good info

may i add:
-buy your fuel from a busy station
-do not get fuel when / shortly after the delivery truck fills the stations tank. If any sediment or water are in the stations tank; that is the time it will be stirred up...and stations filter or any filter for that matter do not filter 100%.

 

Might as well add my two-cents worth here since I was in the petroleum sales and distribution business many years ago and I know it hasn't changed that much in 2018.

1. Top grade US gasoline's are made by Amoco, Chevron, Union 76, Shell and Exxon/Mobil. ARCO is NOT top-grade nor top-tier gasoline, which is why it's so cheap. You dont get something for nothing, period. There is a reason why the US automakers would truck Chevron gasoline, which wasn't sold there, into Illinois and Michigan for the emissions tests, to pass federal smog regulations..Chevrons quality gasoline and it's "Techron" DCA additive.

2. Most additives are injected into gasoline at the terminals where the tankers fill up to deliver to the customers tanks. Some third rate tanker outfits do not clean or flush their tank compartments out, and they can and do become vessels of sediment or worse, which end up in the fuel station or customers fuel tanks. I've seen _sand_ in the bottom of these cheap outfit rig's fuel-transportation tanks, for pete's sake!

3. A good gasoline/diesel fuel station always keeps their dispenser fuel filters changed often. Sub-par stations do not, which means you'll end up with sediment in your vehicle tank. What tech2 said about not filling up during a tanker filling a stations fuel tanks is good advice. It will stir up any sediment which might not be filtered out. In fact some cheapo stations either never or rarely change the filters and I have even heard of them using a bypass so that there are NO fuel filters in the dispensers.

4.This goes double for diesel fuel, BTW. Always purchase fuel at popular name-brand stations or truck stops with lots of traffic. Truckers use lots of fuel in their 100 plus gallon semi-truck fuel tanks, and that means the fuel is always fresh at a high-volume truck-stop. Too, truckers do not mess around with these places, They can't afford to do so as time is everything in the trucking business. I should know: I am a professional class 8 vehicle driver, or "trucker" myself going on 39 years now.

5. There is a difference in fuel detergents, and deposit-control additives. They are NOT the same. Chevron and Shell have the best DCA's in the market, like Chevron's "Techron" and Shell's "V-Power" deposit control additives. If you use a very good quality gasoline, you won't need to pay for any more gas tank additives, since the fuel intake system is already clean.

6.As someone who has seen what happens to the fuel and intake systems and motors run on cheap gasoline, and being someone who is trained in vehicle mechanics, you can see how dirty cheap gasoline can lead to early injector failures, intake valve deposits and carbon build-up on the pistons and piston rings, due to the use of poor quality, cheap gasoline fuel,

7. Some may say that it doesn't matter what fuel you use now, as more engines are now direct injection gasoline motors. This is mistaken on many levels. First off the fuel injectors on a DI motor are subjected to much more heat, pressure and carbon, then a port-injected motor. Secondly, more carbon on the pistons and piston rings will lead more wear and to more oil crankcase oi fumes that will hit the intake valves, making them much more carbon fouled, due to the PCV system allowing more oil fumes into the intake system.

8. Too, in addition to using a good DEXOS or ILSAC GF-5 motor oil, some of the fuel additives will make it to the PCV valve and into the intake system after some time and wear. This can be increased by using good quality gasoline, as well as using water or water vapor, using deposit control spray into the intake system (CRC DI cleaner is pretty much "Techron") and using a PCV oil fume catch-can.

9. The "gasoline is all the same" argument is utter nonsense, mostly spoken of by el-cheapo gasoline-motor vehicle owners who have never seen a filthy carburetor, fouled-up fuel injectors, dirty intake systems and fouled-up spark plugs.

10. Before fuel injection was popular, I overhauled many vehicle carburetors. The one's using good brand gasoline would be very clean, the one's on cheap fuel always dirty. In over 25 years of driving fuel injected motors I have not once had a bad or dirty fuel injector. Not once. But I use quality gasoline and my engines run great on the "good-stuff", both fuel and lubricants.

 

I did not see mention if big retailers fuel stations like Safeway, Costco, Fred Meyer, Walmart, etc, are Top Tier? They sell a lot of fuel so I’m not concerned about old gas. But am curious about detergents, water, and ethanol.

 

 

Some of what Scotty says is true. Some might happen occasionally, but I know more then he ever will about how diesel fuel and gasoline are made.
Yes, I have heard of the stations that set the meters to cheat consumers of a small percentage of fuel. Tetraethyl lead was a poison, but they couldn't use ethanol
in 1925 when Prohibition was going from 1920 to 1933 to raise octane, so the leaded gasoline was used. Most white and red paints were full of lead as well.
No matter how many times Scotty shows a Shell Station, their gasoline really is better, but Chevron with Techron was even better. If weights and measures catches a
station cheating drivers out of fuel, they are shut down, and very high fines are imposed often shutting that gasoline station down for good.

Yes, its injected at the terminal while the tankers are being filled with gasoline. Once in awhile the injection system would be down for repairs, so a driver had to put on rubber gloves and some goggles to pour pure Techron down the compartments of each tanker, then pump the gasoline on top of the additive. Chevron now owns Texaco, so you will get Techron at any Texaco gas station. Yes, gasoline and diesel fuel both use the same pipelines to send fuel to the terminals, but that goes for jet-fuel going into commercial jet planes and the pipeline has to run diesel fuel down the pipeline before they send jet fuel to the terminal. Jet-A is nothing but a higher quality of kerosene, but no one wants to see a jet fall from the sky due to improper fuel. It has to be filtered extensively to a microscopic level at the airport before a jet is refilled with jet-fuel.

Same with aviation gasoline. That stuff will evaporate in your hand after a minute, so its nothing like car gasoline. It has to burn at very cold temperatures, so it too has to be handled entirely different then automotive gasoline. In fact, it is the only gasoline in the USA that is allowed to have tetraethyl lead in the formula. Although racing gasoline with tetraethyllead can be had for vehicle racing, but it is quite expensive and only someone who is serious about racing non-methanol powered vehicles can afford it at all. As to water in the gasoline, ethanol will pick up small amounts of H2O, but for a large amount, you'll need a little methanol or have to flush the tank out and change the fuel filter and fuel delivery system will need to be cleaned out. On a stock motor, you could burn your valves or damage pistons, if you use Methanol at too high a level.

 

In Canada, Costco sells Top Tier Fuel. So does Mobil and Co-op. I don't know about the other gas stations because I only buy gas at these three places. In British Columbia gas stations are mandated by law to add ethanol to their fuel, to cut down on fuel emissions.

 

I noticed that BP or Amoco wasn't mentioned. Not surprised because I worked for Standard Oil, then Amoco, and finally became BP. Delivered to stations around Chicago for 31 years. BP changed formula of their gas when they took over. Surprisingly there are Amoco stations popping up now! People will think they are getting quality Amoco gas but it is BP gas. The reason you see the same truck deliver to all the stations because they are carriers hired to deliver for all suppliers. There are no oil company dedicated trucks like years ago.

 

Tetraethyllead was used as General Motors owned the patent and it was more profitable than selling cars. General Motors engineers knew it greatly reduced the life of engines but GM id not really care.

It as known to be toxic but when do corporations put people's health above profits?
Many scientists were unable to explain crime statistics until lead was banned from gasoline and the fall in crime rates made it clear the children living in areas with substantial engine fumes were being poisoned and it affected impulse control by the brain area affected. When the post ban children reached adulthood their was a dramatic reduction in crime rates which the police and the politicians were happy to claim credit.