Oh Oh, I used the wrong gas!

[bdcz]

Need some advice - this past weekend I ran about 7 gallons of straight unleaded gas through my gas JD350 dozer. I usually add lead substitute but I forgot to add it this time. Do you think this would do any permanent damage? I worked the machine hard for 4 hours or so before I realized I forgot the additive.

[Lavoy]

I would not worry about it in the least. If you are putting a couple thousand hours a year on it, you will eventually have a problem. It is not an instantaneous thing, it takes a lot of hours for any damage to occur. I have never put a lead substitute in my 350 gas, and never worried about it.
Lavoy

[The Fireman]

I've never run lead substitute in any of my old tractors, when i got my first I asked my grandfather and he told me not to wory about it for what I was going to be doing. As Lavoy said if you're running thousands of hours a year you may need to do a valve job a little bit sooner thats all. In fact I've never even bothered to add the hardened valve seats when I've done a head job. Fot limited use I just cant justify the cost.

[bdcz]

Thanks for the reply both of you. I feel a lot better now. I'm just going to keep running my machine and not worry about it. I will still use lead substitute even though you guys don't just because it's cheap and the JD dealer said I should. I can't tell you how nice it is to have someone like you guys to answer questions. So thanks much! I was using the machine last weekend to take out some trees and build a new parking lot for our church. I figured if I ruined the engine doing that at least it was a good cause.

[Tigerhaze]

If you do a quick search, Lavoy and others were recently involved in a more detailed discussion on this topic.