87 octane only fuel allowed?

So it is not just Utah. It is probably all the Costco‘s across the US that’s sale only Regular and premium?

 

Yes, as far as I have seen. Which isn't the whole country.

The same is true at the unattended agricultural fuel station where I fill up dad's farm-ranch vehicles, as well as our non-farm vehicles when the Bank of Dad is paying. (Farm and non-farm vehicles are tracked and reported separately for business fuel tax reasons, with license plate codes entered to unlock the pump.)

 

That really is NOT a "problem".
Mid-grade is pretty much a joke.

 

Our “Mid-grade” is 88e15 and 5-30 cents a gallon cheaper than 87e10, no joking needed.

 

That's because it has 5% more ethanol.
And the resulting one point jump in octane really isn't significant.

I would be willing to venture a guess that it isn't like that at ALL stations in your area........because if "blender" pumps are in use, that wouldn't work at all.

 

Gas cap. Gas cap. I should go find my Prime manual to look that up. Hmmmm. Gas cap. I must have one of those, right?

 

Check the other side. And you might need to dig through the Owner's Manual to find the hidden release lever.

Do you remember how and where you plugged in to recharge your first Prius? I know that was along time ago, but if you can dredge up old memories, it should be about the same on this car.

 

Still confused. I'll keep looking.

 

Car gas tanks are far better sealed than the plastic cans for lawn mowers. Evaporation and oxidation are what causes gas to go bad. Those aren't going to be happening in a tank sealed tight enough to pressurize. If you aren't using gas fast enough in a PHEV for the computer's liking, you should get a warning to had fresh gas, and if that isn't enough, the car will start burning it to get rid of it.

So Stabil isn't required.

That link is talking about gas stored in plastic cans for power equipment. Those cans can be leaky to the atmosphere, specially as they age, allowing a regular change over of air. Which means anything evaporated from the fuel into the headspace of the can can get out, and fresh oxygen can get in to degrade the gas.

From the link in your link, "Perfectly stored, most race fuels will last more than a year. If you are not sure you can use the fuel up within 2 years, add a quality fuel stabilizer to the fuel as soon as you purchase it." Accounting for the lower quality of pump gas, you could probably store gas for up to a year without needing a stabilizer, if properly stored; a modern car gas tank counts as proper storage.

Gas being stale doesn't mean it can't be used. By design, cars can safely run fuel of octane lower than their requirement. Efficiency will be lower, and the engine will run rougher. Adding fresh gas will improve those.

Costco probably decided to save money by not installing blender pumps or a third storage tank. Or they wanted to force turbo cars there into buying premium.

If you ever need midgrade, and can't get it, it is 2 parts premium to 10 parts regular. mixing it yourself will likely be cheaper than buying from a pump.

Wish we had that while I had my turbo Sonic.

 

no not every station but the ones with favorable pricing all have e15 in place of the mid grade

All that is needed to support every fuel octane/ethanol content is a simple 3 tank stack As follows
(most stations these days have 4 tanks)

85e0
91e0
E85

Blending between these Three different fuels can provide

87e10
89e10
93e10

88e15
90e15
E85

87e0
91e0


It’s unfortunate that few stations carry all the grades anymore

Most are carrying the following
87e10
88e15
91e0
E85

 

Not entirely.
Some of the deterioration is due to impurities and additives breaking down just due to age......and heat.
Gas stored in a perfect vacuum will still go bad eventually.

 

I mainly pump 87 at Costco and have no problems ever.

 

Regular is 85 at all gas stations in Denver and everywhere to the west of that in Colorado. Not sure about the eastern plains ("west Kansas"). I use nothing but 85 in all my vehicles, and I've never had a problem at 4,000 feet or higher. There's about 15% less oxygen at 5,000 feet, so a NA engine will make about 15% less peak power. Worst case is on top of 14'ers, there's about 42% less oxygen. I often see manufacturers doing high altitude testing in Summit County and on Pikes Peak.

If I had a turbocharged or supercharged car I wouldn't run less than the recommended octane at any altitude.

 

Intersting info

 

He seems to be basing the video on one or two fairly old studies about octane requirement vs altitude. I wonder if manufacturers have newer (proprietary) data? It seems like the results would be specific to each engine design.

 

Ford cautions you to not use 85 in their trucks. Makes sense since trucks work harder.

Even Ford might not have a similar recommendation for the engines used in other types of vehicles.

Wild assumption made by a "self appointed expert".

 

Some F150s have turbo engines, so using 87 minimum is definitely a good idea. If they don't make a separate manual for each engine, then it is easiest to put the same warning in every manual.

Most other cars recommend 87 octane in the owners manual, because that's what they test with and that's what's available in 80% of the US. But that doesn't necessarily mean using 85 at high altitude will cause any problems. Manufacturers do high altitude testing, but specifically testing for minimum octane vs altitude might not be worth it. It would be interesting to know if they ever use 85 octane during their high altitude testing.

So using 85 is at your own risk. But I've never seen or heard of a problem with it in a naturally aspirated car above around 4,500 feet.

If anyone has data on modern cars that shows otherwise, I will gladly change my mind. For example dyno runs with 85 vs 87 at 5000 feet showing improved performance on 87, would be the easiest way for the average person to test this.