Simple question. 1973 914 2.0 Runs great!. I'm not the original owner, but he says he's always used unleaded and owned the car for over 25 years. I have no idea if the heads have been off & reworked but it seems in 1973 they would have used leaded fuel in this car. And I hear unleaded is hard on valves unless they've been replaced with hardened valves & seats. What's the skinny? Do I need to use an additive or is unleaded premium ok to use?

The way I heard the story is Porsche got wind of all gas in the US going to unleaded in 75, so they anticipated & made sure the valves were sodium filled in advance. Besides, only place I know of to get leaded gas these days is @ an airport.

Engines with hardened (i.e., steel) valve seats don't need lead. Cast Iron heads with the seats cut right into the head do. Porsche used sodium filled valves in many applications for YEARS before anyone ever thought to remove the lead additives from gasoline.

The Cap'n

The 73 2L & all the 914/4s were made to run on unleaded regular gas, the 91 RON on the passenger wheelhouse is the Euro rating for regular & unleaded. It was part of the CA & USA smog stuff coming on then.

I ran mine on regular 12/75-5/75, as did the OO before me - premium & mid don't really add power & can cause other problems. It sat in my garage since 85 due to it getting whacking in a parking structure after a full body & mechanical rolling resto, so it sat on blocks awaiting the resto I've starting recently.

A bigger issue with the current fuel is the ethanol content - especially if the gas sits too long in the tank due to limited use.

So if you can find someplace in CA or across the AZ line to buy old school pure gas, that would be a great option & good excuse for a drive!

Porsche and VW were using the "right stuff" to survive unleaded gasoline long before the 914 was even thought of. So don't worry about it at all.

--DD

I asked John Forbes (Black Forest Racing) about this today. He said that he hasn't seen any indication that the current gasoline is causing any issues on engines, including the valves. The only thing he said that might be an issue is whether the car has a catalytic converter, and what type of fuel it was designed for.

Since they have introduced ethanol in fuel here (now 10%) Im on my 2nd set of fuel hoses on the 911 since it was restored in 2008 and the engine bay hoses in the 914 once. I'm using the original cloth style hose and I don't think Wurth or whoever makes it is has changed the formula to resist it being eaten away

The hose lifetime seems to be 5 years max, after that they will start to leak and you should plan to change them as a maintenance item unless you want to risk a fire

My brother has a small block cobra replica and as I speak its in my garage waiting for new diaphragms to arrive for the Holly - totally lunched

Ethanol is not good in my book

General blurb about what ethanol can do to older cars

http://www.groups.tr-register.co.uk/wessex...nol-update.html