Hey guys, im an amoco man myself but the new advertising for Shell's new Vpower caught my eye and I had to try it. I dunno the VQ engine the Vpower gas just seemed like something i had to try.

Anyways, ive tried it out and I think its great my car runs awesome. I filled up and drove after a long weekend away from my max and going from other vehicles back to the max makes it seem much faster. I was just wondering if anyone else has tried this and what their comments are?

 

Any change in MPG ?

 

It's all a Marketing Scheme. By where I live, the cargo ships come to a central port and unload all their stuff. It is funny becuase one can see the Texaco, Shell, and Mobil trucks all getting the fuel from the same tanks.

 

thast some funny but true stuff
-J

 

So is Chevron Techron a marketing ploy too?

 

You don't know whether anything is added to the tanks after the trucks leave with the fuel. I'm pretty sure every person here knows that fuel comes from the same place for all of them but they aren't all the same.

 

Ill let you know when im done this tank, ill look for this post or make a new one. I have my past 4 tankfuls of amoco logged so this will be a great comparison.

 

Well I sure as hell fell for it, throw a Z or a V, hey maybe even an S in almost anything and Ill give it a try. LOL.

 

Shell has merged with Texaco.

So I am positive that Chevron/Texaco/Shell all have "techron"

 

I cant wait for the Mobil Type R

 

did u calibrate your **** dyno prior to fill up?

 

 

I know a guy that is the manager of a Chevron. The same company owns several different gas stations, as well as a home heating oil delivery outfit. The gas they get comes from different places and it is also treated with different blends of additives. They have to get their Chevron gas from one source and the crap for the two "cheapie" stations at another. I think they own an Astro and a station called VelTex, along with two Chevrons. The prices at the Astro and VelTex are cheaper, reflecting less additives and probably other variables, but I don't know what.

Of course, Chevron and Texaco gas are probably the same, since they are from the same company, while BP/Shell are likely the same (also now combined).

Of course, I am sure there are all kinds of sweetheart deals, gas swapping and price fixing and God knows what other kinds of fuel scams out there...so in the long run I guess none of it really matters unless you are refining the stuff yourself...

 

Sounds like you saw the commercial and thought it was nemo being chased huh

Its all marketing mumbo jumbo, the only difference is the additives

 

Can you ask your freind if this statement is true or is valid in any way.

Due to the cost of managing and fueling 3 seprate fuel tanks....87, 89 & 93 octanes, gas stations would simply use 2 fuels and 2 tanks lowering the cost to manage them. With that being said you could be buying 87 and getting 89 octane or buying 89 and getting 93 octane.

BTW.... nice looking ride and nice time.

 

Shell merged with Texaco/Chevron

BP and Amoco have merged together.

 

i think shell is no longer with texaco, all of the texaho stations around here quit taking the shell card
and yea its bp/amoco

btw the v power makes my car ping ive never had any probs from bp/amoco gas at all

 

they started out over in louisian with vpower, the word around there was that it was acutally rated at 94 octane. I emailed shell to verify it and they responded saying it was 94 octane. this is the premium. some stations have put 94 up but most still say 93.

 

My car pinged horribly on the V-power stuff. My car never pinged until I used that stuff. I went back to BP/Amoco and no more pinging. 91 is highest octane I can get from most stations and BP/Amoco is the only one to offer 92 in Kansas City.

 

i still buy chevron 93 since 1997

 

I would've thought it to be the other way around...pay for 93, get 89...

I thought those tankers coming into port had different compartments...if not, and they fuel has different addatives, then where are they re-proccessing the fuel???....

 

gas is gas.

Once the tanker trucks unload the fuel at the stations they add Techron, V-Power, etc to the fuel tanks.

 

All those gas sux. Too bad they took away Sunoco 94 because of some bs additivie, envrionmental blah blah blah. The next best thing is Sunoco 93.

One thing I noticed when driving along the Interstates, you have to use other gas brands, and yes they do give boost, because its the different gas mixtures and ecu mapping and all that blah blah blah .



- ßaller

 

Yeah when I first saw a Shell V-Tak gasoline sign all I could think of was a line of HonDUHs at the pump.

However as many people do not know, gasoline is mostly transported through pipelines throughout the country. And the oil companies all share the same lines. So basically it really does boil down to 'gas is gas' because an oil company has to put X amount of barrels in the pipeline to remove X amount at the other end and that doesn't mean that they removed the same gasoline they put in. They do however differentiate themselves once they remove the gasoline and put it in their local storage tanks where they add their own blend of herbs and spices.

 

I think octane ratings and additives (basically, additives are different types of detergents) are totally different.

I did learn from him that the state comes around like once a month (unanounced, I believe) and tests the gas and the pumps. They test the gas for octane and they test the pumps to ensure that you are actually getting a gallon of gas when you pump a gallon.

Next time I talk with him, I'll ask him about some other stuff mentioned here. Although I don't know how much scientific information he has...


thanks for the compliment on the car. I have more mods coming and my goal is to get below 15 seconds sometime this year.

 

great... now my spark plugs can match my gas too! ;p

imho, chevron w/ techron is the best. if no chevron, then exxon.

 

Yeah, you guys gotta remember that there are only a few refineries in the US. So it doesn't make sense for Brand X in Nevada to go all the way to Lousiana for gas when they could just go to California.

Big companies will add different detergents to their fuels thus giving you V-Power, Techron, etc. Joe's Jerk Me Qwik on the corner will most likely not have any detergent or just have leftovers from one of the name brands.

Exxon/Mobil
Chevron/Texaco
BP/Amoco
Shell/?

 

I'm an environmental engineer and spend a lot of time working with the oil industry cleaning up thier messes. I can tell you for a fact that the gas is not the same between makes and they don't add the additives at the fueling station. Getting additives to mix throughly in a 10,000-20,000 gallon tank would be impossible. I've never done work in a gas station and saw large containers of "additives" in their store rooms. The only thing they store on site is janitorial cleaners. The environmental implications of storing such quantities of product onsite is way too much of a liability and the gas companies want to keep their operations as clean and free from human error and accidents as possible.

The major oil companies all use the same oil stock, but they all have their own stateside refineries which blend their fuels to their spec according to region and season the product will be used. They have to follow set of guidelines by various governing agencies, but once that is followed, they put in their own additives. The additives among makes are all basically the same, but there are slight differences and those differences are enough to make motors run better or worse on the fuel grade.

The "mom and pops" stores, Quik Trip, Sinclair, grocery stores, Walmart/Costco, etc. typically pull from the same oil company stock. Sinclair is a big provider to the smaller fueling operations in the US. The bigger oil companies have their own refineries and only ship to thier stations.

 

but by getting "mom and pop" store gas, would that be an advantage or disadvantage in any way (since they are typically cheaper)?

 

Based on this statement, I would believe that it would be wise to use premium fuel from one of the major companies that advertise the benefits of their additives (Chevron w/Techron, the new Shell V-Power, etc.)

 

Gotta love this site, where else do we all have access to such vast professional knowledge? All we need now is a scientific rating of the top vendors according to their additives:

Chevron, Sunoco, Texaco, Shell, Exxon, etc.

And find out if the sister companies actually use the exact same recipes.

Locally, I must choose between Texaco and Sunoco from the "top" brands. Not sure if a Chevron is anywhere close, and can always find a Exxon. Oh yeah, haven't seen Hess listed anywhere on here.

And Sunoco Ultra 94 is still available where I live for $.13 more than 93. For 1/2 octane more, not worth it to me.

 

the cheap gas from "jOe JeRk Me QuIk" will in the long run result in a Maxima with gunked up internals...and worse MPG....IMHO

 

I usually use "quickshop" Citgo gas, i think. I have a card that saves me .06 cents per gallon.
Last tank, i got BP 92octane and noticed a little increase in performance.
Where does Citgo fall into the line up?

 

We still have Sunoco 94 here in Canada. I Live in Chemical Valley, and I can tell you you really never know what you're gonna get. I've seen Shell filling up at Sunoco and vice versa, when the refineries are only 5 min apart. My dad was waorking Security at Sunoco during they're shutdown, and they actually loaded a tanker at Esso, which is 10 min. up the river and shipped it to Sunoco to replace low stock. plus if you pay attention, you can figure out where the "generic" tankers fill up and deliver to the afilliate, or no-name gas stations.

 

i saw yesterday the same truck putting fuel at 3 diff brand stations, cheveron... texaho... and a shell. the truck was a kp fuels truck, which is out of new orleans.

 

Guys, thanks for posting all the great info.

I have done a comparison on gas milage between Amoco and the new Shell Vpower. There has been no significant increase in gas milage im still averaging 20-21 MPG. But the car runs really nice. When ive switched from other vendors (from Amoco) in the past i got a CEL.....no CEL with this Shell Vpower.

On my other comment about getting 89 when u buy 87 or 93 when u buy 89, i meant... its expensive to keep 3 seperate tanks onsite at the gas station so they just keep 2 i would assume 89 & 93. This is just something ive heard and i dont know if its true or just a myth. I would have to say they couldnt really rip u by giving u 87 when u select 89 or 89 when u select 93 because of some laws that prevent that. So i thinking they would do it the other way around give u the better gas to comply with any laws and prevent complaints.

Ive only experienced pinging with Mobil gasoline.

 

Gentlemen I can assure you that there no "additaves" added at your local gas station as it would be impossible to obtain the same chemical results from station to station. All of the refining takes place at the refinary. I believe that it is at the refinary where the octain itself is established by the amount and type of chemestry done there.

Mr. P