All

Currently I am running the Estelle on 97 Ron with a wee scoosh of Valvemaster every time I go to the pumps. The car seems to be running fine with this combination but I have only done 250 miles in the car since getting it.

When the weather is better over the Summer, I'd like to start using the car for commuting which will mean around 200 miles per week. Will the current combination suffice, or will I need to find an alternative e.g. alloy cylinder head or even LRP? Is LRP still freely available in the UK? Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers

Ian

Hi tik

Ive been running my 120 LXE on straight fuel out of the pumps for about 6 weeks now. I do about 220miles a week and have not had a problem at all.

Personaly i would add a slosh of addative to every tank, as most estelles wont have had leaded petrol in now for a long time, and the lead will have started to wear out of the valve seats. It is better to be safe than sorry.

Also tik , the alloy head will not fit ont your car only the 136 motor. You could always look around for a felicia engine to sling in the back, but you would also need a few rapid engine bits to do the job properly and completely

I've only ever seen LRP at Sainsbury's petrol stations.

:)This may not be good advise as I might have just been lucky, but I've been running all my old Skodas on unleaded ever since 4 star became unavailable. I've never used an additive and it's never caused me a problem....yet!

Meadow Filling Station Lochgelly 11.63 miles 111.9p

is apparently the only place selling LRP within 20 miles of Dunfermline. Info from Free UK fuel prices. 9,690 petrol stations covered - PetrolPrices.com

What about the proper leaded 4 star? My local filling station offers unleaded and leaded - they never stopped selling it even after the 'ban'. It is expensive, but the car goes better and further on a tank, also emissions are lower. It was on this fuel that my neighbour's white Rapid 136 (sadly written off) was able to get to an indicated 110 MPH. That baby was flying:eek:!!

Check here: http://www.leadedpetrol.co.uk/leadedpetrol.pdf and see if you have a local station.

Ian

hmm, pretty sure mine's got a felicia engine in... it's been OK on unleaded in the 2 weeks I've had it and I suspect for some time more so I'm just gonne keep my fingers crossed and keep running it on the cheap stuff...

I ran all my 120 and 130 Skodas always on unleaded 'cos it was cheaper, and never ever had a problem.They weren't driven gently either, regularly changing gear at 5000+rpm and it did them no harm on unleaded fuel.

I looked at my haynes manual and it says to run my 120 on unleaded.

I still aint had no probs yet.

runs absolutly sweet.

Hello all,

 

I have noticed this is a very old topic, but just wondering if you had any longer term detrimental effects using unleaded? My 120 has recently started blue smoking, I’m worried about it and wondered if it’s because I’ve been putting unleaded in with redex engine cleaner and I should have been putting redex lead replacement in instead. Hope it’s nothing more serious!.

 

cheers

Bradley

 

Not using leaded or lead replacement would  possibly cause valve seat recession.....not yet come across anyone who has suffered that, but even if your car had suffered it, the result wouldn't be blue smoke. Blue smoke is oil burning and that will be either worn piston rings or valve stem/cylinder head wear. 

I use unleaded in my race car and have suffered no issues and it revs to over 7000rpm. To cause valve seat recession you need to do a hell of a lot of miles at quite high revs. I'm guessing you probably don't rev your 120 past 5000 rpm very often and you probably don't cover 10000+ miles a year.

/\ What he said!

When does the smoke show? A little after starting is nothing - my mum's 130 has blown a little blue hazy fog for the 20 years she has owned it and its in fine fettle.

 

Blue as you drive along is less healthy.

 

As to unleaded, it does slowly damage the valve seats. However it is the not checking the clearances that causes the real problem - because once they close up the seats will burn quickly. The 130 with its higher compression shows a slow recession of the seats even with unleaded additive whilst the 105 does not. I now use Tetraboost (real lead) in both the cars and notice a real improvement - especially in the 130 which now no longer pinks at all.