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Top Tier Gas or cheap gas? Arco? chevron? Costco? Shell?


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I usually go to Costco - if I can't I go to Chevron or Shell.  Costco buys gas from all the refineries that have Top Tier brand gas, they also consistently have the best prices.  

 

In California we have 16 refineries - No. Cal has 5, central CA has 4 and So. Cal has 7.  If you shop by region - Chevron or Shell in N. Cal, Chevron or ? in S. Cal (likely Costco). 

 

Overall Big Providers are: 

Chevron - 10.3 M gallons per day 

Tesoro - 8.9 M 

Phillips 66 - 5.2 M

Shell - 3.1 M

Torance - 3 M 

 

By Region 

So.Cal

Chevron - 5.4 M gallons per day

Tesoro - 5.4 M

Torance - 3 M 

Phillips 66 - 2.8 M gallons of gas per day

Paramount - 1.7 M gallons per day

World - 170 K gallons per day

Valero - 126 K gallons per day

 

No. Cal

Chevron -4.9 M

Tesoro - 3.3 M

Shell - 3.1 M

Valero - 2.9 M

Phillips 66 - 2.4M

 

Central CA 

San Joaqun - 300 K gallons per day 

Greka - 190 K 

Phillips 66 - 60 K

Kern - 26K 

 

 

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On 5/20/2020 at 2:01 PM, CamGTP said:

I don't even care where I fill up, I've never once looked at the pump to see what it says for top tier or blah blah blah.

 

Around here it's BP, Holiday, Speedways, Shell or Kwik Trips. I will fill up at any of them without a care.

 

Hell I even fill up by the family cabin at the only station open in town on the weekends, they have 4 pumps total. They are getting the same gas that the two larger cities 15 miles away are getting so it doesn't matter to me.

exactly how I feel.....whatever is cheapest

 

never had an issue and why pay more for something that does the same thing.....if I used premium at mobil vs regular at arco the difference would be around $1000 annually.....just doesn't make sense 

Edited by Dunn
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Majority of the tine it’s BJ’s followed by costco. Never had an issue. They are always the same price and the cheapest. Just depends which side of town I’m on at the time.

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The gas is for the most part all coming out of the same refineries. The exception where I live is that Exxon is adding ethanol and so I do not buy gas at their stations. My mpg drops by 15% with the ethanol blended gasoline. I also dislike burning food for fuel when there are so many people going hungry in this country.

 

My gas vehicles all use 87 Octane gasoline and if I use a higher octane rated gasoline it is throwing money away. My Mercedes had a high compression engine and needed 93 Octane gas to run at its best. If I used a lower octane rated gasoline the engine computer would ****** the spark timing to prevent knock or pre-ignition. Pre-ignition resistance is all that the octane rating measures. Higher octane gas is more resistance to pre-ignition but that does not necessarily mean more power from the engine.

 

Octane rating is also not linear. I can mix a quarter tank of 93 octane gas with three quarters of the tank using 87 Octane and get a roughly 90 octane fuel for the engine.

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The corn made for fuels is not the same sweet corn that we eat. So it's not food wasted. That corn is made so farmers can feed their own families. Some may not like ethanol in their fuels but for a farmer, they need that stuff so they can sell it and make a living.

 

I don't know why fuel in California would be any different but I'll leave you with this fun fact. GM has been setting the stoich ratio for the fuel in the computer to 14.1 since about 2014, taking in an account for 10% E-content in the fuel. No longer is it set at 14.68 for E0 fuels. Seems weird that you'd somehow lose that much mileage when it already aims the air fuel ratio for E10 fuel.

 

I get the same mileage with E0 and E10, it doesn't change enough to notice. Heck I just got around 20mpg on the freeway with E50 in the tank this weekend. That's down about 3-4mpg if I'm trying for fuel mileage on regular pump 89.

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On 5/20/2020 at 3:25 PM, AdamAT4 said:

your shell and chevron may be the same fuel. 

As for me and my house, Chevron always delivers superior mileage compared with Shell, for near thirty years or more.  Even their 93 octane fuel delivers at least 2 MPG less than Chevron and Mobil and Sunoco.  Heck, even my garden tractor gets less time between refuelings running Shell gas from the corner station.  Every once in a while I go back to see if things have changed because they are an American company with a great history, Jimmy Doolittle used to race and work for them even.

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1 hour ago, CamGTP said:

I get the same mileage with E0 and E10, it doesn't change enough to notice. Heck I just got around 20mpg on the freeway with E50 in the tank this weekend. That's down about 3-4mpg if I'm trying for fuel mileage on regular pump 89.

Those DI motors burn everything pretty efficiently.  My old truck gets better gas mileage running 18-22% alcohol content than running anything else.

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On 5/20/2020 at 11:00 AM, Sunnyd360 said:

 

I wanted to see what everyone puts in their trucks my truck for example I was running super low so I ran to Arco for 10$ of gas just to get to my Chevron I usually go to and I felt like the arco gas wasn’t as efficient... have any of you noticed this between stations? I now stick to shell and chevron and very occasionally Costco

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

i only run mobil or  chevron   they must pay the delivery man a bit more to pay attention 

 

  i had bad luck getting only 87 octane out of the 91 pumps at Shell, Arco stations (tested at lest a 1/2 dozen stations

 issues with AFM running 87 octane (will hyper loop on and off  with 87 octane) MPG drops to 18.5MPG

 

I can actually accelerate with AFM v4 starting from first gear with 91octane  

 

 I can get upto 31.2MPG with 91 octane   on the highway assuming everything is working in perfect harmony 26-29MPG on the highway is typical for me while running normal speeds 75MPH ...  it might have something to do with the traffic  I get better MPG when there is more traffic as 40-45MPH is the sweet spot (it's not safe to drive this speed with very little traffic)   that is when i get bigger numbers MPG wise

in the city it's been less as i have been running the AC (Rather use a bit of gas then cook inside the suv)

in the winter my mpg is better 22-23range 

 

Edited by bg1988
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What I’ve learned so far:
1. Certain brands have superior gas, some are inferior, or it may be the exact same gas regardless of brands.
2. With higher octane fuels, I may get better gas mileage, worse gas mileage, or it may not make any difference.
3. If I use gas with ethanol, i am either starving farmers or helping them to make a living.
Got it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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I eat cauliflower.

Gas that meets the Top Tier rating goes in line with oil that meets the Dexos rating.

They meet a standard to get that rating.

 

Good fluids including gas and regular changing of fluids can help to lower maintenance costs.

:)

 

 

 

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I know I will catch some crap for it but I am one of the guys who dont like ethanol if I can help it. The shelf life of ethanol-free gas for long term storage is way better so I usually fill my truck and gas cans up at the same time. Years ago I found a site that shows who is ethanol-free and usually try to get it from a place on the list.

 

https://www.pure-gas.org/

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14 hours ago, swathdiver said:

As for me and my house, Chevron always delivers superior mileage compared with Shell, for near thirty years or more.  Even their 93 octane fuel delivers at least 2 MPG less than Chevron and Mobil and Sunoco.  Heck, even my garden tractor gets less time between refuelings running Shell gas from the corner station.  Every once in a while I go back to see if things have changed because they are an American company with a great history, Jimmy Doolittle used to race and work for them even.

Huh? Are you talking about Shell?  Shell is owned by Royal Dutch Petroleum, headquartered in the Netherlands.

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50 minutes ago, garagerog said:

Huh? Are you talking about Shell?  Shell is owned by Royal Dutch Petroleum, headquartered in the Netherlands.

Well I'll be a monkey's uncle!  I had no idea, thanks!  Now I ain't going to keep trying their fuel no more!  

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Top tier fuels use better detergents/additives in their gasoline which is better for your vehicle.  Ethanol or not.  But my choice for gasoline would be Chevron (because of the techron in their fuel) Costco, Phillips 66/Conoco, Shell. 

 

Diesel-  no such thing as top tier Diesel, but the major brands do run their own additives in them just like gasoline though more suited for Diesel, including anti-gelling stuff, lubricity stuff and such.  I've noticed the best performance running Sinclair/Maverik, Phillips 66/Conoco, and then Shell.  No Chevrons around here otherwise I'd give them a shot. 

Edited by Colossus
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