Sunoco gas
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Joined: Aug 2010
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From: Western, NY
Sunoco gas
This past weekend I joined the local PCA club for a tech session. Drove the P-car out to dealership and had the chance to put the car on a lift and talk with some senior techs. Spent a few good hours doing all things Porsche. I love my car. I love the way she looks, sounds, makes me feel, the gadgets she has, her dependability. She's perfect for me.
Anyway, there was a Porsche motorsports rep at the event. Wish I got his contact info. I was trying to soak up as much information as he could dish out. He knew a lot of technical details about our cars. Anyway, one thing he mentioned was that he and his group does a lot of gasoline testing and that Sunoco had by far the best quality gasoline. Take it with a grain of salt, but I think I know what gas I'll be buying from now on.
Anyway, there was a Porsche motorsports rep at the event. Wish I got his contact info. I was trying to soak up as much information as he could dish out. He knew a lot of technical details about our cars. Anyway, one thing he mentioned was that he and his group does a lot of gasoline testing and that Sunoco had by far the best quality gasoline. Take it with a grain of salt, but I think I know what gas I'll be buying from now on.
Poseur
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From: Santa Barbara, CA
When I was living in New England I chose Sunoco as well. I liked the multiple grades that they had at their pumps--a far better selection than the rot-gut crap they sell in California. Imagine, $4.45 a gallon for 91 "premium!"
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From: North Bay Area, CA
The nearest Sunoco fuel is at Infineon Raceway, about 30 miles away. They have a full range of octane there but I just fill 5 gallon containers with Sunoco 100 to mix with the normal 91 octane stuff for driving events. Wish it was more readily available.
Thread Starter
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Joined: Aug 2010
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From: Western, NY
Oh, and he mentioned something I never heard but most people at the tech session knew of which was to never get gas at a station that has a fuel delivery truck at it. Wait a day or two for the sediment that was stirred ul to settle.
Race Director
Joined: Mar 2006
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From: Tampa
Lots of Sunoco here in FL. I use Sunoco, Chevron, BP, Shell...never had an issue... I just get gas.
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From: Bentonville, AR
OTOH, you want to shop at a busy station to ensure you buy the freshest gasoline. Premium grades of gas have a short (relatively speaking) 'shelf' life before they start to go stale.
Now I've talked to some gas tanker truck drivers and busy stations can be visited daily (and at very one busy Shell station the driver told me he sometimes made several deliveries to this one station every day) so waiting several days between deliveries may mean one never can fill up his car's gas tank with fresh gas.
Furthermore, many many car owners don't care or don't even know about this guideline and just buy gas when they want to. I've passed many a gas station with a tanker truck making a delivery and the station had plenty of vehicles fueling up.
If there were any real risk cars would be suffering problems right and left from filling up while the tanker was making a delivery and this is not the case.
So, while I try to avoid filling up while a tanker is making a delivery I don't go out of my way to find out when the last delivery was made to avoid filling up too soon after.
Also, my 02 Boxster's fuel pump quit. At over 200K miles. This model year has no fuel filter the filter is the pump's intake screen which is a very fine mesh that is part of the pump's housing some kind of gasoline tolerant plastic. The mesh had some particulate matter trapped but the amount was not much and there was plenty of mesh free of any matter so fuel flow was not blocked. The tech also examined the bottom of the fuel tank and reported the tank was quite free of any trash and water. I would think that if there were a real risk to filling up after a tanker delivery over the years and miles and thousands of gallons of gas I've put into this car's tank it would have made itself known.
Sincerely,
Macster.
Drifting
Joined: Mar 2009
Posts: 2,017
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From: Oregon
I used to fill up there and mix in approx. 30% 100. Until I found out that they get the 100 octane rating by using a high percentage of ethanol. You can check their website and look up the fuel's composition. It does not list the ethanol content of the 100 per say. It does list the "oxygen weight" percentage, which they get using ethanol. That number was close to the Suonco 260 GT+(104 octane) that we use in the BMW race cars, and I know that the 104 is close to being an e85 gas (meaning 85% ethanol) in it's oxygenation #.
If you look through the race gas #'s, you can see that most all are heavily "oxygenated" (ethanol) Even Nascar is running the ethanol fuels, and I understand there is a problem of what to do with left over fuel at the end of a race weekend because of water contamination fears. Sunoco will not take any fuel back and mix it back in with the fresh.
I also noticed about a 25% drop in my fuel mileage using this mix. You probably don't notice this since you're using the fuel for driving events and would be getting low mileage any way.
Bottom line, anyone who fears what the long term effects of ethanol use may be, should avoid putting Sunoco 100 race gas in their $100,000 Porsche. Remember, Porsche has approved the use of e10 fuel only. People are concerned about our fuel going to e15 or e20. I would suggest that running e50+ is a bad idea.
http://www.sunocoinc.com/site/Consum...UnleadedFuels/
Phil
Race Car
Joined: Jan 2008
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From: Scottsdale, AZ
Also, unless reprogrammed, the engine management software is optimized for 93 octane fuel. Using a higher octane fuel really won't provide any advantage and may actually be detrimental. Unless you are using a 100 octane program it's not worth the extra $$ IMHO.
Instructor
Joined: Oct 2008
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Ethanol is the killer for our cars. I work in the industry and I can tell you BP will by far put in the most ethanol into their gasoline. BP tries to maximize profit per gallon. Shell and Exxon Mobil are a lot less efficient.
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Joined: Feb 2006
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From: Ridgewood New Jersey
I happen to always fill all my cars / trucks with Sunoco, simply because there is a 24 hour Sunoco very close to my home 
. Years ago, they used to offer 'Ultra' 94 octane; these days 'ultra' is only 93.
It doesn't hurt that my local Sunoco accepts Amex, and is priced very fairly compared to other local gas station's credit card rate.
. Years ago, they used to offer 'Ultra' 94 octane; these days 'ultra' is only 93.It doesn't hurt that my local Sunoco accepts Amex, and is priced very fairly compared to other local gas station's credit card rate.
Banned
Joined: Jul 2010
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From: Canton, Ct.
IIRC the 260GT is the only street legal high octane blend.