Top Tier Gas - Who Uses / Who doesn't

[jimfrancis]

Truthfully I'm not sure what "bad gas" would be other than water contamination, and I have seen that a few times over the years. But, again, the higher the volume sold, the less likely you will be to run into this. I would suspect that cold climates would have more problems with water condensing in storage tanks, but I'm a southern boy.

[feetdry]

Many of the small towns here in the NW don't have "top tier" fuel. I've gassed up in a lot of small towns and have yet to have a "fuel" problem. Of course I only have fueled up several thousand times. I'll be sure to look out for that next 'Non top tier" fueling, as it might be the "bad" one.

[S1njin]

I guess I'm going to start filling up w/ 87 at Quick Chek from now on. 3.41 beats the pants off the 3.93 I paid for 89 at the only Shell station around me.

[feetdry]

I'd guess there are several million US residents living in small towns that have no access to "top tier" fuel.

I know for many years I used fuel that was pumped out of a bulk tanker into an underground tank that we had "on the farm". I'm pretty sure it wasn't "top tier" and we pumped out a lot of it for many years and NO ill effects to our equipment.

[csimo]

I know Honda still pushes the Top Tier gasoline and they're a founding member of that marketing alliance, but I think it has pretty much fallen apart.

I used to see a few advertisers mention that their fuel was "Top Tier" but I haven't even seen that in a few years. I know the two Top Tier retailers I regularly visit (Quik Trip and Phillips 66) no longer have the Top Tier stickers on their pumps.

As mentioned earlier... fresh fuel is much more important than the brand. I know Top Tier claimed to have 50% more additives but to me the fewer the better. We need to have some detergents and oxygenates but more is not necessarily better... detergents simply reduce the consumable power per gallon of fuel.

[jnc2000]

Solvents and detergents should prove to be even more interesting with DI... OE's are pushing fuel cleaners (such as Techron [with PEA or like additive...] and 'Top Tier' more then ever even though they prove worthless as the fuel is injected after the intake valve - where the carbon build up would occur. I have 30K on my DI Hyundai motor, and have had a catch can on since around ~5K miles... don't know if it's saving my intake valves but time will tell as I've replaced the filter element twice so far.

Should be interesting when I pull the top half this winter (provided I get some down time)... or take it to my buddies shop and take a peek with the bore scope...

Joe - what's your take on gasoline's future with regard to OE's pushing ICE motors down the path of DI?

[oarnold]

J: What is a catch-can? Thanks.

[S1njin]

Originally Posted by csimo

I know Honda still pushes the Top Tier gasoline and they're a founding member of that marketing alliance, but I think it has pretty much fallen apart.

I used to see a few advertisers mention that their fuel was "Top Tier" but I haven't even seen that in a few years. I know the two Top Tier retailers I regularly visit (Quik Trip and Phillips 66) no longer have the Top Tier stickers on their pumps.

As mentioned earlier... fresh fuel is much more important than the brand. I know Top Tier claimed to have 50% more additives but to me the fewer the better. We need to have some detergents and oxygenates but more is not necessarily better... detergents simply reduce the consumable power per gallon of fuel.

Thanks a bunch !

[jnc2000]

An oil catch can (often called shortened and called a catch can) is certainly not necessary - but IMO just part of the routine preventative maintenance I take with all of my cars. I don't like oil in my intake manifold, nor TB... and I'll do what I can to keep the entire intake tract clean.

As blowby increases with time and you'll notice more and more build up and seepage past the PCV back through the through the intake manifold (now this is where is supposed to burn off) - but that doesn't happen. It starts to cake on and gum up. Years of neglect can mean expensive repairs later...

It's all in how you look at it... This becomes even more of an alarming issue with DI motors. With no fuel to mix with the air during the intake stroke (intake valve) the valves are even more susceptible to build up...

[Rockwood]

My take is to take what's available when I need it.
Gasser engines are far more tolerant than current diesel VW etc are of quality fuel.
As JimFrancis says all you has comes out of the same tanks at a local distribution center. The only differences are additives.
Sometimes I do get zero ethanol gas when driving around down south. But never enough to have zero ethanol. Don't see any difference in the fuel either.


Sent from my iPhone using AutoGuide.com App