Thread: Gasoline: What do you use?

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I was wondering about the kind of Gasoline you guys run in your high performance engines?

I would only run Shell or Chevron super in my bikes, and I stayed away from the 7/11 type places, but does it really make that much difference?
I think it does, but I'm very interested in hearing your opinions.

Krash
Dallas TX

I know that the gas can make a real difference........when I ran my Corvette, ir would run much better on the old gasses........Chevron Custom Supreme or Sunoco 260.......alas, they arent available today so I experiment to see what the car runs best on....only way I've found to get top performance.

When I first bought my truck, I pulled the exhaust manifold and saw a thick black layer of carbon over 1/8th inch thick on the exhaust valves. I typically run Shell or 76 gas and within a few thousand miles that buildup was reduced to a thin white powder. It may be the gas or it may be a lot of freeway driving, but something cleaned up those valves.

The Ford dually I usta pull the race trailer with had a 460 in it, I would normally run Mobil since thats the gas card I had but the thing would ping on a good hot day and a hill, Then because it was the only fuel I could get at the moment I filled up with Shell and dang if it didn't run perfect....Now days I usually run Quicktrip
or Sam's.......

I run Amoco A.K.A. BP. Becuse the owner is a customer of mine.

I run sunuco, Mobile and Citgo, whichevers cheaper at the time

Hey Matt, clean out your PM. I can't message you.

Due to my economic upbringing I naturally seek out the cheapest 87 octane I can find and I hope my yet-to-run SBC 350 was set up for economy with low rpm torque to run in OD, BUT (!) some of that cheap 87 octane stuff is really junk. In my daily driver which is a simple 4 cyl '98 Pontiac Sunfire I have trouble running the 87 octane cheapo stuff, it idles rough and misses but if I upgrade to mid range 89 octane it runs fine. In fact when I run 87 octane I get an indicator light from one of the sensors that goes out if I put in octane booster or use 89 octane. I am surprised that little engine needs 89 octane but I have tried this several times and the Sunfire runs MUCH better on the 89 octane. So regardless of brand it pays to look at the octane number. Maybe the engine could be tuned to use the 87 octane to some extent but I am just saying that there is a difference. The engine only has about 50K miles on it and at first I thought I needed new plugs and/or a cleanout of injector nozzles but I ran a can of octane booster in it and it immediately improved and then went back to rough idle on the next tank of 87 octane, then I tried the next tank full of 89 octane and it has run great on the 89 octane since.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Originally posted by techinspector1
Hey Matt, clean out your PM. I can't message you.

I just cleaned it out, should work now. Sorry about that.

The oil company's work on a completely different set of rules than do apply to us in the real world,,,,did you know most of the oil you get at your local pump is purchased by lot's during oil patch bidding??
Most of the oil which is refined by all the oil company's get put into a central pool,,,like gold at a bank,,,and buyers from different company's bid on the refined product.
once the oil is purchased,,,it is brought back for final refining or "Tweaking" where their own additives are put into the gasoline or fuel oil,,,really you are buying the same product every other gas station sell's,,,with the only difference being the additives,,,each one basicly makes the fuel unique(in their minds) again and they then brand the product their own.

Note:...did you know that their is an oversupply of raw crude oil right now??? and the oil company's are using this as an excuse to drive the prices higher....the excuse for doing this is>>> "The lack of refining facilities"<<we used to pay more when we had too little,,,, Now we pay more,, when we got too much.....go figure hey????

Originally posted by Krash
I was wondering about the kind of Gasoline you guys run in your high performance engines?

I would only run Shell or Chevron super in my bikes, and I stayed away from the 7/11 type places, but does it really make that much difference?
I think it does, but I'm very interested in hearing your opinions.

Krash
Dallas TX

I ran my stock 350 on 89 and gave it a little extra timing. I seemed to get better gas milage which offset the extra cost, but I also made significantly more power. Now, I did have 2 broken piston rings when I tore my motor down that I did not know about. They appear to have broken due to wear, and not detonation.

I run whatever gas station I am near when I need gas. Normally BP or some ghetto gas station near us that is MUCH cheaper on gas. Both work good but I run supreme or mid grade. Never used low grade in my truck yet and dont plan to.

Gas is all refined to the same degree. The only difference is the additives the corporations put in. If any of them demonstrably make a difinitive, noticeable difference that is up to each owner's perception. One person might "feel" something in one car another guy wouldn't and things like detergent in oils also effect the engine to an unknown degree in conjunction with gas detergents so "seeing" something might be due to another factor like more or less freeway driving or a different brand of oil or even climate factors.

I've heard of more people noticing a demonstrable visual difference in internal engine parts being cleaner with high detergent oil over non-detergent oil than with any fuel additives but who knows.....

the LT1 runs pretty good on most anything. i will run a tank of hi-test through it every now and then. i think what brand it is dont make much dif. anymore.

I run Mobile 93 on my chevy. Anything less and it starts pinging.