Lead additive or octane boost?

Just got the 302 engine up and running. It has a hotter cam, higher rise intake, 4 barrel Edelbrock, heavier duty oil pump and water pump, roller gear and timing chain. Rest of the engine is stock. Do I need to add octane boost or lead additive with every tank??? Should I run non ethanol gas?

Just got the 302 engine up and running. It has a hotter cam, higher rise intake, 4 barrel Edelbrock, heavier duty oil pump and water pump, roller gear and timing chain. Rest of the engine is stock. Do I need to add octane boost or lead additive with every tank??? Should I run non ethanol gas?

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If it is a recent rebuild, the cylinder heads should have had hardened valve seats installed if they were not already there and in good condition. For that reason, lead additive should not be needed with a modern engine or a recent rebuild. As far as octane boost, I would check with the engine builder and see what they recommend. The compression ration, cam, and head combo will determine if higher octane fuel is needed.

Non-Ethanol gas, if you can find it, would be my preference, although the Edelbrock carb probably has ethanol resistant gaskets and seals. You can check the manufacture date on the base to see how old it is. If it has been rebuilt, it probably has ethanol tolerant gaskets and seals, but you should double check to be sure.

Good luck. I hope that helps.

Lots of heads are rebuilt without hardened seats. There are those among us (myself included) that think a pressed in seats-how matter how well installed, are potential failure points being added to the heads.

Often hardened seats from the factory were done by induction hardening. A coil was inserted and hit with voltage to bring the seat area up to a high enough temperature to harden it.

Lead substitutes won't hurt anything, but they are inconvenient and expensive. Your 302 should be fine if your tune is correct if you just run good gas.

If you didn't up the compression ratio you should be fine with pump gas. Octane boost is expensive and misleading. One of the best I found 'super 104' only added a point or two to the octane. So figure 91 went to 91.2 or so. Run it and tune it. If you find it is pinging on you then you might consider some type of enhansement. What's the highest octane you can get from the pump?

When I got my 302 rebuilt, I had it done with slightly higher compression, and the engine builder told me that it was going to be highest grade gas from here on out. You should be good with the premium stuff.