'71 Buick 350 - Unleaded or not?

[Jester369]

Hi all,

I have not been able to find any info in previous posts - sorry if this is a repeat! smile.gif

Is the 71 Buick 350 ok for unleaded? Does it have the hardened bits and pieces needed or do I need to take care of it myself?

Thanks!

[joe]

It's a leaded motor but just wait till you rebuild it to put the hardened valve seats etc in. That 70's scare "all our motors are going to wear out tomorrow running unleaded!" just never panned out. That motor has already been running unleaded for the last 25 years or so.
Just drive it.

[Kaiserjeeps]

Don't worry about hardened seats. I have a 69 wag with the 350. I rebuilt the motor. Seats and valves looked great. Tore it down again to dump the junk moly rings and put in cast rings and again the valves and seats looked great. Don't worry about it. Run all the unleaded you want.

My CJ 225 V-6 however looked pretty bad. Lots of orange peel type wear on both seats and valves. Had approx 30K miles on it when I lost a piston skirt. I hand lapped each one and I'm still running it. Save you money regarding the 350...