Fuel Additives

Agree with all above...there is no known cleaning value. I try to stick with TopTierGas.com brands, but that's basically all we have in my area, so that's easy for me to say. Since you do not live in a reformulated gasoline area, where all grades are essentially equal on everything except octane, I might have some fun looking for best MPG stuff. In which case I might occasionally abondon Top Tier if I thought a certain E0 was worth a try or something. But I got no fuel fun in my RFG region.

 

My understanding is that premium fuel will not clean anything, but keep the engine and fuel system cleaner for longer. Carbon and gunk will still build over time just not at the rate that lower quality fuel will. So every once in a while a bottle of Techron or can of BG 44K makes for good maintenance as your car gets older or high in miles.

 

Unless they intentionally alter the additive packages, the only diff. I can see with the higher octane is that it resists combustion better, so is suited for higher compression engines (more pre-ignition prone), and this is typically spec'd in those car's Owner's Manual.

 

What @Mendel Leisk said.

The octane number indicates the fuel's resistance to preignition and that is achieved with anti-knock additives. It has nothing to do with detergents and stuff like that.

 

The toughest kind of falsehood to combat are those that were once true.

Before 1995 in the US there really were more detergents in most Premium than most Regular. (I am tempted to say all but there may be exceptions)

When the EPA picked a minimum level of detergents, not only did Regular rise to meet the law, but Premium generally fell to the minimum as well.

Any gas branded as Top Tier is required to have the same detergents in all their gas.

And yet, 26 years later we still 'know' that Premium is "better". (And we 'know' that we should change our motor oil every 3000 miles. It was true once.)

 

"Premium" fuel doesn't necessarily do ANYTHING more in regards to cleaning than regular does.

 

totally disagree. It cleans out my wallet of money much faster.

 

Oops. Missed that one.
Premium ethanol free does that even better.

 

That's what I said. It doesn't clean anything, but as a cleaner fuel will keep your system cleaner for longer. So over say, 80k miles, will have less build-up of carbon and gunk verses lower grade fuel over the same amount of the time.

 

That is what they advertise. I'm not stating anything as a fact, just going off what I've read about the different fuels. A while back Ray posted an email exchange he had with a BG rep who also mentioned this when they were discussing fuels and carbon build-up.

 

Well that is NOT what I said.
In fact, I think you are wrong.
But it depends on what the contamination IS and how bad it IS.
It certainly does clean SOME or it wouldn't be effective at all.

 

OK, I see what you mean. And Shell recently has advertised their premium as being a good cleaner. Whether that's true or not, I haven't looked into it.

It's fine if you think that's wrong, I also said that I'm not stating anything as fact. The point of this isn't about premium being a cleaner of sorts, but burning in a way that doesn't leave as much carbon and gunk behind.

 

Yeah, but the only difference is the amount of anti-knock additive which means it takes more heat to ignite it. If there was any difference, the higher octane would have more residue since it's more resistant to ignition. Also, more antiknock additive means more stuff that isn't gasoline going through the fuel system. But I highly doubt that there is any difference and I've never seen a claim by any gas company that 91 octane leaves less "gunk" than 87 octane unless they are boasting specifically about more detergent.

 

Don't forget that there doesn't need to be any non-fuel anti-knock additive at all. The different octane ratings can be achieved entirely by using an appropriate mixture of fuel hydrocarbons from different taps on the refinery stack.

Of course, crude oil from nature doesn't come with a perfect mixture to meet the refinery's customer product demand, and the mixture isn't even the same from different crude suppliers, so some taps have surplus while others run short. So they are adjusting everything on the fly to find the most economical path to get from here to there, balancing their ability to run surpluses through crackers and reformers to make up for shortages vs putting in additives.

At the pump, ordinary consumers won't know how much of the octane difference is made by additives, vs from a different blend of hydrocarbon fractions. And the underlying answer will vary by region and time, and even batch.

 

Excellent point. It really is an amazing process.

 

Except for Shell, they only put "VPower" in the premium

 

Well THAT isn't necessarily true either.
In an engine with really low compression or if the fuel mixture is overly rich, a higher octane fuel can actually "burn" dirtier than regular.

 

Hey, I've got some swamp land in Arizona for sale !!!

 

Burning "dirtier" is burning less efficiently.
This would mean that there would be a measurable delta in fuel efficiency between regular gas and "premium."

There isn't.
Otherwise?
Toyota would pay $0.05 for a "Unleaded Fuel Recommended" (**) label for the inside of the gas filler door, and they would use premium unleaded fuel for the higher EPA ratings.
IF for no other reason, they would do it to bolster their CAFE standards.

No measurable difference = no difference.
It's DANG sure not enough of a difference to pay $0.50 a gallon more for the stuff!!



(**) There's a difference between "recommended" and "required"....

 

It’s interesting how the various octane pumps get “equal billing”; now I wonder why that would be... ($$$)