Octane in your neck of the woods?

That's it, yep Great stuff.

Gracious -- that's down there, all right. Always wanted to visit the place.

Altitude is a factor, too. When I lived in Roswell and Ruidoso I could get away with low octane.

Mike,

What octane of gas to use is a perennial question here.

The feds mandate oxygenated-formulated gas in the city, and the Regular grade of that stuff gets worse milage than the non-treated Regular gas you can fill up with out in the boonies. Since you're in Southern California, I doubt seasonal changes in the formulation are a factor for you.

City Middle grade will get better milage, but I haven't noticed that the bug performs any better running on it. I can't afford premium.

So I use Regular, which is rated 91 octane, and because they are lying, I retard the timing a couple of degrees. Works for me. Once in a while I get some Really Bad Gas, and after suffering through it, a can of gasline antifreeze helps get the moisture out.

What kind of oil are you using?

cloud8 wrote in news:Xns943CA84B5F2D7nospamherecom@199.184.165.240:

Oh shit I meant to say rated 87 octane which is the old 91.

Happy motoring.

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down :) most souther capital of the world. does not get any colder, though... 33celcius today!

Here In UK, the std stuff seems to about 95. You can get Shell Optimax, which I believe is 98.

It all costs a fortune, about 74 Pence a litre upwards which looks like about $4.60 is over your way.

James James

There is only a couple places here in town that sell racing gas, but it is still at the pump.

that's probably because some alien installed a super, alien air-cooled engine in your VW.

I take it that your location uses 'enhanced' fuel during the winter months? Most of which is as ethanol additive which not only decreases the combustion properties of unblended gas, it also raises the octane. Which is of importance if your state only checks octane at the pump, and the not percentage of additives. And most regs on oxygen fuel additives do not provide a 'not greater than' stipulation. For example, the local regs here says, 'at least eight percent'.

You may have read about the expense to produce ethanol, but possibly not about the federal subsidy for petroleum suppliers who use the additive. Which means that it is less expensive - for the supplier - to sell oxygenated fuel. You could purchase crap gasoline, dump in enough ethanol to get the octane rating up, and sell this to an unsuspecting public while laughing all the way to the bank. And back.

I can always tell when blended gas starts being loaded to the stations, because my daily transportation (T1 1600dp) does not idle well and runs as if in need of a tune up. A change in the timing and some carb adjustments generally take of the worst of it.

You can protect yourself - to an extent - from pumping a high percentage of ethanol gas by purchasing from a branded station. That is, a station affiliated with a national chain. And by avoiding the gas pumps at the quicky marts and other such outlets.

Holy cow! My kid just got back from a year of school over there, I guess that explains why she rode her bicycle everywhere. There is a hot rod/speed shop just down the road from me; the place is located in a converted corner gas station. The pump islands are intact, but they only sell two grades of racing fuel. The 104 octane is $4.25 a gallon, the 114 octane is $5.25. They had to put locks on the pumps after one bozo too many filled the tank of his family car and nearly had a heart attack upon seeing the total.

Sheesh. Does a fellow need a translation table to figure out what octane he is using in his car? It's like exchanging foreign money. "In 1987 I used Wisconsin 95 octane . . . what octane does that translate to in today's octane for Alabama? How about Oregon? And in Chile?"

I'll drop by the pump and see how they calculate octane hereabouts in SoCal.

And I use straight 30-weight oil.

........................Good advice. There's chain of gas stations here in upstate NY called Kwik Fill that sells that crap. I tried them a couple of times and even a Honda runs like $h!+ with that stuff.

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com (Luft Gek?hlt) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

Around here the same unmarked tanker goes to all the gas stations. I asked the guy, Is that Gulf? He says, Yeah, we pick it up in New Bedford, and it's also Shell and Mobil and Brand X.

Years ago I was told not to fill up when you see the tanker pulling into the station. That's when the underground level is low and you're likely to get a lot of water that had been floating on top mixed in.

Water is denser than gasoline. Different formulations will have different specific gravities, but a gallon of generic gasoline weighs only 69% of what a gallon of water weighs. So the water will sink to the bottom of the tank and sit there, grumbling. At least that's what *I'd* do if all I had to do was sit at the bottom of the tank.

Its probably just stirs up the crap from the bottom

james

.................I don't know about Shell & Gulf, but I think they might be part of a distribution arrangement with BP and Texaco(?). I do know that Mobil and Exxon are one and the same and that they wholesale to some independent/regional chains. The real problem is that some of these discount gasoline retailers get their gasoline delivered in bulk to a tank farm facility where they can 'doctor' it up before their own trucks take it around to their stations. I've seen deliveries at the Mobil near my house quite often over the years and the tank trailer is clearly marked Exxon/Mobil.

Years ago I was told not to fill up when you see the tanker pulling

Hi.Around here(L.I.,N.Y. at the moment) the name brand tankers drop at their own national brand name stations.Rather than haul whats left back to N.J. the left overs are sold to independent stations who then have a mix of brands but hopefilly not grades(octanes).And yes,if you see a tanker unloading in a station its probably a good idea to go to the next station as the crude gets mixed up in the underground tanks and the filters in the pump system SHOULD get it all,but--Steve

It is very common for a single distributor to handle multiple brands. Although usually the tanker carries gas formulated for the specific brand. And the major brands do periodic testing of stations to verify the fuel.

It does not take long for any moisture in the tank to settle to to bottom. And the pipe that pumps the gas from the tank is set higher than the bottom of the tank -- specifically to not pump the crud/water at the bottom of the tank.

In general you would want to pump your gas from a station which has enough business so that the gas in their tanks does not stay there long enough to age. Your lawn mower might be fine with gas purchased once a year and sitting in a can, but you will find that your trusty four banger is not going to like the same mixture.