Tesoro Gasoline
01-26-2008, 06:31 PM
#41
Team Owner
Arco, (the old Atlantic Rictchfield) Amoco and BP(previously Standard Oil/Sohio, etc) are all brands owned by British Petroleum.
Giant Eagle refinery, formerly owned by TOSCO and now owned by Tesoro is one of several refineries in California that refine motor fuels . . .ConocoPhillips Wilmington/Carson refineries, Chevron, Shell, Texaco and others all have California refineries. I believe the newest refinery in the US in is Belle Chase, LA and was sold by BP to ConocoPhillips about 10 years ago.
And finally, while gasoline has regional formulations to meet emissions requirements- (like carb fuels) but all the refineries feed gas into the pipelines to the various terminals around the country without differentiation. The various grades are simply blends of higher and lower base fuels.
Additives pumped into the tanker trucks while being loaded at the terminal racks provide the distinctions advertised by each brand- whether they're truly unique or based more in marketing is a topic for the chemists.
Regards-
Giant Eagle refinery, formerly owned by TOSCO and now owned by Tesoro is one of several refineries in California that refine motor fuels . . .ConocoPhillips Wilmington/Carson refineries, Chevron, Shell, Texaco and others all have California refineries. I believe the newest refinery in the US in is Belle Chase, LA and was sold by BP to ConocoPhillips about 10 years ago.
And finally, while gasoline has regional formulations to meet emissions requirements- (like carb fuels) but all the refineries feed gas into the pipelines to the various terminals around the country without differentiation. The various grades are simply blends of higher and lower base fuels.
Additives pumped into the tanker trucks while being loaded at the terminal racks provide the distinctions advertised by each brand- whether they're truly unique or based more in marketing is a topic for the chemists.
Regards-
01-26-2008, 07:36 PM
#42
Burning Brakes
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Not only is not all gas is created equal, octane isn't even octane. Octane only measures how hard it is to get the fuel to ignite under pressure. The harder it is to get it to burn the higher the octane rating. The octane rating is achieved by blending. If one component has a higher energy than another, the result can have the same ocane rating but a greatly different energy release in the engine. This is why using ethanol to increase octane rather than octane results in lower performance even with the same octane rating. If you could mix water, which has effectively an infinite octane rating and no energy from burning, with heptane you could get a 100 octane gas that wouldn't run worth crap. All octane ratings are not created equal.
Driving 25000 miles a year I buy about 1000 gallons. 1 penny per gallon translates to about 3 cents per day. I buy only the highest grade of Top Tier gas from a station with volume business and avoid ethanol if at all possible. Maybe that's why my engine runs so smooth.
Driving 25000 miles a year I buy about 1000 gallons. 1 penny per gallon translates to about 3 cents per day. I buy only the highest grade of Top Tier gas from a station with volume business and avoid ethanol if at all possible. Maybe that's why my engine runs so smooth.
01-26-2008, 08:05 PM
#43
Melting Slicks
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Sorry, but your wasting your money and have been "brainwashed" by the marketing. Gas is gas, it is a commodity that is manufactured and sold on the commodity market. When you buy gas in Indiana its brought in via a pipeline. If you buy gas at an Exxon station, the odds that it was refined and manufactured by Exxon are about 1 in 8. Exxon refines it in Texas, its put in a pipeline that every other refiner uses, and Exxon takes out the same amount somewhere else in the country on the SAME DAY. The pipelines DO NOT SEPARATE GAS BY MANUFACTURER, only by fuel type (gas, diesel, kerosene, fuel oil). Ethanol and other addiitves are put in at the local distribution site. They add stuff to the gas to make it 93, 92, 91, 89 or 87 octane. The additives increase the octane and as a by product clean the engine. If you ever read the fine print from Shell, Exxon, Chevron, or any other gas company, the "guarantee" that their gas will "keep your engine running clean" only applies to premium gas because it has the highest amount of additives to make it the highest octane fuel. So-called "TopTier" gasoline is nothing but a marketing campaign and premium gas from the discount gas station is no different and just as good as gas branded as "TopTier".
You're entitled to your opinion just as the rest of us are. But I've used gasolines that didn't contain Techron and I've ended up with hesitation and rough idle. Adding Techron to the gasoline removed the problem. That's not marketing hype, that's actual experience. Now I use Chevron exclusively (it's easy to find where I live) and I never have had those problems recur.
01-27-2008, 12:20 AM
#46
Team Owner
Thread Starter
Sorry, but your wasting your money and have been "brainwashed" by the marketing. Gas is gas, it is a commodity that is manufactured and sold on the commodity market. When you buy gas in Indiana its brought in via a pipeline. If you buy gas at an Exxon station, the odds that it was refined and manufactured by Exxon are about 1 in 8. Exxon refines it in Texas, its put in a pipeline that every other refiner uses, and Exxon takes out the same amount somewhere else in the country on the SAME DAY. The pipelines DO NOT SEPARATE GAS BY MANUFACTURER, only by fuel type (gas, diesel, kerosene, fuel oil). Ethanol and other addiitves are put in at the local distribution site. They add stuff to the gas to make it 93, 92, 91, 89 or 87 octane. The additives increase the octane and as a by product clean the engine. If you ever read the fine print from Shell, Exxon, Chevron, or any other gas company, the "guarantee" that their gas will "keep your engine running clean" only applies to premium gas because it has the highest amount of additives to make it the highest octane fuel. So-called "TopTier" gasoline is nothing but a marketing campaign and premium gas from the discount gas station is no different and just as good as gas branded as "TopTier".
Sort of like how you see lots of businesses that have the BBB symbol and are registered.
01-27-2008, 12:22 AM
#48
Team Owner
Thread Starter
You're entitled to your opinion just as the rest of us are. But I've used gasolines that didn't contain Techron and I've ended up with hesitation and rough idle. Adding Techron to the gasoline removed the problem. That's not marketing hype, that's actual experience. Now I use Chevron exclusively (it's easy to find where I live) and I never have had those problems recur.
01-27-2008, 12:24 AM
#50
Melting Slicks
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How about if you used Arco and then added a bottle of Techron (the black bottle with gold letters) seems to be that the Techron fuel injector cleaner bottles are much more easily available as I haven't seen those other bottles and if I did see them they were at a Chevron station.
01-27-2008, 12:24 AM
#51
Team Owner
Thread Starter
It reminds me of "We are ISO 9000 Certified" . Which really means: "many of our employees were sent to a worthless class and learned how to add tons of paperwork to the manufacture of the products we sell. In addition they do really good meetings, but our products are still crap".
Bottom line - I always buy name brand at high volume stations.
01-27-2008, 12:28 AM
#53
Team Owner
Thread Starter
BP purchased Amoco serveral years ago. Amoco was the last major gasoline company to include an additive package in all grades of its gasoline. Its advertising made Amoco #1 with consumers (prior to BP purchase) yet it was (and still is) Chevron that has a unique additive package as well as making and selling additive packages to other gasoline companies.
To the original poster, Tesoro is primarily in the refinning business. Their stock symbol is TSO that you can pull up on Yahoo! and read about the company. Valero (VLO) is also a refiner that has retail gasoline stations. ARCO was sold many many years ago and is marketed as a "lower cost" gasoline. Off the top of my head, ARCO is owned by either Ashland or Marathon Oil, I think.
To the original poster, Tesoro is primarily in the refinning business. Their stock symbol is TSO that you can pull up on Yahoo! and read about the company. Valero (VLO) is also a refiner that has retail gasoline stations. ARCO was sold many many years ago and is marketed as a "lower cost" gasoline. Off the top of my head, ARCO is owned by either Ashland or Marathon Oil, I think.
01-27-2008, 12:32 AM
#55
Team Owner
Thread Starter
That's why I said "if at all possible. Tax incentives make it impossible to find real gas in the midwest now. I try to fill up before going to Illinois and only buy as much gas there as I need to get back out of the state.
Big cities now also have ethanol due to the EPA so I try not to fill up in counties that have major cities. The big truck stops out in the middle of nowhere are the best for volume business and real gas. Luckily I spend a lot of time in a town with a permanent population of about 5000 so the EPA doesn't bother us but we have 50,000 people in town on a typical day so we have lots of big volume stations.
Ethanol is an octane enhancer. That means it can be mixed with cheaper gas and still have the ping resistance. Not only does the ethanol have less energy but the cheaper gas that can now be sold isn't good for mileage either.
WHAT? http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers.html #2 on the list.That we agree on.
Big cities now also have ethanol due to the EPA so I try not to fill up in counties that have major cities. The big truck stops out in the middle of nowhere are the best for volume business and real gas. Luckily I spend a lot of time in a town with a permanent population of about 5000 so the EPA doesn't bother us but we have 50,000 people in town on a typical day so we have lots of big volume stations.
Ethanol is an octane enhancer. That means it can be mixed with cheaper gas and still have the ping resistance. Not only does the ethanol have less energy but the cheaper gas that can now be sold isn't good for mileage either.
WHAT? http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers.html #2 on the list.That we agree on.
Isn't the Union 76 fuel very high in ethanol?
I remember way back in the day 76 used to be the best fuel you could get.
01-27-2008, 12:34 AM
#56
Team Owner
Thread Starter
From http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers.html :
TOP TIER Gasoline Retailers:
QuikTrip
Chevron
Conoco
Phillips
76
Shell
Entec Stations
MFA Oil Company
Kwik Trip/Kwik Star
The Somerset Refinery, Inc.
Chevron-Canada
Aloha Petroleum
Tri-Par Oil Company
Shell-Canada
Texaco
Petro-Canada
Sunoco-Canada
TOP TIER Gasoline Retailers:
QuikTrip
Chevron
Conoco
Phillips
76
Shell
Entec Stations
MFA Oil Company
Kwik Trip/Kwik Star
The Somerset Refinery, Inc.
Chevron-Canada
Aloha Petroleum
Tri-Par Oil Company
Shell-Canada
Texaco
Petro-Canada
Sunoco-Canada
01-27-2008, 12:36 AM
#57
Race Director
Tesoro is widely available in Utah.
As far as the top tier gasoline debate the guy that mentioned the pipeline sounds correct. There is a Maverick and Chevron station across from each other in my town. Do you know who gets more business? The Maverick because they are always $.05 a gallon cheaper. There is hardly anyone at the Chevron station which leads me to believe their gas might be stale. Maverick has about 16 pumps and they are always busy. I never had problems with hesitation or stalling. I will make sure my car gets the correct octane since 85 is the low grade around here though, 91 is the top grade. I will throw a bottle of techron in once in awhile (about every 15k), not because I use non top-tier gas but because all gas could have issues.
As far as the top tier gasoline debate the guy that mentioned the pipeline sounds correct. There is a Maverick and Chevron station across from each other in my town. Do you know who gets more business? The Maverick because they are always $.05 a gallon cheaper. There is hardly anyone at the Chevron station which leads me to believe their gas might be stale. Maverick has about 16 pumps and they are always busy. I never had problems with hesitation or stalling. I will make sure my car gets the correct octane since 85 is the low grade around here though, 91 is the top grade. I will throw a bottle of techron in once in awhile (about every 15k), not because I use non top-tier gas but because all gas could have issues.
01-27-2008, 12:49 AM
#58
Team Owner
Thread Starter
Tesoro is widely available in Utah.
As far as the top tier gasoline debate the guy that mentioned the pipeline sounds correct. There is a Maverick and Chevron station across from each other in my town. Do you know who gets more business? The Maverick because they are always $.05 a gallon cheaper. There is hardly anyone at the Chevron station which leads me to believe their gas might be stale. Maverick has about 16 pumps and they are always busy. I never had problems with hesitation or stalling. I will make sure my car gets the correct octane since 85 is the low grade around here though, 91 is the top grade. I will throw a bottle of techron in once in awhile (about every 15k), not because I use non top-tier gas but because all gas could have issues.
As far as the top tier gasoline debate the guy that mentioned the pipeline sounds correct. There is a Maverick and Chevron station across from each other in my town. Do you know who gets more business? The Maverick because they are always $.05 a gallon cheaper. There is hardly anyone at the Chevron station which leads me to believe their gas might be stale. Maverick has about 16 pumps and they are always busy. I never had problems with hesitation or stalling. I will make sure my car gets the correct octane since 85 is the low grade around here though, 91 is the top grade. I will throw a bottle of techron in once in awhile (about every 15k), not because I use non top-tier gas but because all gas could have issues.
01-27-2008, 01:16 AM
#59
Melting Slicks
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I bought Chevron gas at a Rotten Robbies station in Parker AZ last October. It was a brand new station and had one of the nicest retail stores I've seen in a gas station. The sign out front was the familiar Chevron sign, but the sign on the building was Rotten Robbies. I thought that was odd.
01-27-2008, 01:46 AM
#60
Team Owner
Thread Starter
I bought Chevron gas at a Rotten Robbies station in Parker AZ last October. It was a brand new station and had one of the nicest retail stores I've seen in a gas station. The sign out front was the familiar Chevron sign, but the sign on the building was Rotten Robbies. I thought that was odd.
