Top Tier Gas question

My local top tier gas station is also consistently one of if not the cheapest I can find.

 

Honestly, this truck has never once seen a drop of premium, but I wonder if the detergents and add-ons would do some good.

 

Add a few ounces of Lucas fuel treatment to your tank every couple thousand miles

 

Been sticking with top tier brands like irving, and shell. They are suppose to have decent detergent additives. Truck runs great on them, so why mess with others ones that are not.

 

There are a million threads on this.

AND it's not Friday yet.

 

The way I look at it, it's cheaper, and just as effective to spend the money on good fuel than expensive fuel additives. At 30k miles add a can of seafoam to your tank if needed.

 

Top Tier fuel was developed because the federal rules for detergent was not enough for these newer vehicles and all the pollution control systems in them. Top Tier fuels have stronger detergents in them, one example is Chevron with Techron, Exxon Mobil is Synergy, and yes Top Tier fuel will help keep your engine cleaner than non Top Tier fuels.

When a tanker fills up at what is called a tank farm and they are delivering to say Chevron, they add a pre mix amount of Techron additive to the tanker and it is then filled up with the federal mandated fuel. So yes there is a difference and any tanker driver who says there is no difference is talking out of there you know what.

The auto manufactures went to the oil companies and worked with them to come up with the Top Tier standard, the reason the automakers did this was because they have to warranty emissions equipment for several years and x number of miles beyond your factory 3 year 36,000 mile warranty and repairing emissions equipment is expensive. That is why there is Top Tier fuel it helps to keep the engine and emissions systems clean and in good health.

Chevron is considered to be the very best with their Techron, I personally use Chevron the most, in second I place Shell followed by Exxon Mobil fuels. Today it is far easier to find Top Tier fuels but if you want to know who is selling Top Tier fuel do a search for Top Tier fuel, their is a website that keeps a list of who sells Top Tier fuel so if a station is not on that list they do not sell Top Tier fuel, the site also explains the reason for Top Tier fuel.

Here is the website: https://www.toptiergas.com/

Most manufactures will have in their owners manuals a section on fuel and they recommend Top Tier fuel but because the federal government controls the minimum amount of detergent that has to be in a fuel they will say you can run non top tier fuel as well but they recommend Top Tier Fuel.

With Top Tier fuel so easy to get these days there is no reason not to run Top Tier fuel, your engine and emissions system will thank you for it.

To answer your question do the different octane levels have different levels of detergent in them the answer is no, they all have the same amount of detergent the difference is 87 octane burns faster than 89 octane while 89 octane burns faster than 93 octane. If you have a vehicle that pings running a higher octane can help eliminate ping. Pre ignition is what ping is, the slower ignition of higher octane fuels combat pre ignition.

 

I use recreational fuel , ethanol free, in all my yard equipment. Makes a big difference, tip from my John Deere/Stihl dealer. Truck and car from same busy gas station, if ever there is a problem I know where it came from at least.

 

Gasoline is a solvent on its own I don’t understand the need to add other chemicals to do the same job. If anything the oil companies should add StaBil since the alcohol soaks up moisture. That is the real problem with fuel systems.

 

At this point, I try to get my gas from anywhere it isn't $5 a gallon.

 

Just use a fuel additive like Techron, Berryman’s, Seafoam, Amsoil PI, or whatever else from time to time.

 

I use gasbuddy.com and buy the cheapest in my area,
I do avoid gas stations that look like they don't maintain their business.

 

As was mentioned previously, one of the lowest priced fuel stations in my area is a Top Tier distributor and that is Costco. While Chevron and Shell are well known, I typically don't buy from them in my area because they are privately owned stations and the maintenance they perform on their pumps and tanks is questionable. In Georgia, where I live, I typically try to primarily buy my fuel from Costco or QT which are both Top Tier distributors and also have a high turn over of fuel, so it's always fresh. I also buy from my local Racetrac or Kroger which aren't Top Tier distributors but do have high fuel turnover so I'm not as concerned. I did have a friend who had one of his employees fill up one of his company trucks at a brand new Racetrac station (it had literally only been open for a week) and the fuel was full of water. Racetrac did pay the repair bill for that one because so many people that day had problems.

 

i think octane doesn't matter as much with bigger engines. but with my 2.7, there is a huge difference in different grades of fuel. it runs so bad on 87 in the heat it's crazy that it's even recommended.

i try to use ethanol-free fuel when possible. i don't really trust the "top tier" designation. even if the fuel is good, the tanks might be dirty. I just use a bottle of Redline Sl-1 every 3000 miles. I've also tried using startron with ethanol fuel but i'm not sure it works very well so I don't use it anymore. kept pushing the truck into open loop every time i would use it.

 

It's not cheap, but try some trufuel the next time in that stihl power equipment. It'll give their chainsaws wings.

 

The rec fuel is a no brainer, doesn’t get stale easily, hi octane,92 I think

 

Non-oxygenated fuel. It's a buck more a gallon but I use it exclusively in my weed whacker, chainsaw, generator, mower, snowblower and VW bug. Plus a few ounces per gallon of Sea Foam. My Toyotas get 87 octane from any station around town, they all have fresh fuel coming in all the time. They don't need any "top tier" bullshit.

 

I have 4 , 5 gallon gas cans that I try to keep full all the time. Snow storms and power outages are no time to be running out for fuel. Plus filling one or two of the tanks is less painful.

 

Using trufuel in my yard power equipment has been far better than any pump gas you get here. No ethanol, plus it's at least 93 octane, seems to stay fresh over 2 years, and has prevented all the carb issues I use to have. I can start the engines on my echo, and stihl equipment a year later with the same trufuel, and they fire right up.

 

I still think it's a good idea to "rotate stock" every six months. Even my "good stuff" will not sit around longer than that. Prevention.