Advice on use of leaded fuel vs high octane.

[hotrod]

You can buy leaded race fuel here in Colorado from several fuel suppliers. Adding a couple gallons to the tank every few hundred miles should work for you. I'm not sure if that engine had soft valve seats or hard inserts so cannot say with certainty how much risk you have there. The real question is how many miles you plan on putting on the engine, will it be an occasional use only or a regular driver car.

At the time that car came out pump premium was in the mid 90 octane range so todays premium is not that far off the mark. By the late 1960s pump premium was nearly 100 octane so high performance engines built in that time period are more at risk for detonation damage if intended to run on leaded premium of the day.

Post up the exact engine CID and compression ratio of you know it, and I will check my 1958 motor manual to see if I can tell you anything useful about the heads.

Did the car have the owners manual ?

Larry