Chosing Your Gasoline

[Keith Tedford]

An interesting article on choosing which gasoline you choose. I have used Shell premium 91 almost exclusively in every gas engine that I have for several years. I've heard claims by people that it does a better job that Petro Canada Ultra 94 but haven't read any detailed subject matter to that effect. Our owner's manual states that premium fuel is recommended but not required. With an advertised compression ratio of 10.9 - 1 compression, I would think that the computer would be backing off the timing quite a bit when using lower octane gas and the car would be sluggish. Has anyone used a 100+ octane fuel in their car?
http://www.thestar.com/autos/2015/07/09/premium-gasoline-can-save-drivers-money-shell-says.html

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Keith I was surprised to find out the Ultra 94 had ethanol in it. I too use Shell 91 when I can get it however I have noticed that I do get some "pinging" on occasion. I sometimes wonder about the quality of gas in general.

 

[Nik]

Keith I was surprised to find out the Ultra 94 had ethanol in it. I too use Shell 91 when I can get it however I have noticed that I do get some "pinging" on occasion. I sometimes wonder about the quality of gas in general.

That be correct and there's nothing wrong with ethanol these days, it's used as an octane booster across many brands worldwide. Your fuel economy may suffer a little but that's the price we pay.

There's a lot of marketing speak when it comes to gas and the additives each brand adds. You have to remember that all the gas stations in ontario are supplied by the same two refineries with base stock. Additives is what they're trying to differentiate themselves on.

Also I hear Costco gas has similar if not identical additives to shell but again raw data is buried beneath the weight of marketing drivel so it's difficult to make an educated decision.

 

[CCO]

I personally think that fresh clean gas (at a well visited station) is much more important these days than which brand to use.
I've never had any issues with Petro Canada 91.
C.

 

[smackYYZ]

So far I've only put Ultra 94 in my C7. Might look at trying the Ultra91 for a while to see if I see any difference.

Here are a few articles on the fuel sources and make up in Canada.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/glob...ting/where-your-gas-comes-from/article535112/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/glob...g-out-by-buying-off-brand-gas/article4198238/

and if your looking for non ethanol fuel, you can look here: http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=ON

 

[Keith Tedford]

I find around here at least, that the no name gas stations are charging about the same as the name brand stations. Not much incentive to not buy the name brand stuff. I'll stick with Shell. When going to the Monday cruise night, I stop at the Shell station in Bridgenorth and top the car up and is good to go for the week.

 

[buckhorn76]

i buy ethanol free regular and premium at the native reserve and have had no issues over the last 10 - 12 years. the price is right too. in the racecar i must use 94 minimum octane and there is only one station in peterborough. i add startron to it due to the ethanol.

 

[Keith Tedford]

I understand that ethanol, being corrosive to many metals, wreaks havoc with carburetors and even the injectors in the L98 and LT1 engines. Just word of mouth from people that I generally trust. Small engine shops have been kept busy for quite a few years now doing repairs from the damage of the ethanol. Using different materials that will stand up to the ethanol has eliminated many of the problems on newer equipment. I just keep away from it completely. Enough problems without looking for them and some of our stuff isn't exactly new.

 

[2009CGMZR1]

I use Husky / Petrocan 94 in the ZR1 as it has a 93 octane tune but was told by a snowmobile race shop to store my car with Shell V-power 91

The owner of this shop that I have known for years said nothing wrong with 94 ethanol

Brian

 

[Riley P]

We used Esso fuel almost exclusively growing up. Filling up at Shell would result is a very poor running vehicle, I was even able to tell that my brother filled my truck with Shell gas before even asking him where he filled it. So, I always thought Shell had horrible fuel. However, my current thoughts are that because we only used one brand 95% of the time, it had additives that cleaned certain items very well, when we switched fuels, it would start cleaning other deposits missed by Esso making the engine sputter and run terribly. At least, that is my theory.
Now I try to run multiple stations fuel so the car doesn't get used to just one fuel, however, with that said, I always try to run premium without ethanol. As stated, nothing wrong with it, but as it has 80% the energy of gasoline and it requires more fuel to perform the same amount of work as pure gas, and fuel with ethanol costs the same as fuel with pure gas, then I figure it's costing me money to run fuel with ethanol. Plus, when storing the vehicles, I don't want to worry about the ethanol separating from the gas.

 

[buckhorn76]

ethanol doesn't separate but draws water out of the air. the water then sits in the bottom of the fuel tank.

 

[Riley P]

Ah, good to know. For some reason I thought the ethanol would separate after six months or so of sitting but it must be the water...... yuck.

 

[Nik]

ethanol doesn't separate but draws water out of the air. the water then sits in the bottom of the fuel tank.

This is true especially in cars with vented tanks. You get phase separation within a month or so. Water/ethanol mix at bottom, gas on top. Not as big of an issue in modern cars with sealed fuel tanks but it will eventually happen.

 

[Keith Tedford]

One way or another, all gas tanks are vented. As you use up the gas, air comes from somewhere to take up the space. On the old Chevelles, the el Caminos and station wagons had a high mounted filler spout so they could vent the cap. With the Chevelles, the filler was behind the license plate and a vented cap would let gas spew out under acceleration. The cure was to come off the front of the tank with a hose which was attached to the floor pan up above in the axle wheel well area. The end of the hose had a filter setup, item 11, that let air in but kept the dirt out.

 

[New C5er]

Have also read that ethanol robs your cylinder walls of oil, as it washes it away. Don't hear too many complains up here, but when we are in the States , people really complain about how bad their cars run on ethanol especially the bigger cars. Out here the only stations without ethanol is Shell 91 octane..

 

[2009CGMZR1]

Have also read that ethanol robs your cylinder walls of oil, as it washes it away. Don't hear too many complains up here, but when we are in the States , people really complain about how bad their cars run on ethanol especially the bigger cars. Out here the only stations without ethanol is Shell 91 octane..

Chevron 94 is without it too in BC.

I emailed Chevron a year or two ago asking.

Brian

 

[VelocityYellowRules!]

How do these folks get away with it I wonder????????

"Since 1976 the Brazilian government has made it mandatory to blend ethanol with gasoline, and since 2007 the legal blend is around 25% ethanol and 75% gasoline (E25).[5] By December 2011 Brazil had a fleet of 14.8 million flex-fuel automobiles and light trucks[6][7] and 1.5 million flex-fuel motorcycles[8][9][10] that regularly use neat ethanol fuel (known as E100)."

You would think if there was a real problem it would have shown up here...........I mean if it is showing up in blends then pure ethanol use in cars would result in them littering the roads around San Paulo................

Cheers,

Garry