Called local fuel supplier and told summer blend is here

thats regional but usually everyone is fully switched over easily before memorial day so likely true.
 
If you'll watch every spring gas will go up in price for a couple weeks then come back down. I've been told that's because some of the refineries are shut down for maintenance and that's when they're also switching from winter to summer blend. As best as I remember it's usually between mid March and mid April when this happens.
 
My would always complain her old RAV4 was running poorly whenever the gas switched from summer to winter and back again. She knew. Her car knew.
 
It's here in SW Ohio; I just tracked a tank and it was up nearly 25 miles in the same conditions. 4Runners do NOT get good mileage regardless, but summer gas makes a big difference.
 
I’ve never heard of this, what’s the difference and which is the better blend?
Winter blend fuel has a higher rvp ( reid vapor pressure). It evaporates easier and is easier for engines to start in cold weather, especially small recoil start engines, like on generators. snowblowers.

Summer fuel has a lower rvp so it does not evaporate as fast from your fuel tank. Better for air quality in summer.
 
I actually monitored this for the major I used to work for. It begins in the south (Texas of course) and works its way up the pipelines to the Northern peninsula. All tanks must be turned by May 1st. The only difference is the amount of butane(s) in the fuel. It is removed at the refinery, stored underground in vast caves under (slight) pressure until winter. As soon as RVP "time" is over, it gets pumped back out of those caves and added back into the low RVP tanks, making them "winter fuel".
A strange exercise for sure, but required by the EPA to limit summertime evaporation and vapor lock.
You don't hear too much about vapor lock these days, with the demise of carburetors and the pressurized fuel systems inherent to fuel injection, but it's still a thing.
Soooo, if you have some gas in cans that you bought over the winter, and your lawnmower has a hard time starting in the summer heat, now you know why.
Conversely, if you have an older car with a carb, that you filled up this winter, and it "floods" this spring you'll also know why.
 
Maybe the deadline is May 15th, It's been too long. Thinking about it a bit, the dates are much earlier for terminals, and maybe May 15th for station tanks. they need to be run low too y'know.
 
I chuckle at times with these posts... Fuel going into the pipeline system switched was required to meet "summer" blends specs on March 1 in this area.

Odds are you've been getting summer blend for a month or two already...
 
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