addative or no addative?

hi every one hope your all doin good!
well please could someone please confirm this for me, i have a 2.25 petrol serries IIa. do i need to add lead addative to the petrol or am i right in saying it does'nt need as the engine has harden seats etc?
well have a good one cheers for now.mike

I find addatives usefull in my orange sweets but not the green or blue ones

Opinions differ about additives, but the IIa did not have hardened valve seats, so in theory you should be doing something. Of course many have been retro fitted, but without knowing the history of the vehicle, there is no way on knowing.

hi davec
its ex mililatary and has the orginal 2.25 petrol engine in it with no gizmos that i can see!

standard head you need additives,hardend seats no additive.

Well we have a pair of Series 2 landies, neither with hardened valve seats and we have been running them on unleaded (one for about 15 years with no problems!) so until they break or smoke etc we are sticking with not buying additiive!

The problem is that a leaded engine will work fine with unleaded fuel, but will wear out quicker. On a high mileage high performance car this can be fairly quick, but opinions differ about how much of a problem it will be on a low stressed Land Rover that only gets used at weekends.

Deffo agree with that Dave.

no addative it is then guys thanks for your help...
look forward to meeting you all at london to brighton 2009
mike.

Hi,

I thrashed my old S2 on unleaded ever since 4 star became difficult. That included 40 miles flat out without a fan belt. I won't say it didn't do the engine any harm, but it was knackered anyway when I fitted it in 1993, and was still knackered when I sold it in 2007

Your valves will have acquired a lead "memory", which might or might not last a long time. If you grind the valves you will remove that memory.

Work out how much it costs you to add additive for a couple of years, and balance that agaist the cost of a new unleaded head ......or a 2nd hand leaded head.

And remember, if you fit an unleaded head, or use additive, you engine will still NOT last for ever. When it breaks, fix it, but not before.

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