Question for petrol experts

[Paul Marvin]

Does Not have to be BP Ultimate any premium grade 98 octane fuel is the same , Esso Supreme , Shell V Power . Stay away from supermarket brands that is poor quality fuel. I have a friend that drives petrol tankers and he told me .

 

[Fulk]

We were also told by our local garage to avoid cheap supermarket fuel; a bit late, as the engine of our car had got 'gunged up' with thick black deposits, which I spent hours chipping away at, before the garage were able to rebuild the engine.

 

[tomferry]

Does Not have to be BP Ultimate any premium grade 98 octane fuel is the same , Esso Supreme , Shell V Power . Stay away from supermarket brands that is poor quality fuel. I have a friend that drives petrol tankers and he told me .

Should of pointed that out  any premium fuel it?s because bp is are ?local?

 

[Cantclimbtom]

I think a lot of other countries (example Australia?) have use 91 grade petrol (which I think is 10% ethanol) for some years now. They have bigger engines though and maybe fuel lines etc that are compatible, my inlaws' cars' are typically larger V engines and 4wd due to bush driving. I haven't been out there for years but last time I teased them about their watered down petrol but they drove fine on multi day journeys and unmetalled roads

No help with the original strimmer question, sorry, but for people with larger engines anyway: they don't seem to suffer from pinking problems.

 

[tony from suffolk]

Does Not have to be BP Ultimate any premium grade 98 octane fuel is the same , Esso Supreme , Shell V Power . Stay away from supermarket brands that is poor quality fuel. I have a friend that drives petrol tankers and he told me .

Not so, and an oft-repeated fallacy. "Which?" Debunk the idea, and although premium brands can contain additional additives, it,'s largely marketing speil, there being no evidence damage is caused by running on the supermarket stuff.

 

[Paul Marvin]

I think a lot of other countries (example Australia?) have use 91 grade petrol (which I think is 10% ethanol) for some years now. They have bigger engines though and maybe fuel lines etc that are compatible, my inlaws' cars' are typically larger V engines and 4wd due to bush driving. I haven't been out there for years but last time I teased them about their watered down petrol but they drove fine on multi day journeys and unmetalled roads

No help with the original strimmer question, sorry, but for people with larger engines anyway: they don't seem to suffer from pinking problems.

If your old enough it used to be 2/3 and 4 star fuel my dad use to put petrol and paraffin in FFS. Another thing on the eco topic which is what the E10 is all about , why are car companies allowed to send cars out with a map on the ECU that is not the best for economy ?? :-\  every single car on the road with an ECU can be remapped for better economy my Caddy was done and I get 10 more to the gallon and my wifes Mini gets 7 more to the gallon this would be a real difference to emissions, makes one wonder who does control things ???   

 

[Paul Marvin]

Does Not have to be BP Ultimate any premium grade 98 octane fuel is the same , Esso Supreme , Shell V Power . Stay away from supermarket brands that is poor quality fuel. I have a friend that drives petrol tankers and he told me .

Not so, and an oft-repeated fallacy. "Which?" Debunk the idea, and although premium brands can contain additional additives, it,'s largely marketing speil, there being no evidence damage is caused by running on the supermarket stuff.

My mate was talking about the lack of cleaning additives why is was not so good for your engine not performing, it also stands to reason that a higher octane fuel performs better than a lower one thats why a rocket has different fuel

 

[ChrisJC]

I have to say, I have pretty much always used the cheapest fuel I can find (as I buy quite a bit of it).

I have also dismantled a few engines in my time, and I have never seen one that is 'gunked up'. Petrol is an excellent cleaning agent, so anything downstream of the fuel entry point is clean save for a bit of staining from the crankcase ventilation system.

If you engine is gunked up, the problem does not lie with the fuel, but a knackered engine.

It also (in my opinion) makes this latest fad for having your engine internally cleaned a complete waste of money! Snake oil. etc.

Chris.

 

[Paul Marvin]

I have to say, I have pretty much always used the cheapest fuel I can find (as I buy quite a bit of it).

I have also dismantled a few engines in my time, and I have never seen one that is 'gunked up'. Petrol is an excellent cleaning agent, so anything downstream of the fuel entry point is clean save for a bit of staining from the crankcase ventilation system.

If you engine is gunked up, the problem does not lie with the fuel, but a knackered engine.

It also (in my opinion) makes this latest fad for having your engine internally cleaned a complete waste of money! Snake oil. etc.

Chris.

Unless its a Diesel Chris then it makes a big difference , but then we have changed the fuel   

 

[paul]

Does Not have to be BP Ultimate any premium grade 98 octane fuel is the same , Esso Supreme , Shell V Power . Stay away from supermarket brands that is poor quality fuel. I have a friend that drives petrol tankers and he told me .

Not so, and an oft-repeated fallacy. "Which?" Debunk the idea, and although premium brands can contain additional additives, it,'s largely marketing speil, there being no evidence damage is caused by running on the supermarket stuff.

Exactly. There are only a few fuel pipelines from few refineries to few distribution centres with many tankers from many suppliers all driving to and from these few distribution centres to many petrol stations...

 

[Paul Marvin]

Does Not have to be BP Ultimate any premium grade 98 octane fuel is the same , Esso Supreme , Shell V Power . Stay away from supermarket brands that is poor quality fuel. I have a friend that drives petrol tankers and he told me .

Not so, and an oft-repeated fallacy. "Which?" Debunk the idea, and although premium brands can contain additional additives, it,'s largely marketing speil, there being no evidence damage is caused by running on the supermarket stuff.

Exactly. There are only a few fuel pipelines from few refineries to few distribution centres with many tankers from many suppliers all driving to and from these few distribution centres to many petrol stations...

Ha Ha thats exactly what my tanker driver mate said most of them get the fuel out of the same vat

 

[sinker]

Does Not have to be BP Ultimate any premium grade 98 octane fuel is the same , Esso Supreme , Shell V Power . Stay away from supermarket brands that is poor quality fuel. I have a friend that drives petrol tankers and he told me .

Not so, and an oft-repeated fallacy. "Which?" Debunk the idea, and although premium brands can contain additional additives, it,'s largely marketing speil, there being no evidence damage is caused by running on the supermarket stuff.

Exactly. There are only a few fuel pipelines from few refineries to few distribution centres with many tankers from many suppliers all driving to and from these few distribution centres to many petrol stations...

Ha Ha thats exactly what my tanker driver mate said most of them get the fuel out of the same vat

But the additive dosing is done in the tanker, not in the refinery....tanker driver would know that....

Every manufacturer's product is different; some more than others.

 

[Paul Marvin]

Does Not have to be BP Ultimate any premium grade 98 octane fuel is the same , Esso Supreme , Shell V Power . Stay away from supermarket brands that is poor quality fuel. I have a friend that drives petrol tankers and he told me .

Not so, and an oft-repeated fallacy. "Which?" Debunk the idea, and although premium brands can contain additional additives, it,'s largely marketing speil, there being no evidence damage is caused by running on the supermarket stuff.

Exactly. There are only a few fuel pipelines from few refineries to few distribution centres with many tankers from many suppliers all driving to and from these few distribution centres to many petrol stations...

Ha Ha thats exactly what my tanker driver mate said most of them get the fuel out of the same vat

But the additive dosing is done in the tanker, not in the refinery....tanker driver would know that....

Every manufacturer's product is different; some more than others.

If memory serves me correct you are a Texaco fan ?

 

[Cantclimbtom]

.. every single car on the road with an ECU can be remapped for better economy my Caddy was done and I get 10 more to the gallon and my wifes Mini gets 7 more to the gallon this would be a real difference to emissions, makes one wonder who does control things ??? 

The version of the story I heard, was that the US government puts almost impossibly difficult restrictions on imported cars but not domestic. I'm in no way justifying shameful tricks, but in  order to meet the requirements and be able to sell models into US, manufacturers used weird tuning maps and defeat protocols to falsify emissions in tests. It's no surprise that pretty much all the car manufacturers wanting to sell into US all suddenly adopted these tactics at the same time, just some got caught out earlier and more publicly than others, what I heard is the car industry feels hard done by and they were forced into it --> and the US anti competitive almost impossible restrictions are what is controlling this (re: weird engine maps and defeat technology). That's their self justification anyhow, which had been held in private until it leaked out. Can't confirm the accuracy of any of this, interesting story though...

 

[paul]

But the additive dosing is done in the tanker, not in the refinery....tanker driver would know that....

Every manufacturer's product is different; some more than others.

Only the "Premium" fuels have the different additives. For the non-"Premium" fuels then what you get from a supermarket will not be any different from named brands (Esso, Texaco, etc.).

 

[Fishes]

Some countries use petrol containing up to 25% ethanol and it doesn't seem to cause major issues for them . I have to wonder if the "ethanol is bad" information is at least in part promoted by oil producers.

 

[ChrisJC]

E85 is commonly sold, even E100 in some places:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E85

Chris.

 

[Paul Marvin]

E85 is commonly sold, even E100 in some places:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E85

Chris.

Now thats interesting reading 

 

[sinker]

But the additive dosing is done in the tanker, not in the refinery....tanker driver would know that....

Every manufacturer's product is different; some more than others.

Only the "Premium" fuels have the different additives. For the non-"Premium" fuels then what you get from a supermarket will not be any different from named brands (Esso, Texaco, etc.).

Not correct; sorry. "Basic" Esso is different to "basic" Texaco is different to "basic" Tesco or "basic " Asda.

 

[Cantclimbtom]

Sadly I'm driving a very gradually failing old Vauxhall not a Ferrari (or sometimes the Wife's 16yo Fiat Panda - both apparently E10 compliant). Got to be honest, that subtle performance edge that premium fuels supposedly gives is lost on me. So as long as the fuel doesn't break the car, it's all pretty academic for me.