I'm about to order my first F-150 and plan on ordering the Xcalibrator. There have been a few threads lately talking about gas quality and mentioning Texaco, 76, Shell, etc, but no one has mentioned Gulf. We have 93 Octane delivered to our home. How's Gulf rate?

 

In most cases, the handling and storage of the gas after it leaves the refinery is more important than the name on the pump. For every specific recommendation or condemnation, there will be someone else in a different location with just the opposite opinion. Buy gas where they sell a lot of gas so your chance of having water in it is reduced. If you have problems, move to the next gas station and try that. Newer or more recently renovated stations where the tanks were replaced within the last 2-4 years should be a better bet than the 20-30 year old station with weeds growing in the cracks of the parking lot (or a parking lot that floods).

I used to shop at the Mobil but recently (6 months ago) the 7-11 had their tanks replaced so I get Citgo gas at the 7-11 now. Where you get gas is something to be aware of, not something to fret over.

 

Hi Un,

The brand of fuel does indeed make a difference in many cases, and nobody knows that better than a highly skilled tuner - which is what we do.

You're absolutely right - nobody talks about Gulf, and I talk quite a bit about fuel quality here. Don't know why, Gulf just hasn't come up much over the years here, go figure.

The honest answer is that we just don't have much in the way of worthwhile data on Gulf-branded fuels, other than the fact that they do generally share base fuels stocks with other entities, as a number of oil companies do. So you may get a good result with it - I can't tell you that it's *not* a good fuel to use, so you may want to give it a try and see how your vehicle responds to it. We did get some feedback a couple years ago from some of our Lightning owners, who generally got better results with a fuel like a Sunoco here in the East, and Union 76 out west - but that's about the extent of it, so we really can't intelligently advise you on Gulf specifically, other than it would not be my first choice in a forced induction engine - but that is not what you'll have (unless you install a supercharger on your new F-150).

Generally speaking, when we're talking about a truck or SUV engine that is normally aspirated (not supercharged or turbocharged), it's primarily a matter of it's relative energy content (BTU's per gallon), and then how clean the fuel is - that determines how much accumulates in the way of deposits throughout your vehicle's fuel system and top end of the motor, along with what kind of fuel mileage you get.

For example, with our custom tuning in the Xcalibrator used on a normally aspirated F-150, you can run your vehicle on virtually any good quality fuel of the appropriate octane level and you'll generally be fine. We simply advise steering clear of ALL off-brand & no-name fuels, and no Exxon, either - they tend to have lower BTU content, and thus deliver lower MPG. Talking specifically about Exxon, it is a clean fuel, so that isn't a concern, it's fine from that standpoint - but it's reformulated year-round, so it's energy content just isn't up to snuff. We see detonation occur with less timing using Exxon than with other fuels having a higher energy content, and your fuel mileage won't be as good as with other higher BTU fuels.

In reality, on a stock normally aspirated F-series truck or SUV engine, you can burn just about any decent fuel, it's a matter of detergent additives and energy content.

Now with a forced-induction engine (supercharger, turbocharged or nitrous injected), or with an engine tuned on the ragged edge, fuel quality becomes even more important, as then it can make the difference between whether the engine survives long-term or not, or whether it has to be de-tuned or not, etc. However, the fact is we can tune for virtually any type of fuel quality - so you don't generally have to worry about having to use 1 specific brand for example, there are virtually always a number of choices you'll have available to you.

Feel free to use the SEARCH feature to look up any of our previous posts to see what brands we recommend here in the East to get the best results - you may have read all of that already, this is just FYI.............

To determine the relative fuel quality, use 3 tanks of each different brand/source, and carefully track your MPG - under the same basic driving conditions, the fuel that delivers the highest MPG is the fuel with the highest energy content - and that will be the fuel that delivers the best performance, too. Then it's just a matter of how "clean" the fuel is, meaning it's level & quality of detergent additives. Fuel economy is the best indicator of relative energy content, so all else being equal, the fuel that delivers the best MPG under the same basic operating conditions & time of year is generally the preferable fuel to use.

Keep in mind that "reformulated" or "winterized" fuels will *always* deliver a lower MPG, so don't make MPG comparisons in different seasons - do that all in the summer, or all in the winter, so you get the best comparable data, if you choose to get into it that far. Most of us are just too busy, and will fill up wherever & whenever we need to - so in that case, just steer clear of all the of-brands & no-names, and you'll usually be fine.

Good luck, & if you ever do track MPG with Gulf compared to other local fuels, please do share that info with us!