I greatly appreciate you taking the time to explain this. I gotta say this is one of the best threads I've ever seen online. Greatly informative and mostly due to you.

 

So does anyone have knowledge of what constitutes a "top tier" gasoline, when a manufacturer sells different brands? For instance, I live in a town that has a Marathon refinery, and they supply all the local stations. I know that each station, or brand, will have it's own blend of detergents added, but what about Marathon? They have Marathon stations that have higher prices than Speedway, which is owned by Marathon. Is it because Marathon is more "top tier" than Speedway, or is it just marketing? I certainly don't mind paying more for a gallon of gas, if I am getting the benefit of better detergent, but how do we know?

 

You should see the new Buc-ee's going up in Temple - I've never seen a truckstop that big!

BMW sells a fuel system cleaner that comes in a black plastic bottle identical to Chevron's Techron - it was widely assumed in the BMW world that it was in fact, just Techron sold under license to BMW. And like you say, you can always pick up a bottle at your local Autozone or Wal Mart, to make up for those times when a Chevron is not near or convenient.

There is an undeniable political/government stigma against diesel in the US which is in part, perpetuated by the average US consumer's ignorance of diesel, (which hey, given the memories of the diesels in passenger vehicles from the 1970's through 1990's is not hard to reason why.) Ironically though, diesel powers all of our locomotives as well as large trucks who deliver nearly everything we consume from retail to groceries, and the "gas tax" on diesel is at a higher rate than it is on gasoline. How could that be? That is just the cost of business and it is ultimately just passed onto the end-user consumer, anyways.

Between the EPA requiring extra emissions treatment and the corn-lobby's (both sides of the aisle) encouragement of ethanol, many auto manufacturer's are timid on offering new diesel technology in passenger vehicles and light trucks. Mazda has been stuck for almost two years now trying certify their new Mazda 6 diesel without having to resort to diesel exhaust fluid, as the EPA is mandating. While B5 is alright and even adds most of the lubricity back to the diesel that was lost when they took the sulfur away, some states ignorant penchant to raise minimum biodiesel levels past B10 are doing consumers of Euro-designed diesels no favors. But the new Italian V6 diesel in the light duty Ram trucks is selling very well, and is also available in the Jeep Grand Cherokee.

US diesel also suffers from poor lubricity and often lower cetane levels than that in Europe, although some places like metropolitan areas of Texas have a good common-sense law aimed at raising the standards for diesel quality. (Texas Low Emissions Diesel Program) https://www.tceq.texas.gov/airqualit...eandiesel.html

 

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Thanks LDB

 

I know nothing of this stuff, but I thought rockets had solid fuel? (whatever that is . . . ?)

Jet fuel, as I've read, is basically kerosene with appropriate additives.

 

Thanks for the various attaboys over the last several posts. I only saw one new question, about various brands by Ben101er. If you don’t buy top tier, there is no way I know of for a layman to tell where in the spectrum he is from minimum EPA standard to top tier standard. While I was still actively employed, I would have had some idea because of our competitor surveillance program. At that time, some, but not all of the non-top-tier guys were doing more than EPA minimum standard. But even if I could tell you who (and I couldn’t, because it was considered proprietary info), it wouldn’t necessarily still be true today. So your choice is basically top tier or non top tier, and anything you might assume about whether a non top tier guy is doing anything more than minimum EPA standard is just that, an assumption.

 

I'm a believer....put this stuff in my chugging lawn mower and snowblower and instantly clears them up.....

 

take a look ……….

http://www.toptiergas.com

 

Some do, but most don't. Popular propellants are kerosene with oxygen as the oxidizer, and liquid hydrogen with liquid oxygen as the oxidizer. The Shuttle main engines were LOx LH2. The solid rockets were strapped to the sides.

Jet fuel and rocket kerosene are basically the same thing. RP-1 or JP.

 

You mean Techron? The reason I wanted to make sure is because I have a Mantis tiller that I've let sit with gasoline in it and it doesn't run very well right now -- basically stalls out when I give it the throttle. Wonder if Techron would help.

 

FYI, Texaco is a subsidiary of Chevron and Texaco gasoline contains Techron as well as Chevron gasoline. Take it from an old Texaco hand who now works for Chevron

 

Interesting -- thanks!