Gas Quality
 

Hey guys, I was looking around the web seeing what I could find from a quick gander and I found this site: http://www.toptiergas.com/index.html
At the retailers tab it has a number of brands listed .. which is nice and all but I don't see any test data or anything.
I'm curious what you guys have been using to determine gas quality for your vehicle - I'm still sad we don't get the suggest 93 and stuck with 91.
This being the case I've been trying to pinch a few more cents from the pocket for the car's longevity :/

Interesting that many of the top tier retailers are Hawaiian

I choose big name retailers, preferably stations that see a high turnover. So Shell, Sunoco, Mobil, etc on main roads.

When I got my range rover they said only premium, chevron if you can. (Chevron has techron, google it if you want to know more)....

When I bought my ferrari, they said ONLY Premium SHELL... V-Power...

Ok, so I don't have a ferrari... but I've heard that that's honestly what ferrari dealers will tell you.

This diagramishthing below is a test scientiest did by taking 1 galon of each both 91 and 92/93 from the top 8 brand name gasoline stations. They did the same test conducted annually on gasoline stations by boiling the gasoline, and seeing how much residue is left behind. The residue being the detergent added to the fuel which results in a cleaner, healthier engine and more MPG. The test was done in 2011 and Shell premium came out on top by a good amount. Explains why ferrari dealerships say shell only. For those confused on who the fck BP is, they are ARCO....

BP 87 Octane 17.2 milligrams per 100 milliliters
BP 93 Octane 26.4 milligrams per 100 milliliters
Citgo 87 Octane 6.0 milligrams per 100 milliliters
Citgo 93 Octane 9.4 milligrams per 100 milliliters
Exxon 87 Octane 20.0 milligrams per 100 milliliters
Exxon 93 Octane 21.2 milligrams per 100 milliliters
Pilot 87 Octane 5.8 milligrams per 100 milliliters
Pilot 92 Octane 8.8 milligrams per 100 milliliters
Shell 87 Octane 16.2 milligrams per 100 milliliters
Shell 93 Octane 31.0 milligrams per 100 milliliters

Read more: http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/new...#ixzz1zcPzLiVD

edit: as for the ferrari mention, I found out dealers only tell you that because Shell is partnered with Ferrari/Ducati racing. But even still, I've been reading countless websites about gasoline and there is constant mention to Shell being the cleanest.

I like the Top Tier gas site. Most of the gas at the stations comes from the same depot at a local (or as close as they can get) refinery. At least the Top Tier gas brands have committed to a minimum level of detergent which may be as good as it gets for consistent quality. This is also a good resource to look at if you are doing some traveling, as sometimes only 91 octane is available and it is good to know which has the best quality.

I like this test. I have been using BP 93 octane for my FR-S, which I can see rates almost as high as the Shell gas. Having said that, I really do think that a lot of this is regional. Remember that the local stations all get their gas from a local refinery. Crude oil (or nearly crude) is pipelined to a local refinery as much as possible, and then refined and treated (with detergents) at a local refinery. So a Shell station in New Jersey may not have exactly the same gas as a Shell station in California. V-Power is Shell's brand for their additive package (detergents), so this is supposedly the same for all regions, but I doubt if anyone has actually checked. Shell stations that I have seen in Minnesota (and in Iowa and Nebraska as well) only carry 91 octane gas, and I think at the moment that BP is my only choice for 93 octane. I remember filling up at a Sunoco station years ago in the northeast USA with 94 and 95 octane gas; I wonder if they have a good amount of detergent in their gas and if they still carry the high-test stuff.

On a side note, oil companies keep the price of gas high partly by limiting the number of refineries that are operating and also sometimes limiting their production or stretching out "maintenance downtime". Shell was convicted of this kind of price fixing in California a few years back. Why do you think the oil companies love environmentalists and the EPA so much when they make it difficult to build, improve, change, add to or otherwise enhance a refinery? Read the link below. (Also note the shock of gas more than $2 a gallon!)

http://www.utsandiego.com/uniontrib/...s_1n24gas.html

I've heard of way too many issues attributed to BP gasoline to ever use it in my cars. They may not all be true but, in my experience, where there's smoke, there's fire.

BP/Arco has over the years slowly been looked at differently as the "stay away" station.

Bottom line when it comes to gas, the best thing you can do for your engine is use big name stations, find one close to your house/work so you can remain consistent by filling the same gas in as much as possible. I'd rather pay extra for shell/chevron per fill up and have my motor clean and squeez a few more MPG out of the higher quality/less ethanol gas.

Sunoco and shell only for my toy!

That really is interesting, the biggest drawback is that they aren't consistent octane wise.

As far as consistency you mean the one test with 92 instead of 93? I think that's because the area they tested in Pilot only had 93..

Really, as long as you stay consistent with what brand you put in, and they are a qualified "Top Tier Gas" provider, you'll be good.... I mean, who the hell really thinks our engines will last 300k anyways with a 7.4k redline... yeah right lol that's too much fun

the test shows results ranging from 87 to 93.
That range is too much, it isn't hard to get a hold of the same octane.
Especially if its a large company sponsoring the research.

I think there may be some confusion here? Assuming that residue(its never that simple) is an accurate indicator of fuel additive levels, the results shown only indicate that different oil companies use different levels of fuel additives. They also will use different formulations for their additive packages. And it is not uncommon to put more additives in the higher octane fuels, to further differentiate the value for higher octane fuels than just octane. Fuel additive packages are a key differentiator of different brands.

I would bet this list is not intended to be a measure of consistency of octane of 91 & 92/93 octane fuels, but rather to show that different suppliers do vary the additive content between octane grades.

I think they are just doing that to test a wide variety of fuels. This isn't the tell all end all test, it's just a random test done by scientist to give a broad overview of what you might be getting for gasoline. There's too many variables in this type of testing to ever be truly accurate, we just need to take it with a grain of salt. Like I said I think the bottom line and golden rule is stick to brand name stations, and try to fill up on the same brand. :iono:

I'm coming from a "scientific" background - chemistry major, about to graduate in a few months with my B.S. (while it isn't an amazing degree) I fully understand what it takes to produce a good test and results.
The only thing that is absolutely conclusive is that different octanes receive different concentrations of additives.
What additives have not been described other than precipitates from boiled X volume - which probably is not done using precise and accurate volumetric means.

Maybe I'll go out and do this test myself one day.
I'd also like to see the mass spectrum of this.