can anybody tell me what mods are required to a 1976 1.6 pinto to make it unleaded
cheers
colin

hardened seat inserts are required on the exhaust valves,

Well I have a pinto, my bugs heads aren’t hardened and nether is my v6. Despite me thrashing the cr&p out of them and adding nothing to the fuel, absolutely nothing what so ever is happening to the seat surface. Yet if you’re read about all the damage there's suppose to be it should look a right mess and I have been monitoring the valve clearance as well and that's not changing either.

What I'd suggest is that you run it and if the seats wear, replace them if not just leave them be.

I personally now think the whole thing is a big con and of any car I’d have expected that the bug engines with their suspect air cooling would have shown the worst damage if there was going to be any, as the head runs very hot but like I said that’s not the case.

Save your pennies for something more worthwhile like a Kent cam

I have similar experience with Land Rover engine from 1966 though I have not "thrashed the crap " out of it I have done a fair few miles at or near full throttle just to keep up with traffic. I think that engines that have done a good mileage on leaded petrol have a good deal of protection cooked into the valves and seats so if you leave it alone it will probably be good for some considerable time. If you start to re-grind valve seats and replace valves there is a risk that you will remove any historic protection therefore you should get hardened valve seats installed then, that's my approach anyway!

Caber

thanks guys i will spend my money else where on the build then
cheers
colin

castrol valve master plus used it on all cars that need leaded fuel with no probs plus its slightly increases the octanne rateing it comes in 250ml bottles and last for 250 litres of petrol it cost no more than a £10 or you can get castrol valve master which does not have the octane booster cost about £8 and it does work