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Rebuild for unleaded fuel

3K views 3 replies 4 participants last post by  JohnG 
#1 ·
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.
 
#4 ·
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
 
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