911mhawk

I have not seen much discussion of gas brands and octane here yet, maybe I was asleep or just didn't search.
Numerous oil and tire ones but what Gas do you guys use day to day?

My office is close to a non-ethanol 92 octane pump, typically fill there.
100 unleaded is even closer and on the way to the track so I put in at least half a tank of 100 mixed with 92 for track use.
Will be reviewing this now that I have a different set up and tune file.
I save the Arco and 7-Eleven for rental cars, and choose newer stations to use for times when I have to use the corn syrup stuff.

Olemiss540

Any Tier 1 Fuel Station (93 Oct) is what I have settled on. Lots of differing opinions, but I would think the BP/Shell/Mobil's of the world are close enough to not matter over the lifespan of our vehicles.

Definitely no Fuel Rangers, 7/11s etc have been loaded into my Germans....

jimq

Run Costco and Racetrack 93 oc in all my Porsche's for over 15 years with no fuel related problems

Kevinmacd

I have been using COSTCO 93, they claim 4x the detergeant level over teir 1 fuel. I never have had an issue with it.

5ive0

Only Chevron 94 for me.

32krazy!

Pure e 85 is what i run

Nikon FM

If you are close to both 100 and non-ethanol 92 octane where the heck is that? I typically fill at the non-ethanol station kitty-corner from XXX root beer. That gas enables a great performing car compared to ~10% ethonal added (normal pump gas)

wross996tt

It is difficult to determine where the fuel was actually refined. One refinery can supply multiple "brands". Some brands require additives, some don't.

Oh and 100 & 105 smells Sooooo good!!!!

jimq

WAWA sells ethanol free around here.

911mhawk

Don Small 76 station on East Valley/Auburn Way just North of 15th has 100 unleaded. About a mile from there is 92 non-ethanol at the Fuel Farm off C Street. Go get a Quick Pick burger, or 2 while you're nearby too, best fries as well.

Road King

because I only drive the car 1x per week, I'm running it on Sunoco 100 unleaded....works great in combination with my custom Cobb tune. I also have a tune for a 95 octane blend as well as our crappy pump 91.

Macster

Over the years I have found a name brand top tier fuel is best.

Some years ago when gas prices spiked big time I started using a discount gasoline station as its price was significantly lower than name brand stations to the point it helped with my gasoline expenses. My commute was/is 60 miles a day so the savings felt good if it didn't really make that big of a difference in my bottom line.

Then I moved to the other side of town.

One change was the discount station was no longer convenient. However, I found a nearby Shell station selling gasoline priced under the other name brand stations in the vicinity and since the station was convenient I started using Shell.

With the switch from discount gasoline to Shell gasoline what I noticed with my Boxster is the converter related error code: P0430; appeared a lot less frequently even though all that changed was the brand of gasoline.

(The real cause of this error code was a loose converter brick, but the difference in gasoline made the converter less sensitive to this condition. Eventually when I got tired of the knocking converter when cold and the buzzing when hot and the still once in a while P0430 error code I had the two exhaust manifolds replaced. The peace and quiet is much appreciated.)

Back on my main point: I stayed with Shell until some time back -- a year? -- when this station suddenly raised it price 10 or more cents per gallon over stations just a few hundred feet down the street.

A conventiently located Chevron station just across the street and down a block received my business. After a few tankfuls of Chevron the Boxster engine was running noticably better. I know Chevron has "Techron" and I have used a bottle or two of this stuff because my info is it works. But Shell had some kind of nitrogen additive that was also supposed to help keep the engine free of deposits.

Still the regular diet of Chevron had a noticable positive effect on the Boxster engine.

The techs I talked too all told me that while not all of them run Chevon regularly those that don't every once in a while run a tank or two just for the benefits of engine deposit cleaning. The cleaning and the resulting improvement from this is the reason.

However I have to admit I never noticed any change in the performance of my Turbo engine.

As an aside I suspected the Turbo engine was just a cleaner running engine and engine deposits were not a problem.

And another aside: Some few years ago I had the opportunity to run 93 octane in the Turbo -- all I get here in CA is 91 -- and the engine was transformed. What a positive difference 93 octane gave to the engine. The takeaway from this is to run the proper octane -- 93 -- or as close to it as you can get.

Thus based on my experience I'd shy away from discount gasoline and if possible use Chevron. However, the techs told me that their seat of the pants dyno has Shell gasoline making their engines feel a bit more peppy.

Based on this feedback I tried switching back to Shell a tank or two with the Turbo and didn't notice any differnce.

Now recently the Exxon station across the road from the Chevron station has lowered its price of premium to $2.8599/gallon vs. the Chevron's price of $2.9999/gallon and 14 cents a gallon -- $1.40 or more savings per "fill up" (which with my driving happens twice a week) -- is too tempting to pass up.

With Exxon gasoline though I notice no real change for better (or worse) with the Turbo. I have not had a chance to run Exxon in the Boxster.

What else? Oh yeah, racing gasoline. Based on what I have read about racing gasoline, if you are going to track your car you are better off using as pure of racing gas blend in the tank as possible. There is more to racing gasoline than its octane rating and by blending racing gas with regular (premium "regular") gas this diminishes the benefits of racing gasoline.

Thus my recommendation would be if possible arrange to be at a racing fuel pump with the low fuel level warning light on and add as much fuel as you think you need for the track and a bit extra just in case.

Kevin

My experience with Costco fuel leaves my datalogs with higher knock retard vs Chervon or Shell VPower. It might be better than the lower priced stations, but not equal to the top tier stations. All fuel octane grades and additives to prevent knock between brands are not the same..

bugeyemilo

V- Power or bust..

Kevinmacd

Your assuming all COSTCO fuels are from the same source of which they are not, secondly your part of the country may have more ethanol in the fuels you tested with the datalogs. The 10% ethanol figure is not an absolute! Fuels contain "up to 10% ethanol" the key word "upto"

Btw Costco is listed as a top teir fuel

http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers/