<-=- Club Bevel Heaven -=->

This will likely date me: when I last was riding my 1975 860GT, I was able to buy leaded gas. Now, decades later, I am curious about whether the valve seats in my non-Desmo 860 engine will handle unleaded gas, or must I use a lead additive, such as Redline or some other. I know that many engines were not adversely affected by switching to unleaded gas, because the seats and valves had a buildup of lead around the seating area.

Comments? If I need to retrofit new hardened seats, a good time is when I have the engine out of the bike.

Thanks in advance.
Richard

The valve seats will be fine, they are a silicon bronze material and not prone to recession like cast iron. Your bigger concern should be the condition of the valve guides which were prone to rapid wear.

Thanks for the info. as a matter of fact, my bike was in the early recall when they were replacing the guides that wore prematurely. All I had to do was bring in the offending head(s), and the guide was replaced free of charge, with a lap-in.

Regards,
Richard