I too have heard of this often used water dribbled down the carb throat but also, back in the day, the fuel contained lead which always formed hard/crusty deposits. On performing valve work, it often wan not necessary to replace the exhaust valves but the hard lead salts would mound up on the underside of the valve head and had to be chipped away before grinding. This type of deposit I don't think would be too easily removed otherwise. Could there still be engines today with remaining lead deposits from the leaded fuel days?


64F100 57FAIRLANE500

Could there still be engines today with remaining lead deposits from the leaded fuel days?

Well yes as LEAD-FREE GASOLINE became on-line in 72/73 and with the intro of CATS lead additives were made unavailable, except for racing and they ended that also..

So any pre-1975/76 original assembly engine could have lead deposits. That was some nasty stuff but cheap for refiners to raise octane levels.

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Interesting.  Reading ive done said that microwelds happen under load when accelerating without lead.

Wonder if I need to even be using the expensive redline lead additive.

I did grab a bottle from work of that STP race series of octane booster.  No cost to me but now I need to do some reading on it find out if its something I want to attempt to use on my 292 to try and starve off spark knock I have.


1956 Ford Fairlane Town Sedan - 292 Y8 - Ford-O-Matic - 155,000 mi

redline lead additive.

RED LINE® LEAD SUBSTITUTE

Should be no need for such a product for a street engine (IMO of course).

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Interesting about the water trick!
How long would you do it for and what quantity of water would you expect to use?

Most octane boosters are misleading.  They'll boast something like a 10 point increase.  So you'll think awesome, that makes my 87 a 97.  Nope.  Read the back of the bottle and 1 point is 1/10 of an octane number.  So the 87 will be 88.  In this case, you're probably better off to simply try the next grade of fuel.


Lawrenceville, GA

Yep, I did a little reading during lunch the stuff I got its not that great so I will probably take and give it back to the customer that gave it to me since I wont use it.  I did see Torco F500010TE ranked #1 on best octane booster for 2018 it boasts up to a 14 point octane increase depending on how you mix it.  Claims a bottle of this stuff in 10 gallons can turn 91 octane into 102 octane.  Something for me to keep in mind but I am going to run 93 and try that.  Just not sure if the 93 here is truly 93 or if its just being sold as 93 and its sucking from the same 83 octane tank



1956 Ford Fairlane Town Sedan - 292 Y8 - Ford-O-Matic - 155,000 mi

Ian, it was along the lines of a cup or a pint IIRC. Made a great deal of steam, and not so much to kill the engine. But it’s been years, and I don’t remember if I ever did it, watched, or just heard the story.

Having had a 11.25:1 312 in those days I do remember the lead fouling on the spark plugs, and deposits on the valves, but I didn’t know what caused them on the valves. Damn, it’s hard being 69 and not knowing as much as I did when I was 17.

miker
55 bird, 32 cabrio F code
Kent, WA
Tucson, AZ

Ian, My method was I would dribble water into the carb set at fast idle the idea was to add just enough water to slow the engine BUT NOT KILL IT.
Let the engine recover and repeat until the smoke from the exhaust would stop.
This is not unlike the FAMOUS "ITALIAN TUNE UP" do a Google search. Pete

Damn, it’s hard being 69 and not knowing as much as I did when I was 17.

Eh, you're just a pup ...

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