Newton06

I used to be a plant operations engineer with Chevron before the Texaco acquisition.

The miniscule additives package that is blended according to geo-specific regulations is just that; miniscule. Techron is a concept that came out of marketing to differentiate the brand.

I am enjoying the $2.50+ savings each time I fill-up, and so is my engine it appears.

I will try to snap some pics before I reinstall the intake manifold.

I was truly amazed at how clean everything is for 20k miles/21 months old.

johnodrake

Conspicuous by their absence from the Top Tier list:

Exxon
Mobile
Sunoco
Citgo
Amoco
BP
Texaco

What's up with that?

ghostRder

Sorry but I disagree especially with the advent of Enthol

vettesmith02

Newton06

Perhaps you mean ethynol?

Yeah, I made everything up.

Guess you could argue the pics I will post are Photoshoped as well to remove unightly carbon deposits that non-'top-tier' fuel leaves behind while ruining your engine.

HyperX

All gas is the same. A trucker drops off a tank at a lower distro center and another one picks it up at a northern distro. All gas is mixed in. Doesnt matter who it is.

rfopt

It's all about the additives. I read for BP Amoco at least, the 93 Ultimate gas meets the Top Tier standards but the other two grades don't.

Larry B.

I disagree. There was a huge difference with my 69 427. What is better proof than actually experiencing it with a car that doesn't have a computer to compensate. Some premium brands made it totally undrivable due to severe pinging.. Some were marginal. Only Amoco 93 worked to any degree of satisfaction. Gas is not all the same. Even my lawm mover pings on Hess.

djfullshred

Tell that to my other car that just starting pinging like crazy when I put the low octane cheap stuff in it for the first time in the five years I've owned it (since it was new). After that experience I am not even going to bother with experimenting on the new Vette to see how it runs with the cheap stuff.

Vette66AirCoupe

That's about all of the gas stations around my area. I'll burn the highest octane I can get wherever I buy it but it looks like I'll be a low tier guy.

Newton06

This is an apples to oranges comment.

I said that after 20k miles using non-top-tier premium gas, I've

1) saved money
2) suffered no performance or drivability losses
3) kept my engine squeeky clean.

I might also add that my car is customed tuned, so timing is agressive & is not getting pulled as in the OE tune. My C6 does not ping....ever.

su8pack1

Buyer preference. They all work.

cthusker

I tried to buy at 7-11 but all they had was low test Slurppy..........

Curtis A. Franz

Lets remember that Top Tier ratings requires all grades to be at a defined level of detergency. Many non-Top Tier are higher in detergency as a marketing item already for their premium grades so you may very well have ben using higher detergency fuels.

LDB

People will believe what they want to believe. I'm an engineer for a major oil company, and have seen countless real engine tests, with huge numbers of cars and miles, by my company, by other oil companies, and by car companies. Whether you choose to believe it or not, the differences over the long haul are very, very real. Most companies don't choose to show the data because it would do no good. If you fundamentally don't trust companies in general, and oil companies in particular, you'd simply say the data were faked. And as far as the "all gas comes out of the same pipe" story, as I've conceded in other posts, there are some areas of the country served by common carrier pipelines where that is true. But it is generally not true. Of course, I could be faking it too. Maybe I'm not an engineer, and maybe I don't work for an oil company, and maybe I haven't seen the data, and maybe I'm lying. But maybe not.

lcbiiimd

QT is the cheapest and best gas for us in our town. it's all good.

tlacroix

I live in San Diego County, California and have heard the "all gasoline comes through the same pipeline" story (in this area) for years. The story (by story, I'm not implying it's untrue) usually is accompanied with the disclaimer that it comes through the pipe in different octane levels (87, 89, 91) and has "plugs" or something like that to separate the different octane grades.

I recently asked a gasoline tanker driver (at an ARCO station) if that was true and he told me that because of Homeland Security laws, he could not, and would not say anything about it, but that he would use Shell (nothing like a unambiguous answer!). I figured he was trying to tell me that it was not true.

You have stated this is correct in some places. How can we know if this is the case in our (or any other) area? Also, if this is true, then I assume buying "top tier" fuel would be a moot issue, but are we likely to be getting it in all our fuel?

Also, please tell me that you're being facetious in the latter part of your quote! I believe you are what you say and I am depending on your educated answer.

C6 MoneyPit

This post is making me gassy. Someone please pull my finger.

ghostRder

WAWa Gas--16 mpg Shell V-power 18 mpg--that's good enough for me and no I didn't make that up.

Dueysan

In a nutshell the pipeline story is true. However different regions have different formulation requirements by law....but in any given state the difference between gasoline A and gasoline B of the same octane is the additives they add. There may be exceptions to this rule but that is the general rule of thumb. For example....Phoenix is served by one pipeline....the gas is then distributed to the various vendors by truck who add their own additives, but prior to that the gas is identical. If there is a bad batch of gas the problems probably occurred at any number of refiners before it was put into the pipelines and the gas could be distirubted to several vendors...so everyone will have their own story of how they don't trust Chevron or Exxon or whomever.....cause they once got some gas that made their car run poorly.