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Brands of Gasoline = Actual Difference
First off, I had always been raised with the "gas is gas" mentality and that premium is a waste, obviously we know why our cars require premium.
When doing research a while back (before I got my Z) I came across all of this information about top tier gasolines, etc, "there truly is a difference" "there is ABSOLUTELY no difference"...I'm sure the battle will wage until the last drop of oil is squeezed from the earth. I've always ran Shell V-Power in my Z because it's my understanding that it's the only premium fuel on the market that an F1 engine will run on - period. I've never had an issue with it. Yesterday, I found myself in a very rough spot, I've recently moved and found myself lost and my fuel (which was already low) emptying itself...to the point that when I actually pulled up to the pump all orange lights on the fuel indicator were off. We've all got lost, still feel like an idiot, I know. Long story short, the gas station was a Kroger gas station, I only put a small amount of fuel in to cover myself (about 2.5 gallons) and was honestly a little frightened to do so because of my Shell loyalty, but had no options. Fired her up - instant pinging, idle dips all over the place...driving felt like there was turbo lag at times and she's all N/A. Whatever your opinions on fuel quality, I'm just throwing this out there as a personal experience. On longer trips I've had to put in fuel from Marathon, BP, and even Speedway and never had any noticeable issues...my pesonal word of warning - STAY AWAY FROM CUT RATE FUEL AT ALL COSTS |
Fuel is all the same (comes from the same refineries), it is additives that are different.
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In theory top tier fuels are more closely regulated for impurities/level of detergents, and thus quality should be more consistent but you can get bad fuel anywhere.
Top Tier Gasoline |
even if it's a major brand gas station, if that station is prone to flooding or not very well maintained the fuel in there can be bad.
that said i only use 2 gas stations. one in a rich neighborhood where a lot more cars run premium fuel, and another station that recently was renovated and got new tanks installed. on my dd, i just go to this nice cheepo station where they've been serving good fuel for yrs. |
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If you go to a Kroger or Wal-Mart station most people filling up are getting the cheapest fuel at the pump, meaning the higher octanes sit for months at a time. |
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that is solid advice from the Ken. turn over, location, and storage container age all matter. in a pinch fuel is fuel as you said but in the long run... yea... not the same. if you had to get mid end gas maybe try adding some octane booster to help until you can find a 91+ station? |
BTW, I missed your first comment: Octane needs are a very real issue -- "premium" is only a waste if your engine is tuned to operate safely on a lower octane...
Anyway, the idea is "better regulated" vs. "worse regulated"; its not simply "good" vs "bad" with perfect precision across stations and pumps. Also, did you use lower than 91 AKI? If so, no wonder you were pinging under load --that's not Kroger's fault. In racing applications, you are typically working with very exotic (i.e., special additives, specific fuel densities, etc), high octane fuel blends... I dunno about Shell pump gas. |
I will say that fuel quality can fluctuate wildly from station to station, but its not because of the brand of fuel its for reasons mentioned above like how long has the fuel been sitting, are the tanks above ground.. etc.
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Is ARCO top tier or discount brand. I assume top tier, but it is the cheapest in my area.
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TOP TIER Gasoline Retailers:
USA 76 Stations Aloha Petroleum ARCO Beacon BP Chevron Conoco Costco Wholesale CountryMark Diamond Shamrock Entec Stations Express Convenience Centers Exxon Hawaii Fueling Network (HFN) Holiday Stationstores Kwik Trip / Kwik Star MFA Oil Co. Mobil Ohana Fuels Phillips 66 QuikTrip Road Ranger Shamrock Shell Sinclair Suncor Energy Inc SuperAmerica Texaco Tri-Par Oil Co. Valero Canada Chevron Canada CO-OP Costco Wholesale Esso Petro-Canada Shell Canada Tempo Puerto Rico Puma Energy Caribe, LLC Shell |
I put 93 Octane in which is the premium around here...very interesting concepts above though...it was definitely in an area where most of the pumps read 1 or 2 bucks of regular...didn't give the consideration to the stale gas/storage container age and turnover. I was pretty shocked with the pings, idle dips, and decrease of engine response time.
Since I put a small amount in, I'm going to simply attempt to burn the remainder of that fuel, put a small amount of my regular station stuff in, burn that off for a few cycles, and then fill it up...I don't want that stuff lingering/diluting "the good stuff." |
I use Costco gas whenever I can, no issues.
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Just for fun since we're on the topic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zubM2PsBJIU Also, since we're on the subject, has anyone experimented with octane boosters on top of 93 grade...the ones that promise an octane level of 104etc...I try to keep additives to a minimum (Seafoam, Occasionally a Lucas product that I've used in the past and have noticed results, and Risoline Fuel Treatment OCCASIONALLY just to make sure that I'm keeping carbon to the minimum that I can)...any actual performance results from these small bottles? Or is it all hype? |
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