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Preferred gasoline for Subes?


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I get Chevron's Techron gas just for the heck of it, but I wanted to know if people have any experience with different gasolines, like differences in mileage, motor wear & tear, etc.

 

Or is this another one of those discussions like the mineral vs. synthetic oil? :-)

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here is what i have , 86 spfi fwd a/t sedan, 88 dl d/r wagon, 88 tubo full time 4wd a/t wagon, all of these run better on shell 87 octine , if we buy maybe cheaper gas not always , we get aleast 2mpg less , on each car , but here again other board members have there own opinion , here in western ohio gas is 158.9 , columbus oh 154.9 :banana:

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I once did a comparison because I was making my living entirely on pizza delivery, so it was in my interest to find out what fuel got the best mileage. My test was simple. I ran 3 consecutive tanks of one brand of fuel, keeping meticulous records of mileage, then moved on to the next...same process. I tried Chevron, 76, Texaco, Shell and Arco (that's all we have out here). I broke it down to cents per mile for fuel costs. I don't have the exact numbers handy at the moment, but it came down to Chevron, 76 and Shell being the top 3 in that order. They were close enough that it didn't seem to matter which of these fuels I ran in terms of operating costs. However, in order for it to be worthwhile to run Texaco, it had to be at least 5 cents per gallon cheaper than Chevron. Arco was even worse at nearly 12 cents. I don't know about you, but I've never seen Texaco 5 cents cheaper than ANYBODY and Arco, though cheaper than Chevron is never 12 cents cheaper. Closest I've ever seen is 11 cents. The other thing to be aware of is that Arco uses lots of Methanol in its fuels. While that's good for the environment (sort of) and does help to clean SOME deposits, it is also corrosive and will eventually eat up your valves and exhaust, unless its all stainless. Texaco also uses somewhat higher levels of Methanol, but they've also got other additives that tend to offset this.

 

Just my experience, Your Mileage May Vary....etc...

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i always run 93...from Shell, Texico, chevron...never 76 stations and BP seems to be crappy nowadays.

 

otherwise, in a non turbo, anything will work fine...i noticed NO performance/MPG gains from anything better than 87 on a SPFI kaa.

 

on a 2.5 RS...it likes 93 over 87 for sure.

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Once again, I'll tap into my bank of research on fuels...

 

Base fuels are almost all the same. In fact, many brands of fuels are stored in the same tanks and are only differentiated by the additives that different companies add. The only exception to this (that I can find, anyway) is Arco. The other distributors apparently refuse to share tank space with Arco. To me, this implies something about the quality (or lack thereof) of Arco's base fuel. Additionally, Arco and BP have merged, so some of you east coasters who have maybe never heard of Arco will now have the benefit of access to their cheap gas. BTW, if your valves and exhaust ARE stainless....I HIGHLY recommend Arco. Since mine aren't I don't use Arco. Anyway...for the most part, base fuel is base fuel and one brand is differentiated from the others only by the additives they use and those are only added once the base fuel is in the truck. Simple as that.

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...for the most part, base fuel is base fuel and one brand is differentiated from the others only by the additives they use and those are only added once the base fuel is in the truck. Simple as that.

Well, in that case one must ask which brand of gas uses better additives? I'm sure with today's technology you can find some sort of chemical solution that can clean you're engine while you drive, the question is does anyone deliver that effectoively at this point.

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yes, every gallon you buy is full of detergents, and all kinds of addatives... we get 10%ethanol up here in corn country =/

It's funny down in Iowa you can get upto 20% ethanol and a lot of times 'mid grade' (90 octane) is cheaper than 'low grade' (87 octane) :lol:

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I run Chevron only in Suby. 87 I think. I get nuttin but pinging at low RPMs with any other brands down here in SE Arizona. That's from regular to premium. Don't matter. My parents' 97 Outback seems happier on Chevron also. Well, I feel it. Dad don't. :banghead: My boss gets 2-3 mpg better with chevron than with the others also. He's got a 01 honda accorn, 90somthin Cherekee, and a late 80's nissan pick up. Just for a different car comparison. :grin:

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