40's.  The engine dates back to
the P3 Rover cars!  Now I've rebuilt another 2-litre to go in it, and I've put
a Rover 60 car head on it with hardened exhaust valves to make sure there'll be
no problems on unleaded but it's still getting the Reddex treatment from time
to time.

The 6 cyl 2.6 litre engine in the same - just needs exhaust valves and it will
be OK.

Regards

Nick Chinery
(Leicestershire UK)

KC wrote:

> Thank you for this info James. I'm pleased I asked, as South Africa is busy
> moving over to cleaner fuels at this very moment. Looks like I will have to
> use lead replacement fuel in the S1.
>
> Regards
> KC
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: series1-host@xxxxxxxxx.xxx [mailto:series1-host@xxxxxxxxx.xxx]On
> > Behalf Of James Ferguson
> > Sent: 09 January 2006 08:17
> > To: series1@xxxxxxxxx.xxx
> > Subject: Re: SER1 Unleaded petrol?
> >
> >
> > KC wrote:
> > > I was under the impression that the side-valve engines (2L
> > Series 1 and 2.6L
> > > later vehicles) can run on unleaded fuel, but not the 2.25L
> > engines. Is this
> > > not correct?
> >
> > No.
> >
> > They will all _run_ just fine on unleaded fuel, but none of the above
> > mentioned have hardened valve seats, and therefore are likely
> > to suffer
> > valve seat erosion with prolonged use of unleaded and/or high
> > speed running.
> >
> > I believe the V8 is the only engine fitted to Land-Rovers
> > that can run
> > on unleaded fuel without deleterious effects. This is because
> > the V8 has
> > an aluminium head and therefore had to be fitted with hardened valve
> > seats from new.
> >
> > This web site gives a great explanation of the principles of
> > valve seat
> > erosion:
> > http://www.pumaracing.co.uk/unlead01.htm
> >
> > James
>
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