Re: What kind of gas to use
My 2 cents..... A critical point is what BRAND of gas you put in the engine. Cheap gas from those little store combination stations are quite often the tank bottoms from major brands. Lots of impurities and high percentages of undesireable compounds. I found Arco & Shell 87 octane to be the best. Chevron gas seemed to cause higher engine temperatures when I was racing my Merc 40HP.
From another site by a person in the industry.
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What is different between the Xon gas and say Shell or Chevon?
Proprietary additives. Chevron uses Techron, Shell uses whatever theirs is called, and Exxon used to use BASF. Additives are what "brands" the gas. Exxon no longer has branded gas (at least not around here) so their gas is "generic" like unbranded stations. I work in a storage terminal that used to have Exxon product. We stored Exxon BASF additive that was injected into base gas at our loading rack. The Exxon additive was for Exxon's branded stations ONLY. A few years back, Exxon pulled out, so more more Exxon additive. They still sell unbranded gas that gets a generic additive.
Base gas is fungible. It doesn't matter who refined it, shipped it, stored it, or what country it came from. The only difference are the additives that are injected into the gas while it's being loaded on to the tanker truck.
Branded gas MUST go to it's corresponding branded station. It's a big no-no to dump unbranded gas at a branded station or vice-versa, or to dump a load of Chevron at a Shell station.
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Why is one good or better than the other?
Additives again. But a while ago (before the ethanol mandate) some brands (ARCO and a few others) were selling E10 year-round while everybody else sold clear gas. Due to tax breaks and other mischief they were always cheaper thaneverybody else. But now we have mandatory 10% ethanol, so it's all pretty much crap.
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If the gas sits in the storage yard tanks for months, why it is, some say gas goes bad in several weeks?
Old wive's tale. It takes a lot longer that that for gas to go "bad". On the other hand, large storage tanks aren't like other tanks. They're designed to prevent vapor accumulation and emissions. Basically, there's no evaporation, even though the tanks have to be vented. There's a lot more to a tank than just a big steel cylinder, which is why they cost a bloody fortune to build and maintain.
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i worked in an independant gas station at one time. it was called red bird. when we got gas it came from different gas companies. most of the time it came from marathon. and we never added anything to our gas. my son worked at a marathon station. he said they didnt add anything there. so if the gas comes from the same truck its got to be the same gas.
Yes and no. A carrier (tanker) can load wherever he wants, or at least wherever he's authorized to. I used to haul branded ARCO gas, but it wasn't an ARCO truck. I worked for a carrier that contracted to ARCO to pull loads that ARCO didn't have enough trucks for. Some ARCO station owners used to get irritated when I'd pull in in a "Plain Jane" truck to deliver their gas. They said that it reinforced rumors that ARCO was selling whatever gas it could get it's hands on, which is true at the wholesale level, but true for everybody.
And BTW, I'll end my monologue with a note about carriers. BP is the only "major" oil company left in Portland that runs their own trucks. Chevron pulled out of the transportation side about a year ago. Shell/Texaco a few years before that. There's some "76" (Conoco) trucks running around, but they're not owned, at least officially, by Conoco.
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05-22-2011, 03:28 PM #9
sadiesassy
Chromer
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Beaverton
Posts: 874 Re: why is cheaper gas not good gas ?