Top Tier Gasoline

I've never seen it have an effect on mileage.

Some people swear by it. All I say is that it offers more peak power and better knock protection when towing.

 

I know that I lost some power on 87 in my truck-I did not imagine it. Which is why I have been paying the extra bucks for 91 all these 11 years. The normal around town accelleration sucked. The quarter to third of throttle pickup I usually feel was gone. Keep in mind, my truck is about 3700lbs with the shell, 190hp/220ft lbs. I'm gonna feel any subtraction of timing with that combo.
You are probably right with 2nd gens-what is yours like 4000lbs, 236hp/266ft lbs-only a slight increase in weight, yet considerably more power especially torque which you agree is what matters, so any variation in timing you get in yours may not be felt nearly as much.
Anyways, all I know is I am afraid to switch to 87 because of my experience.

 

Almost 4500lbs actually. Toyota fatass'd these things.

 

Some do, yes. Fuel for different brand stations does come from the same refinery and often even the same tanker trucks. From what I've read the trucks either mix in the additive packs when they are unloading fuel, or in some cases the tanker is compartmentalized with different blends. Fuel trucks often carry gasoline, diesel, etc in one tanker. So, Chevron and Shell stations do have proprietary add packs in their fuel.

Saying a vehicle is "happy" or "loves" something is just a fairly common figure of speech. I'm not sure why you're so concerned about it. It's not like we actually believe our car is a living thing with human emotion. The vehicles can however have a measurable positive reaction to differing materials, fuel, etc.

And, Sony and Toyota did at one point make a car for the Japanese that did, in fact, have multiple emotions that it displayed. Mechanical, non-feeling programmed emotions.

 

I don't know if it still holds true, but back when I used to be into hot rods a lot (no money these days, thanks truck payment LOL), most of the car mags said you had to have a pretty substantial improvement in horsepower and torque to feel it in the butt-dyno.

As in, more than 15-25HP, usually.

So, that means if you can really feel it, it's quite a bit of power we're losing just to fuel grade. It would be interesting to actually get one of these trucks on a dyno with regular versus premium fuel. However, if it takes 4-5 tanks to get the difference in, it's a little hard to get a true scientific test out of it. That opens a lot of variables for precision.

 

I think it's the HP to weight thing-hell when I did the elbow mod on my Tacoma I felt every bit of that extra 4hp I picked up lol
I've had my time with fast v8s myself. I also had a 1986 fullsize Jimmy with an anemic little 305v8. It was all of 160hp and 240ft lbs @ 4100lbs! When I did a tuneup on that thing even the slightest subtraction of timing I could feel it.

 

Was it B.T. Barnum that said "there's a sucker born every minute"?

 

I get a chuckle out of the guys that say they run 87 and never feel the engine knocking. Of course you don't. That's the whole point of computer compensated timing. The sensors feel the knock long before you can and retard the timing. The 4.0 makes enough power that ordinary driving rarely makes the difference felt. Anything that taxes the engine like towing, makes the difference obvious.

 

The additive is injected at the rack when the trucks load. I've said it here before; the additives you pay more for are about 99% of the time identical to all the other companies' additives. It's all marketing.

I promise you don't notice the difference between 7-11's additive quantity, and the extra .05% that Shell adds.

Either way, buy what you feel works the best.

 

I try to stick to the better names but I can't say I feel any difference in most cases. Some brands in particular seem to be worse. I quit using Arco years ago because of dieseling problems in some older vehicles. I think there are some inferior fuels. The additives are not just for detergent quality either. There is also an octane modifier package. In any case, I don't rely on their additives. I use my own and have had much better luck with that.

 

There are no gasoline additives that modify octane as they are loaded onto the truck. Gas goes out at the same octane it comes in at.

 

Not sure if this is in here already, but from what I've read, is that back in the day, some brands typically had more detergents/cleaning agents in their fuel. Then the EPA (or whatever gov body) stepped in and set a req'd minimum for all gas regardless of octane. That meant that some brands had to add additives and others, in order to save a few dollars, cut theirs back to the req'd minimum.

That said, if you want more detergent, buy a bottle and dump it in? If you want more octane, but a bottle of boost or buy premium gas. Just don't assume you get more detergent in the premium blend. The bottle is likely cheaper and you'll have a better idea of what you're getting, IMO.

 

Thank you for coming here. I've enjoyed the majority of your posts, primarily because we agree

 

I have run ARCO regular 87 in all my vehicles for the last 8 years, usually with Lucas fuel treatment every other tank or so. I've never had any fuel- or octane-related problems of any kind. Granted I don't tow heavy loads or work my engines very hard. Anyway... ARCO is kind of a mid-tier brand, it's not rotten gas and it's not Chevron either. I don't see the point in spending more for fancy gas when my vehicles have always run great on the cheaper stuff. My $0.02

 

My engine was designed to run on regular gas, and that's what I put in. Not wasting my money on premium.

Back to the original topic of this thread, Top Tier is simply a list of gas that has enough effective detergent, meaning Techron. There are additives that do not contain Techron, stay away from those.

 

Every time I see one of these threads I consider it the typing version of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SSbFjK_gnY&t=1m40s

 

I consistently use Shell, the only Top Tier in this area. The grade I use is dependent upon my mood. I don't care about my trucks mood as long as it runs.

 

LOL, a Chevron employee or exec, perhaps?

There are other effective detergents that exist besides Techron.

For example, Shell's "nitrogen-enriched" fuels. Also, Red Line's SI-1 Fuel System Cleaner. I'm just sayin'...

 

Just sayin", those additives you listed, I beleive contain Techron. Doesn't have to be Chevron to have Techron.