Lead Replacement Additive
Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2020 9:23 pm
Has anyone on here done any research, or have any personal experience of the best lead replacement additive? I ask because I am currently refreshing my 900 S2 desmo top-end, and was dismayed to find pretty bad pitting of the exhaust valve and seat. Just before my engine was made, Ducati switched from bronze to cast iron for the seats (no idea why) and the cast iron seems to suffer worse than bronze from the lack of lead.
I have used Castrol Valvemaster Plus in the fuel ever since the demise of LRP, but obviously it is not the answer, so I'm wondering if another product will be better? Obviously, the oil companies will all claim that their product is the best....
I wrote in my saga of the resurrection of my 250 Mototrans about the wear on the valves, where both had suffered a thinning of the seat area until it had reached a knife edge, and they were close to being pulled into the port, although the bronze seats were in good condition; Nigel suggested that the cause may have been running on unleaded petrol, and I watched a You Tube video the other day of an American mechanic investigating lack of compression on a car engine, caused by running on unleaded, and the valves were in exactly the same condition as mine.
I have used Castrol Valvemaster Plus in the fuel ever since the demise of LRP, but obviously it is not the answer, so I'm wondering if another product will be better? Obviously, the oil companies will all claim that their product is the best....
I wrote in my saga of the resurrection of my 250 Mototrans about the wear on the valves, where both had suffered a thinning of the seat area until it had reached a knife edge, and they were close to being pulled into the port, although the bronze seats were in good condition; Nigel suggested that the cause may have been running on unleaded petrol, and I watched a You Tube video the other day of an American mechanic investigating lack of compression on a car engine, caused by running on unleaded, and the valves were in exactly the same condition as mine.