Premium gasoline

[theax40]

I've never had to put high octane gas in any car, so now that I have to I'm a little confused on what octane rating is actually considered premium.

The owners manual says to use anything over 91 octane, but at the local Kwik Fill they offer 89 octane labeled as premium and 93 labeled as Super Kwik. Is it okay to use the 89 that is supposedly premium or go by the manual and use at least 91? I know also that octane ratings vary by area. There's a 20¢ difference from 89 to 93 and I'd like to save a little money if possible.

[nos4blood70]

91 or greater is what you need for the L67. Lower grades will work in a pinch, just don't enter boost.

[theax40]

It's sketchy for them to say 89 is premium if it really isn't. And then to jump from that all the way to 93 without offering anything in between. Maybe I should just go somewheres else.

[nos4blood70]

You should. 89 octane is not a premium octane level by any standard, in terms of performance or boosted vehicles anyways. What's regular octane at that gas station? Like 85?

[theax40]

Yea, it might be 86 I'm not positive.

[J Wikoff]

89 is usually midgrade. What I normally see labeled as Premium is 91 and higher.

[nos4blood70]

Yeah, around here 87 is regular, 89 is midgrade, and 91/92/93 will be premium. Depending on the station.

[CMNTMXR57]

Usually 93 or 94 (Sunoco) is considered "premium". 91 is "mid-grade". But I wouldn't fret over what they "name" it. Go by the number.

A few things you need to understand. All fuel, whether it's going to BP or "Kwik-fill", comes out of the same holding tank. Where the difference comes in is;

1) BP, Phillips, Marathon, Shell, etc, take the fuel off the top of the holding tank. All sediment and any crud in the fluid will have settled. The "Kwik-Fill" place gets their lower price fuel because it comes off the bottom of the tank where all the sediment and crud falls.

2) Then the name brand companies add their proprietary additives (the stuff you see in all their commercials), like detergents, nitrogen, a hot latte, etc. THis is why the "Kwik-Fill" place is generally a smidge cheaper than the BP or Shell across the way. Not the same additive package.

3) They then label them to sound enticing to the consumer. We're all going to go for the one that promises the most for the least. So if the "Kwik-Fill" labels theirs as super duper mega colossal premium and the BP just calls theirs premium, and the "Kwik-Fill" is a few cents cheaper, where are you going? Regardless of fact of the quality of the actual fuel, 99.99999% of the automotive stupid world is going to the "Kwik-Fill". It's cheaper and sounds like it's giving more for the $. Reality is, it's lower grade fuel, with less additives, and in general can cause more issues in the long run (My cross hairs are on Citgo fuels of the past that caused fuel injector pintle corrosion issues).

[theax40]

Qwik Fill is really the only "chain" gas station in the area, with multiple locations all over the place. Pretty much everything else are locally owned gas stations and garages, so I'd have to just inquire what brand of gas they sell. There is a BP and a Mobil station just outside of town, if the gas will be better from those places then I'll go there from now on

[CMNTMXR57]

Mobil, BP, Shell, etc, will always have the better fuel. From the base stock to the additives they put in.

A friend's brother is/was a logistics manager (or something like that), for Klemm tank lines here in the Midwest and he would tell me this stuff.

[theax40]

It's interesting because there's a Seneca Indian reservation about 20 miles from here and I used to get gas there all the time without any problems. But others have told me not to use it because it's bad gas and messed up their fuel filter/lines.

[KM AXer]

(My cross hairs are on Citgo fuels of the past that caused fuel injector pintle corrosion issues).

The Astro AWD that we had was very fuel-sensitive. Back when the methanols/ethanols were less common, I could tell within a couple of miles whether the fill I just got had an alcohol component or not. It made traveling a crap-shoot, because I knew which stations to go to locally, and which to avoid. The Sunoco stations on the Ohio Turnpike were the only fuel source, unless someone was willing to take an exit and get back on. Yep, they blended back in 2000. I took exits and bought Shell, after learning the hard way.

But it was a local Citgo which ended the second set of injectors for the 4.3. The injector spider inside the manifold packed it in within a mile of the Citgo fuel fill. The van ran terrible, tossed a couple of codes, and struggled to start. Better fuel and cleaners were of no help; within 500 miles I was pulling the manifold and replacing the injector assembly. That really sucked.

[CMNTMXR57]

I was gonna say, that is the dreaded spider on the "W" motors to compound things.

We had service procedures around vehicles with Citgo gas. First question we would ask when a customer would come in with a misfire or other driveability issue that seemed related to fuel, "What gas do you use? Citgo! Yup...