RE: Unleaded??

[stans4@ix.netcom.com]

On 05/01/97 11:40:17 you wrote:
>
>No they don't salt. They use sand. Their is already too many minerals in 
>the water here. We have hot mineral springs everywhere. (they don't call 
>it Yellowstone Park for nothing - lots of sulfur) 
>
>As far as the leaded fuel thing.....
>They do sell regular in Montana however I suspect that there is 
>sustitute for the lead. Either way the point is that for an older 
>vehicle that doesn't have a valve conversion it is probably a good idea 
>to use "regular" gas or a lead substitute. 
>
>BTW - I don't drive my '64 on a regular basis. It stays safe in the 
>garage most of the year and only comes out to play during nice weather. 
>As I said it has 30,000 original miles and although I don't believe in 
>hiding such a gem I do have a fear of someone piling into me. I figure 
>the more it's on the road the greater the chance of that. In fact it 
>actually happened to me once...
>A guy sitting behind me at a light was so distracted by my car that he 
>wasn't watching traffic. We were waiting to turn right. When I started 
>to creep forward he glanced left, rolled forward and bumped me. I almost 
>$%&#& my pants! I pulled over and couldn't believe he hadn't broken the 
>rear lenses, but only put a small dent under the lid. The guy was 
>amazing, as I was trying to exchange insurance info he was asking if he 
>could take a look inside the car.
>
>
>Bill
>'64 Notch
>-----Original Message-----
>From:	Keith Park [SMTP:parkkj@orion.crd.ge.com]
>Sent:	Thursday, May 01, 1997 11:20 AM
>To:	bniles@avicom.net
>Cc:	type-3@umich.edu
>Subject:	RE: Unleaded??
>
>WOW!  I am blown away that leaded is still sold in the US!  I related 
>this to one of my environmentalist freinds (who freaks when an engine 
>even drips oil)
>and he was Freaked!  he had no idea eather!  Now hes going to start 
>letter writing, I probably opened a can of worms here... OTOH!
>
>Must be they dont salt in Montana cause the salt here claims nearly 
>everything
>over 10 years old, I had the kids count once, we came up with 1 vehicle 
>for
>every 350 is older than 1975.  Must be nice out there to drive your 
>classis
>year round and not worry!
>
>Keith
>
>
>

I've driven through most of the western states, leaded fuel is generally available, not at every station though.  However, most I've seen has been from 84-86 octane and as one other poster said, the amount of lead in it is negligible.  I use 91 octane unleaded in the VW, I choose higher octane over the dubious benefits of the residual lead in the(so-called)leaded gas. 
 If you have a truly cherry, OEM '64 engine, you might want to consider finding another engine to put in the thing, it's probably valuable enough as is that you wouldn't want to run it.  You could then get the later heads and valves and run what you like in the new engine, adjusting the CR according to what gas you have available at a reasonable price.

There are substitutes for lead, most are sodium-based, not sure how they gunk up things or if they do.  There's a book out about lead substitutes, amazon.com handles it but don't recall the exact title.