Morris Minor Owners Club

Ran out of reddex at the wekend and it got me thinking.
Is it really worth using it? At roughly 3-5pounds a shot, which lasts for about 5 refils wouldn't that money be best going towards an unleaded head,

Ive runleaded cars on unleaded for years and had no problems whatso ever, this means im not shelling out on additives which means whatever im saving can go towards a new head should that ever be needed.

Personally I think the whole saga of leaded, unleaded and additives is totally overhyped and not that much of a problem. But I can only speak from my experienses on the subject.
Has anyone else got caught out where I havent with their minors??!?
Just a thought!

Valve ressession on the `A` series heads only starts at speeds above 50mph so if you dont drive over that very often you head could last for some years and of all the classic cars the `A` series is one of the most prone to the problem.

Personally I think the whole saga of leaded, unleaded and additives is totally overhyped and not that much of a problem.

Well Redex is not an approved additive as they didnt submit it for testing just like the Catalyst system, I think the most popular is the Castrol additive but some people like myself are fortunate as our local Sainsburys still sell suitable petrol.
If you want more detail have a look at the link below as they conducted independant tests on our behalf without using either political 0or biased reasoning.
http://www.fbhvc.co.uk/

I use Sainsburys 4-star LRP (as above) and my Traveller has done about 25,000 miles on LRP and occasionally UL, sometimes at 60mph plus. When I changed an exhaust valve earlier in the year the seats needed minimal grinding to get them to seal.

VSR? what VSR?? Just don't thrash the car and it will be fine

Our local Sainsbury has just stopped 4 star, but I will just use unleaded till i get round to changeing heads (early rover V to unleaded compatible.
On an A series, head replacement should only take a couple of hours, so just use unleaded, save the dosh for an unleaded head, then change when original becomes too worn - you may be surprised at how long this takes.
Only buy from a reputable supplier though.

Pete

Vavle seat recession burns away the bit that gets machined when the new seats go in. Additive (that may or may not work) costs a fair bit of money over a few thousand miles.

So run on normal unleaded, save the pennies, and when the seats give up get inserts machined in

There's a school of thought tht a high mileage head will be both work hardened and retain an element of lead memory, which helps keep the recession down. I personally run Optimax to keep the octane nearer 4 star levels and as I believe the increased octane helps provide a better flame, reducing the temps on the exhaust valves/ seats. I don[t have anything to back that up with though!

Hello all,

our Minor has a lead free head, but my 2.5 Triumph has not and has done over 30,000 miles since it's rebuild. I use VSP additive with octane booster (my Triumph engine has a 9.5:1 compression). I regularly use over 5,000 rpm and drive it hard. I have experienced minimal wear on the valve seats judging by the lack of valve adjustment required so far.
The Fbhvc went through several A series engines doing extensive tests of the additives. I would assume that they would have not tested them at low loads and speeds so comments above about driving gently are very valid.

Alec

I had to replace my head (the car's ) a month or two back as two of the exhaust valves were toast and one of the seats looked very flaky. I'd mostly been running on pure unleaded (as had the previous owner) but with occasional use of the Redex additive. I don't do a lot of high speed driving but I like to keep my foot down . Draw your own conclusions from this.

On the other hand, leaded heads are only £10, there's loads of them around and they're fairly easy to fit so it's not that much of a bind if you wreck the odd one.

Agree with all the above - unless doing high mileage just use unleaded with no additive. I keep the exhaust valve gap slightly bigger than normal - 15 thou - to make sure it doesn't close up during running. A wee check from time to time will alert you to the gap closing (indicating recession starting) - just open the gap again and keep on motoring. With six years summer running on a 295 head - always driven hard - the gaps never closed up once. Now using a 940 head - car driven harder than ever - so far the gaps are fine.

I just bung unleaded in there.
If it burns the valve seats out - big deal!

I'm only putting off the innevitible which would be to buy an unleaded cyl head anyways... might as well cook (and get some use out of!) the old one before that time comes.

I run standard timing and have had no problems with detonation or lack of power whatsoever.

I also have one of those inline fuel catalysts fitted, got it cheap so who cares if its a load of black-magic rubbish...

Hello Chris,

where do you find these?

"On the other hand, leaded heads are only £10,"

and more to the point, what head reference number are they?
The last head I bought was a 2g940 and cost me £150, but totally refurbished, and unused.

Alec

you could of course use an additive that works - I use the Castrol one, which for me wors out far cheaper than an unleaded head (break even is ~40,000 miles based on typical price for an unleaded head) and for me additive is a lot less hassle - I've been through 15 Minors so far !
(valvemaster has worked out cheaper than 15 headgaskets, so I'm glad I
didn't have to keep swapping the head to the next Minor... )

where do you find these?

"On the other hand, leaded heads are only £10,"

Standard Minor heads are pretty easy to find.

Alec,

There are loads of standard used 12G202 heads at autojumbles or on ebay for around the £10 mark. I managed to bag a 12G295 for £40 off ebay a while back so there are bargains to be had.

Hello Chris,

do you mean standard or converted heads, with hardened seats, bronze guides etc? I assumed that you meant the latter.

Alec

converted heads, with hardened seats, bronze guides etc? I assumed that you meant the latter

A converted head with hardened seats as you describe would be called an 'unleaded head'. Calling a standard head 'leaded' isn't especially obvious but means 'not-unleaded'.

Hello Ray,

yes, I know, I have just re-read the post but I obviously had the converse in my head as I was assuming that once the original head was worn out then it would be replaced with an unleaded one.

I really couldn't be bothered with putting an other leaded head on, if it were I, I'd do the job once and fit an unleaded head. A cheap second hand head will need work to make it serviceable anyway so time and possibly money would be spent overhauling that.

Alec

I use Castrol valvemaster plus with the Octane boost in it. Used to use it in the Minor & also use it in the Kit Car too.

It's supposed to add two point to the RON, normal unleaded & valvemaster works out cheaper than Super or Optimax most of the time & those nice historic vehical guys say that it works...

It add about 4p a litre. Less if you buy the one without the octane boost or if you buy in bulk off the web.

Dan