Hi all,

Since the phasing out of leaded furl here in Malta , unleaded being the sole petrol on sale now I have a bit of an issue on my 120 ... It's a classic I cherish that I don't use much,in 2 years it has barely covered 500 kms but yesterday eve after months of rain and heavy winds the weather calmed down a little albeit some cross winds I decided to go for a drive . On third and forth gear especially under loads the car has no power at all and is pinking quite badly .. When I refilled with petrol last year I poured some additive but this had no effect,have no plans to remove the head to do the valve guide for the simple fact that since we do not have any motorways here the engine wouldn't rev on the same band for more than 5 minnutes + the car is completely original and never been messed about with + I cover less than 500 kms in it a year . Basically my question is to avoid the pinking issue do I have to alter the ignition timing by what degrees ?,Once someone told me to advance it to 0 degrees and re set the valves as well ... The fact that the car has little or no power at all doesn't bother me much since that's all the fun and character in the car , it's the 2cv of Czechoslovakia ,,,

You'd need to retard the ignition timing a little bit to stop the pinking, I don't know by how much though. You could do it by trial and error (I know that's not the best thing and not very scientific), just rotate the distributor body a little at a time (in the same direction as the rotor arm rotates) and see how it goes. I remember doing that when I had the Favorit. Yes, you should check and adjust the valve clearances as well, you don't want them burning. You may be ok with the valve seats, I have a '76 Beetle and she runs fine on unleaded, the valve seats on the old Beetle are apparently ok with unleaded, someone with more knowledge will be able to advise you about the 120 cylinder heads. You have a nice car in the 120

EDIT: I think the owners' manual says something about filling up with one tank of leaded in every four of unleaded (or something like that) - so the additive you were using is probably helping your valve seats.

Does the engine use any oil or coolant? The 120 engine obviously isn't mega powerful but they aren't usually that sluggish. Retarding the timing will help reduce pinking but will most likely make the engine more sluggish unless it is already set a lot too advanced. What model is your car, 120L, 120LS? Is it the low or high compression engine?

Can you buy lead replacement additives over there?

When I ran an old Metro I used Millers VSP Plus, which lubricated the valve seats and contained an octane Booster. Castrol and a few other firms make the same sort of thing. Different firms use different chemicals, (Sodium, Manganese, Phosphorous or Potassium), so it's best to stay with the same one.

I would recommend a fuel cat - anyone who says they dont work hasnt tried one......I have been using mine for several years now and have suffered no valve recession...I also had the engine tested on a rollong road before and after fitting it (with a perfect set up) and we were able to advance the ignition several degrees after fitting it.

Mine is an L , the low compression model , it's only got some 45,000 miles on the clock,am suspecting that the car is sluggish and pinks quite badly under load on unleaded fuel due to some carbon build up in the cylinder head,my father bought the car new in 1988 and he never exceeded 70 km/h ( 35 mph ) , you know how dad's drive :giggle: ... Anyway the poor quality fuel we have here in Malta doesn't help either,can remember when we filled up from sicily both me then Felicia and the 120 felt much much better ... With the low mileage i do each year I was told not to mess with the valve seats and not worry about any valve recession , by how much do I need to alter the ignition to start with and what valve setting should I use ?.

Fuel cat, power plus, all the way! Used them for years now with many 100s of thousands of miles to prove them.