I know this has been covered, but I could not find the answer in the previous pages, and the search feature is not workingso here we go again.

I have a 2001 f150 4wd ORP 5.4, with a Superchip (bought from the good people at Performance Products).

I have seen you rate gasoline before, but I can not for the life of me remember what you said was the best and worst. I have in my area, Exxon, Texaco, Ammco sp?, Phillips, and the various other cheaper brands. We also have Costco which has 93 octane which is usually the price of the other major brands mid grade gas.

I am in Memphis, if that matters. What would you recommend the best gas to be. I think that I remember that Exxon was not too high on your list, but I don't remember aftr that.

What about the Costco gas at 12-14 cents cheaper per gal ?

I do a god bit of towing, what would be the next upgrade for me considering the towing factor in the mix.

Thanks in Advance- DD

 

Hi dkdaws,

Steer clear of the Costco as well as any other off-brands or no-name fuels, as they are generally bought by those companies on the spot wholesale market, and thus usually have a lower energy content (you get what you pay for, at best), so you don't get as good mileage with those fuels.

Texaco & Amoco are generally our 2 favorite fuels in most areas of the country, thanks to excellent quality additives, they're clean fuels & have good energy content. Out in California & much of Oregon & Washington, Chevron is doing a better job.

Exxon is clean, but low energy as well, it's reformulated year-round.

Stick with Texaco or Amoco in your area & you'll be getting about the best fuels available.

One last note is, there can always be exceptions, some people are happy with Shell here in the East, and others are even happy with Arco, for example, so there aren't many "hard & fast rules" in this. These are just general comments, but sticking with the fuels we recommend will in most cases get you the best fuel
available.

Good luck!

 

Mike,

Continuing with the regional fuel question, what are your preferred brands in the Houston, TX area?

 

Hi 02 Laser Red,

Read my response to dkdaws, as it applies to just about everyone, in that in most areas of the country, Texaco & Amoco are among the better to the very best gasolines you can get. You also want to steer clear of the fuels I mentioned in that post in any area as well.

Houston is an area of particularly bad air quality, and so also one of lower fuel quality.

The background on this is, starting a few years ago, the Feds cut up each state into numerous regions, and has been monitoring air quality in those regions. Areas whose air quality is not of "attainment" status, meaning their air quality doesn't meet the federal standards, have to take action to correct and improve air quality, or be at risk of losing their federal highway funds, so this is *really* important, this issue of air quality, to the states. This is why we see lower fuel quality in areas of lower air quality, it's a direct correlation.

The easiest thing for the states to do to clean up air quality (and this too, is under much debate) is to mandate the use of "reformulated" fuels. This lowers the energy content of those fuels, and we see a little bit less mileage as a result, but we also see that those fuels will not support the same conditions in the combustion chamber that other fuels will, so performance & driveabiity is not quite as good as it could be.

The fuels that tend to be better in that area are much the same across the country; Texaco & Amoco are generally among the highest quality gasolines you can get in most areas. Out in California and much of Washington & Oregon, Chevron is doing a better job. Stick with fuels like Texaco & Amoco & you are generally going to get the best or among the best fuels available in most areas of the country.

If you ever want to determine which fuels in Houston actually have the highest energy content on your own, run 3-5 tanks of each different brand (getting it from the same source each time), carefully tracking mileage as you do this, and after checking the various brands, the one with the highest mpg number in the same basic driving conditions is generally going to be the fuel with the higher energy content.

There are always exceptions here and ther, we can't lay down much in the way of "hard & fast" fuels here, except to say the obvious, you always want to use the best fuels available. Here in the East, we don't care for Chevron, while it's the best you can get in California & other parts out West. Shell is doing OK for some people in the East, but not out West. And on and on it goes..........The best we can do is to identify a few of the brands that you're generally going to be safe with anywhere, and a few of the brands & types of gasolines to never buy anywhere, the rest is a bit of a moving target.