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Engine & DrivetrainDiscussions about the engine and drivetrain of your vehicle.
This is a discussion thread titled "What gas do you use?", within the Engine & Drivetrain forum, part of the Technical & Vehicle Assistance Forums category.
I use 87 octane, the cheapest I can find when I need it. I haven't noticed any great difference in performance or mileage for any particular brand. I've got 40K miles on my Tundra, with zero problems.
87 octane. Generally Arco. I'd prefer Chevron but they're generally significantly more expensive around here. If they were within $0.05 or so I'd switch and use Chevron myself. I've used most of the major brands at one point or another with no noticeable difference.
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Genthar
Rhino Lining, Waag one piece grille guard and wheel to wheel nerf bars, 3M Xpel on headlights, front corner lights, and foglights, Valentine One radar detector, XM Satellite radio, Navigon 7100 GPS, Lightforce 240 Blitz aux lights, Aux. reverse lights.
AEM Brute force intake, courtesy of AEM Power and TundraSolutions.com
Teamwest Coilovers, Camburg Upper A arms, Daystar Steering Rack Bushings, Total Chaos Diff Drop spacer, JBA Headers, Y-Pipe, and EVOL exhaust.
Up here in the Tacoma area, Shell (formerly Texaco) and Chevron are both good. I've noticed that Shell gives slightly better mileage, and runs slightly smoother. I consistently ran 2-3 tenths faster at the track with Shell over Chevron.
If you like your fuel injectors, you'll stay away from Arco (Exxon), Citgo and the like. You get what you pay for, and gasoline is no exception. Just my opinion.
I've always used Premium and will continue to do so. Cheveron, Shell, and Costco. Although I don't know what I'm really getting from Costco, it has been good to me. Any comments about Costco?
Costco seems to be fairly decent. They specify the additive package, and whoever bids lowest for the mix gets it. I haven't run it since my carbureted days. I found it didn't run very good in any of my Fords, and went back to the Texaco I tuned them with. I know quite a few people who use it with no problems. I'm sure had I taken the time, I could have gotten them running just fine on Costco blend.
There's no point in running premium when the manufacturer doesn't call for it. If it doesn't knock or ping with Regular, all you're doing burning Premium is throwing money away so you can burn up a little extra xylene and toluene. The only major difference between the three grades is amount of the anti-knock chemicals.
This is one of the debates that has been done time and time again. Not just on this site, it happens a lot of places.
The bottom line: If you feel that it helps, rock on. There is no good sense or reason to running a higher octane than is needed, and no evidence to support the practice, but it's your money.
87 octane. In my area, I use Costco. Last time I filled it was $1.69 for 87, cheapest so far. Cost is about $40 to fill my truck weekly and about $6.00 to fill the Honda CBR. I use Chevron supreme for the bike about $2.10 a gallon.
You know I'm always filled with amazement when I see two gas stations on oposite corners where one is 5 to 10 cents cheaper and there are people at the more expensive station filling their vehicles..... they must have money to blow!!
I've had many cars over my lifetime and I have always used the lowest grade, lowest cost I could find. I've never had a problem with dirty injectors, poor performance and only one that experienced pinging... and that was a very high performance 427 Rat. I've had most brands of vehicles that have been produced or at least one brand from each manufacture, some that were either supercharged or turbocharged. I've had several vehicles that have reached over 200,000 miles without a valve job and performed as well as they did when new.
So, I for one will never put extra $$ into my gastank when not needed...it's just plain common sense (read cents). Wise up people, quit blowing your hard earned cash that you could be using to save up for that TRD supercharger.
I used to use Chevron almost exclusively when I had my Eclipse. Why? Because there was a noticeable difference in performance/mileage when I was using other brands:
Chevron was consistent and I got the best performance/mileage from it.
Mobil seemed ok, but they weren't that prevalent here.
Shell was hit or miss, some tanks were fine, others sucked.
76 was OK but the nearest 76 stations at the time were all significantly more expensive.
Texaco was hit or miss, generally miss.
AM/PM (Arco/Exxon) was horrible.
I've tried several brands in my Tundra, and it doesn't really seem to care what I feed it, so I go with the less expensive one. I've tried a few tanks of different octanes in the Tundra and it didn't seem to do much either, so I run 87. Not a scientific testing of Octanes, just some quick-and-dirty-seat-of-the-pants type thing and I didn't see any benefit for my truck to use anything other than 87. Mileage was not significant, or became a wash when the cost was factored in, and the performance didn't seem to change.
__________________
Genthar
Rhino Lining, Waag one piece grille guard and wheel to wheel nerf bars, 3M Xpel on headlights, front corner lights, and foglights, Valentine One radar detector, XM Satellite radio, Navigon 7100 GPS, Lightforce 240 Blitz aux lights, Aux. reverse lights.
AEM Brute force intake, courtesy of AEM Power and TundraSolutions.com
Teamwest Coilovers, Camburg Upper A arms, Daystar Steering Rack Bushings, Total Chaos Diff Drop spacer, JBA Headers, Y-Pipe, and EVOL exhaust.
What gas do you use?
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