Call me crazy but I think I got more mileage and the engine sounded quieterand smoother. Is this possible?

In my area, Southern Illinois, I have been told that the gasoline is loaded from barges on the Mississippi. Trucks of different brands line up and unload from the same barges. Company additives are dumped into the trucks after loading. So the stock of 87 octane would be the same for all the trucks that loaded from a particular barge. Yet I have heard people swear that one brand is superior to another.

Call me crazy but I think I got more mileage and the engine sounded quieterand smoother. Is this possible?

Not likely.

Almost all gasoline comes from the same refineries. The only difference is in the additive packages. All gasoline comes with some kind of detergent now, even 87 octane.

Unless you were getting contaminated gasoline before (which is possible) you shouldn't be noticing a difference, but do whatever works for you. I'd just advise that you don't spend extra money on high octane fuel because it's a scientific fact that higher octane does nothing for an engine not designed to take advantage of it. If you go to the oil company websites even THEY admit this. :no:

There is a big difference between "Branded" (Exxon, Mobil, Shell, Amoco Etc.) and "Non-Branded" (Hess, Sheetz, Getty Etc.) Branded fuel must meet certin federal guide lines for things like, age of fuel , octane, Microns of contanimates etc. if a fuel can not meet these guide lines, than it must be sold as a Non-Branded product. The biggest reason oil companies sell there fuel off to non-branded companies is age.

I always use Shell and have never had a problem. Plus, I like the 5 % discount with their Master Card.

It depends on the tanker truck that delivers the gas.
Cool looking truck = good gas.

I'm a BP whore.

Shell gas made my girlfriends Tiburon, throw a CEL. The weirdest thing ive seen.

There was a batch of Shell gas that had a high amount of sulfer or something... I think my dad's gas tank had to be replaced because of it.

There is a big difference between "Branded" (Exxon, Mobil, Shell, Amoco Etc.) and "Non-Branded" (Hess, Sheetz, Getty Etc.) Branded fuel must meet certin federal guide lines for things like, age of fuel , octane, Microns of contanimates etc. if a fuel can not meet these guide lines, than it must be sold as a Non-Branded product. The biggest reason oil companies sell there fuel off to non-branded companies is age.

I've never heard that before. I do know that all of it comes from the same refineries with very few exceptions. I also know that the dept of agriculture and dept of weights and measures is responsible for regulating gasoline quality in each state.

I've never noticed any perceptable difference in how any car I've owned runs on one brand of gas or another. I suppose if you try hard enough you can convince yourself of anything. Otherwise that 10% of people in drug studies who are getting placebos wouldn't swear they are getting relief from their symptoms. A lot of people will swear to you that putting 104+ octane boost in their '94 Civic makes their car faster too. :eyebrow:

There is a big difference between "Branded" (Exxon, Mobil, Shell, Amoco Etc.) and "Non-Branded" (Hess, Sheetz, Getty Etc.) Branded fuel must meet certin federal guide lines for things like, age of fuel , octane, Microns of contanimates etc. if a fuel can not meet these guide lines, than it must be sold as a Non-Branded product. The biggest reason oil companies sell there fuel off to non-branded companies is age.

I've never heard that before. I do know that all of it comes from the same refineries with very few exceptions. I also know that the dept of agriculture and dept of weights and measures is responsible for regulating gasoline quality in each state.

I've never noticed any perceptable difference in how any car I've owned runs on one brand of gas or another. I suppose if you try hard enough you can convince yourself of anything. Otherwise that 10% of people in drug studies who are getting placebos wouldn't swear they are getting relief from their symptoms. A lot of people will swear to you that putting 104+ octane boost in their '94 Civic makes their car faster too. :eyebrow:

Actually, he's right. A lot of the off brand fuel is from the bigger branded companies. It's the fuel that can't use for one reason or another. . .

shell all the way!

lol i dunno if it gives u better mileage
unless u put the highest octane with the extra additives

Me = el cheapo. I see gas as gas. It all came from the same place right? If my car runs with it, its good for me. Worest gas milage I have seen sense I got my xB has been this last tank at 31.82mpg. I look at that as the fact with all thise cold weather & needing to let the car warm up more in the morning, Im doing more idleing then driving. So I burn more gas setting around :doh:

shell all the way!

lol i dunno if it gives u better mileage
unless u put the highest octane with the extra additives

:eyebrow:

Shell is what I go with too, ampm gas seems cheap and cheesy to me. That's just my personal preference.

Shell is what I go with too, ampm gas seems cheap and cheesy to me. That's just my personal preference.The 5 % discount helps alot too. :love:

I used to do only mobile all the time cause RED WHITE & BLUE place are cleaner and represent the US of A

I think the myth that the brand of gasoline you use is going to make some kind of perceptable difference may be one of my favorite riceboy theories, right after the idea that an Optima battery and new spark plug wires make your car faster.

i'll tell ya what. with 10.5 compression even tho we don't need high octane we probably could benefit from it.

i've only used one tank of premium. off brand as hell premium too . and it did seem to get better performance. not by much. not worth it to pay more than 87 at a better gas place but . it was the same price as 87 at arco so i said shoot. i'll try some 91. lol

i'll tell ya what. with 10.5 compression even tho we don't need high octane we probably could benefit from it.

i've only used one tank of premium. off brand as hell premium too . and it did seem to get better performance. not by much. not worth it to pay more than 87 at a better gas place but . it was the same price as 87 at arco so i said shoot. i'll try some 91. lol

Supposedly you need to cycle through a complete fill up to start noticing the MPG differences (which equates to HP differences). So that would mean you would need two tanks to notice the difference.

I noticed about a 4MPG increase with off brand premium, and about the same difference using a top tier regular unleaded (76/Chevron/Shell). Normally, I'd just stick with regular unleaded Arco, but for some reasons it's only 3 cents more for 76 where I live, and it's closer to my house. I completely understand the school of thought that we should only feed the engines what the manuals ask for. . . then again, all the HP ratings went down due to the new SAE measurements. . . which reduced the octane rating of the fuel used when making measurements, if I recall correctly? And the high compression (like you said) only confirms that. . .

Arco has just been angering me with their ATM/check card fee increases. . .

i'll tell ya what. with 10.5 compression even tho we don't need high octane we probably could benefit from it.

i've only used one tank of premium. off brand as hell premium too . and it did seem to get better performance. not by much. not worth it to pay more than 87 at a better gas place but . it was the same price as 87 at arco so i said shoot. i'll try some 91. lol

Well the only problem with that is that a car designed to run on 87, like ours, cannot advance timing to take advantage of higher octane.

All octane does is resist pre-ignition. If your engine isn't knocking or pre-igniting then you don't need it and it will do nothing for you. For some reason alot of people out there think octane is this magical horsepower-adding fairy dust. It's not.

I think this myth came from the fact that if you put 87 octane in a car designed to run on premium, it WILL retard the timing to avoid knocking and you WILL lose power---- but this doesn't work the other way. Engines designed for regular gasoline do NOT advance timing in the presence of higher octane, period. So you don't get any more performance.

It's pretty simple science. Use the octane your car is designed to use. Anything more is a waste of money. EVEN oil companies admit this if you read the FAQ's on their websites, even though their advertising tends to lead people to beleive otherwise...

i'll tell ya what. with 10.5 compression even tho we don't need high octane we probably could benefit from it.

i've only used one tank of premium. off brand as hell premium too . and it did seem to get better performance. not by much. not worth it to pay more than 87 at a better gas place but . it was the same price as 87 at arco so i said shoot. i'll try some 91. lol

Supposedly you need to cycle through a complete fill up to start noticing the MPG differences (which equates to HP differences). So that would mean you would need two tanks to notice the difference.

I noticed about a 4MPG increase with off brand premium, and about the same difference using a top tier regular unleaded (76/Chevron/Shell). Normally, I'd just stick with regular unleaded Arco, but for some reasons it's only 3 cents more for 76 where I live, and it's closer to my house. I completely understand the school of thought that we should only feed the engines what the manuals ask for. . . then again, all the HP ratings went down due to the new SAE measurements. . . which reduced the octane rating of the fuel used when making measurements, if I recall correctly? And the high compression (like you said) only confirms that. . .

Arco has just been angering me with their ATM/check card fee increases. . .

You're saying you get 4 MORE MILES PER GALLON by using premium gas?

I find that more than a little hard to beleive. There are alot of variables in measuring MPG, if you were to do this scientifically I doubt you'd have those "results"

Either you need to check your math, or you need to call all the newspapers because you are onto a major breakthrough that is newsworthy.

You're saying you get 4 MORE MILES PER GALLON by using premium gas?

I find that more than a little hard to beleive. There are alot of variables in measuring MPG, if you were to do this scientifically I doubt you'd have those "results"

Either you need to check your math, or you need to call all the newspapers because you are onto a major breakthrough that is newsworthy.

Dude, don't be a smartass. I keep a decent level of respect, even when responding to most of your posts.

Of course it's not scientific! It's a baseline calculation from gallons filled and miles travelled. There really is no scientific way to do it, since driving style will ALWAYS vary the MPG. It is near impossible to keep driving conditions identical. Not to mention that weather and temperature plays a HUGE part as well. You should know that. . . c'mon.

Why the hell would I call the news papers. . . that was sooo uneccessary.

And furthermore, I actually agree that it is a MYTH that using premium in a car designed for 87 will not enhance performance. However our cars actually were designed and tested using a premium fuel (I believe it is called "research 91" or 93 or something). The manual states that it ok to use 87, but all the testing was done using a higher octane fuel. Furthermore, when that whole mess with the SAE measurements happened, and they had to change to their testing fuels to the ones recommended by the manual, HP went down. . . and HP is an indirect way of measuring MPG and the engines efficiency.

I'm more than willing to discuss facts and good arguements. But don't make feebly insulting, stupid non-sense comments, because then, IMO, you make me lose respect for your intellegence.

That was a well reasoned and mature response.

I wasn't aware these cars were tuned for 91 octane. I don't think that is what my owners manual says but I haven't read it in a while (not being a smartass here)

4 more miles to the gallon still sounds ridiculous though and I'm not kidding about informing the media on that one if it's true because that would be a major breakthrough if it's a verifiable fact. Seriously. I'd switch to premium right now if I thought it would bump me up to 38+ mpg

V-power baby!

I think you can see a difference. Im going to take a guess and say its different addatives, and different levels of those addatives that make the difference. My xA isn't to fond of Techron. So I tried Shell gas. Then I noticed I didnt get quite as many miles from a fill up so I switched to off brand. My car now gets better mileage and isnt as sluggish on the take off. TO ME saying one gas is extremely better than another is a hard claim tomake. But finding subtle differences isnt such a hard assumption to prove.

That was a well reasoned and mature response.

I wasn't aware these cars were tuned for 91 octane. I don't think that is what my owners manual says but I haven't read it in a while (not being a smartass here)

4 more miles to the gallon still sounds ridiculous though and I'm not kidding about informing the media on that one if it's true because that would be a major breakthrough if it's a verifiable fact. Seriously. I'd switch to premium right now if I thought it would bump me up to 38+ mpg

Well, I'm sure that my case isn't the case for all cars. . . but since we do have a lighter car, any small change in HP has a more drastic effect than a heavier car, a la power-to-weight. And HP and power/weight is directly relates to MPG. But seeing fluctuations of up 4MPG alone can be seen purely by driving conditions/habits and weather. Maybe I should clarify by saying that I saw a 4MPG difference, but not all of that may be accountable to the fuel change. Furthermore, a 4MPG fluctuation is fairly expectable during fill ups. However, I have noticed that I havn't dropped below 30MPG since the change, but this has only been my fourth tank. . . but on average, my MPG has been slightly higher.

I know Motortrend or some other magazine did a test back in 1998, and found that a Honda Accord LOST MPG using premium. . . and usually I am the biggest opponent of using premium or top tier brands. But I'm doing my own research right now, and need to try it out long term to see how consistent this is.

hess sucks.
it like making your car run on water.