How's Sunoco?

 

Hi Garebel,

To be sure, you raise some valid points, and I thinkmany of us would love to know everything from A to Z about the entire refining, routing, distribution & sales data for every drop of gasoline ever made, as that could indeed shed some light on why we see the significant variances that we do.

I spent a few years in the oil business, so I am well aware of what happens when tanks (especially at a lower-volume tank form) are stirred, etc. We're also well aware of the inhernet difference between reformulated fuels (called "winter" fuels) versus fuels the rest of the year, and that too, varies widely. Areas that are in non-attainment status mandate the use of reformulated fuels as it's simple to do, in winter ar first, and then year-round if their air quality does not improve enough to reach attainment status by using reformulated gasolines in winter only.

What we observe in tuning is right in line with what Signmaster has been saying, the observable differences are not just seasonal, as that is something extremely obvious that we deal with at least twice a year in "to the edge" racing tunes, for example. These differences we're talking about are seen all year round, from one brand to the next, and sometimes even from one source of the same "brand" to the next. We see differences in fuel mileage as well as the amount of timing that can be used, etc., that neither seasonal changes in formulation nor water & sediment being stirred up could ever explain.

We're talking about variances seen all year long, from one brand to the next, showing measureable effect on fuel mileage and tuning specifications. Now, *why* all those variances happen we can really only make semi-educated guesses at overall, and within that comes some of the more obscure matters such as tanks being stirred, etc., but neither that nor seasonal implementation of reformulated fuels could ever explain the differences we see, and reformulated fuels is one of the the first and most basic things we look for.

Thanks much for your posts, we greatly appreciate you sharing info with us from "your side of the fence," so to speak.

 

Hi 99 SVT Bolt,

Sunoco's Ultra 94 octane is generally a very good fuel for performance, especially in the supercharged 5.4's found in the 1999 & up Lightnings and 2002 & up Harley models. That fuel is available mostly in the Eastern US, and not all of the East at that. I wish we had access to it locally, the closest is about 50 miles away, and there it's generally a very good fuel.

So by all means, if you have access to Sunoco's Ultra 94 octane, go right ahead, it's generally a great fuel both in terms of octane and BTU content!

 

Note to all you white gas users, enjoy it while you can since BP
bought Amoco, their an't gonna be no more (not around here anyway)

 

There is a new BP station just built a few miles from me. Their pumps have Amoco on them. The sign says BP, the building is in green BP trim, but the pumps say that they use Amoco fuel.

Now it may be that it is the same ole BP fuel, but now that they own the Amoco name, they are labling it as Amoco. Who knows?

 

Same in this area. The pumps and other signs still advertise the Amoco fuels. From what I've been told, nothing in the gas itself will change.

 

i'll put it to you this way, the riser that used to be for the white gas was cut off for a while (i figured it was broke) has been changed to reg 87 octane, so when we load 93 octane for amoco
it comes from the same riser as the other 93 octane brands do.
so look at the color next time. if by chance they have a lot in there tank give it a while. sorry white gas lovers....