new-to-this

The good part about being "new-to-this" is I can get away with "dumb" questions. I did go through all the posts before posting my question.

Found a '66 T-Bird in a garage. The guy accepted a "steal" price. It is now in my garage. It runs but lots of smoke from oil filler/breather on drivers side. Sound like an exhaust leak at the manifold on passenger side. I am preparing for the engine rebuild. My question is:

Specs show 10.5:1 compression and 99 octane leaded fuel required. What should I do to get the engine to run on unleaded pump gas?

If someone has info or tips on this rebuild, I would be grateful.

bandsdean

To play it safe, have the rebuilder install hardened valve seats on the exhaust valves. That way you can unleded forever. 93 octane should be fine for 10.5:1. Any one else?

kdtrucker

I run 91 octane on my 428 and it has 11.9:1 ratio

JohnG

I rebuilt my 352 from my '58 TBird in 2005. It originally had 10:1 CR. Am not sure about the CR with the aftermarket pistons (.030" overbore) but they are probably in the high 9's anyway.

I went with hardened valve seat inserts and stainless valves. The original heads had no inserted valve seats; they were simply part of the heads.

I have put about 6000 miles on it since then. I run "regular" gas and have had no pinging problems at any time. I run stock timing.

The only additional thing I can add is to have the best possible cooling system you can - overhauled radiator, 6 blade fan, even a fan shroud - so you don't have contribute to the problem.

You could also go one heat range "cooler" on plugs.

All that stuff said, my car leads a very easy life and yours may be used to haul boats on the highway in July in Colorado, so the load put on it becomes a factor.

John