I've noticed here in kansas that the 87 octane usually runs about 10 cents cheaper than it does the 10 percent ethanol.

 

same here!

Tally has one BP station that sells pure 87 (they have an E85 pump as well, I think thats why) and my truck gets 2-3 mpg better than E10 walmart blend. Its about $0.07 more expensive than wal-mart but $.10 cheaper than E10 @ another BP

 

Shell and Texaco are not the same company.

 

Shell and Texaco combined refining and supply in the mid-90s (joint ventures Equilon and Motiva). Then Chevron merged with Texaco in the early 2000s and Shell bought out Texaco's portion of the JVs (along with naming rights) and converted all Texaco stations to Shell. Then in 2006 Chevron regained the rights to the "Texaco" brand name, so current "Texaco" stations are owned by Chevron and carry gas with Chevron's Techron additive.

What really confuses the whole thing is that the Shell gas card is dual-branded with Texaco, even still.

 

I don't know about that. My father-in-law owned a Chervron station that was near an Arco refinery (& stations). We always had Arco employees gassing up their cars at the Chevron station. I finally asked why they buy Chevron when they work for Arco and their answers were "I'm not putting that Arco sh*t in my car." I found this to be rather compelling.

Also, a friend of a friend works for a company that delivers fuels to stations (many brands). He warns his friends to avoid Arco and Costco gasonlines. I haven't talked to him personally so I don't know why.

 

Lab...So what will this new gas do to older, seldom-driven cars?
I have a 1968 289 Mustang; (it'll be years till it's resto is done)
If I want to drive it occasionally; Would I have to run that gas saver stuff that I add to my power equipment prior to storing?
FWIW, I switched to 89 octane years ago in my 4.6L, it runs much better on it than 87 octane.
Also... isn't gasoline a commodity....most dealers purchase from whoever is offering the lowest rate (meeting their specifications)?
Thanks for the lessons

 

mjb, yer gonna do just like I do with my 89 LSC with 34,000 original miles that's never seen the rain or the 66 Mustang fastback with a 289 HIPO that's in concours condition, both sitting in a garage. You're gonna use a fuel stabilizer and an occasional dose of something like Siloo to absorb the water out of the gas. It's not fun having cars that you don't drive a lot. I also have a 74 D model Explorer pickup in the same garage with a hopped up 390 making around 500HP that the gas tank went bad on because of the crappy fuel the idiots in Washington have mandated.
It's no secret that ethanol costs far too much to produce and yields less energy than the energy required to make it. The reason yer having to deal with it at all is purely political.

 

While on the subject of these older engines, I have a 65 Mustang, 289. I have been told that today's oils do not have the additives needed for teh older engines. Is there anything to this? What do you do with yours?

 

Because Arco is BP gas with 10% ethanol, and Costco buys stale gas from the lowest bidder.

 

Correct. They had a joint venture but are not the same company.

 

Exactly. From 2002-2006, Shell owned/operated the "Texaco" name, but all those stations were converted to "Shell" during that time, and the "Texaco" name reverted to the merged Chevron in 2006.

Shell and Texaco are currently unassociated, except by the dual-branded gas card which continues to be accepted at both, as far as I know. They may have phased them out, replacing with Shell-only cards.

 

Yeah, unfortunately there is a lot to it. Todays SM oils are not going to provide for the flat tappet engines of yesterday. There are numerous additives that you can use like Redlines Break in additive. You'll only need to add 1 ounce to a normal oil change to bring the level of zinc up enough to be acceptable. It carrys about 40,000 ppms in spectroscopy to the oil. There is a GM high performance additve that is high in ZDDP. There is also a guy on Ebay selling ZDDP and it's the real thing in a bottle for flat tappet engines. You'd only need about 4 oz per change using that one. I found some Rotella straight 30 marked SJ at one of the NAPA stores and bought all they had. I also found some Travellers straight 30 at Tractor Supply that was SL and bought up a bunch. So I'm fixed for oil for the oldie cars I have.

 

If all you need is ZDDP, couldn't you just use one of the Amsoil PAO oils?

 

Here in my area, for the past 3 or so years, all of the Texaco's have been rebranded to Shell. There is not 1 single Texaco left that I know of. The last Texaco I know of closed a week ago and is being completely rebuilt as a shell. So they must have bought out the stations themselves. There were several instances (dozens) where there was a "old" shell station and a "new" shell station (Texaco) within a short distance of each other and the "old" shell ended up closing and being torn down or rebranded to another gas station.

Exxon has also completely vanished, I know them and Mobil merged, but I guess it depends where you live, some places you see tons of Exxon, some places tons of Mobil.

I will not patronize Chevron because they play games with the prices if you use a credit card. Most of the time I buy gas at RaceTrak or Wal-Mart (Murphy Oil) because its the cheapest.

Also, if you want gas with guaranteed no ethanol, find a Marina and buy gas there. Ethanol really screws up boat motors and tanks, and Marina's sell only ethanol free gasoline. Its more expensive though.

 

#1 - all gasolins sold in the US i smade within the ISO standards
#2- The additives are the difference.
#3 - Age of the gas in the tank, tank upkeep and cleanliness (yours and theirs!), and a few other factors can change how the fuel burns.

I worked at the Chevron Richmond refinery in California for a spell, we had a fire on one of the units. CA law being CA law we werent allowed to import Gas form another chevron refireny out of state, that day i saw 4 shell tankers roll in witht the raw gas, employees emptied 5gal buckets of additives and the rolled off.

Whatever works for you mechanically/ethically/corporate globally is the winner!