Mike,
This is pure conjecture on my part (never stopped me before ;), but it
sure sounds like there is "cause and effect" here (I assume you've
checked the "usual suspects," like loose ignition wires, fuel delivery,
etc.).
I believe the lead substitutes/additives use other metal compounds (like
manganese) to do what lead used to do--as a side effect to raising
antiknock quality--mainly coat exhaust valves to protect them from
gradually receding into the head. If the compression of an engine is
low--likely in an engine from that era--there may not be enough
combustion heat to burn these compounds completely. Check your spark
plugs for deposits. The other possibility is that something has
gunked-up the rings, resulting in loss of compression.
Lead compounds (tetraethyl and tetramethyl) were added to gasoline in
the early 1920's--your car may or may not have been built to run with
leaded fuels.
The gasoline available in 1928 still had a pretty low octane rating;
your car should run fine on regular unleaded (anything up to a
compression rating of 8:1 or so), but you may eventually get exhaust
valve recession. If/when you rebuild the engine you should be able to
get hardened exhaust valves and seats installed, but since I doubt
you'll be putting a huge number of miles on the car you should be able
to drive it for years before you have a problem with exhaust valve
recession.
bs
Mike Louwagie wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a question about loss of power, not Healey.
> Its about power loss on a car from 1928, a Minerva, made in Belgium.
> My dad owns this car only a 3 months and we drove it a few times since and
> had no problem.
> Now a few days ago we went for a little trip after we put a lead adjective in
> gas tank.
> This because the say its better to do so. But after about 8 miles there was
> power loss on the engine, a lot, and did not go away.
> Could this by using the lead adjective?
> Thanks, Mike.
> Belgium.
>
>
*******************************************************************
Bob Spidell San Jose, CA bspidell@comcast.net
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