Wow are you condescending lol. Have a nice day.
Is the Chevron gas THAT much better?
- Thread starter Chris142
- Start date
Carlostrece
$100 Site Donor 2025
I'm sorry I offended you Brandon. That was not my intention. I already apologized in my prior post and again in this post. Maybe we had a miscommunication. I don't know. What you're doing is working for you. That's good. Please have a nice day. I mean that sincerely.
I got home last night from a 7-day, almost 4,000 mile road trip, stopping at Shell, Mobil, Valero, and other places on the Top Tier list of stations. Paying close attention at each station, only one Shell station had the Top Tier logo on their pump. Every single pump I used on this trip did NOT have the Top Tier logo. This trip was round trip from Texas to Connecticut.
I took some Amsoil Upper Cylinder Lubricant along with me, so used it about every other fill-up... whether it needed it or not.
I took some Amsoil Upper Cylinder Lubricant along with me, so used it about every other fill-up... whether it needed it or not.
Just for fun....No Kroger or Fred's in my area.
We do have an Albertsons about 40 min away 1 way. Not hardly worth driving to it. Plus their prices are much higher than other places closer to home.
We are cutting up our credit cards ASAP!
Costco is about 30 min away 1 way. Every time I go there the gas line is all the way through the parking lot. Plus here Costco is not the cheapest gas. I can buy cheaper gas much closer to home.
I don't think it matters if the actual gas station has the logo on there. As I understand it, if the brand, e.g. Shell, Costco, or Marathon pay for top tier , each station of that brand is Top Tier (as are all the octane varieties available).
I dont think it matters in CA.
Carlostrece
$100 Site Donor 2025
Shell gas already has upper cylinder lubricant in it. Lake Speed Jr tested it for wear comparison vs non TT gas using UOA comparisons. His test showed Shell is very effective at reducing upper cylinder and rings wear.
I don't know if other brands of TT gas have this property or not.
Last edited:
Carlostrece
$100 Site Donor 2025
Any brand of TT gas will be good enough. If no TT gas is locally available, then add a bottle of good fuel additive at least every 3rd tank, IMO. I'd buy bottles of Shell, Chevron, U76 or any brand of TT fuel additive bottle because TT fuel companies know how to make (or buy) effective fuel additives.
Other brands of fuel additive bottles might be good or might be snake oil. For example, I suspect Lucas fuel additive might not clean injectors effectively.
That's an absolute requirement for the license. The one time I recall where it was almost immediate was with Costco. At the time, they used the "Clean Power" brand name but not all Costco gas stations had that system set up. Once it was installed at every single Costco gas station in the US, the Top Tier signs went up. I think that's also when they adopted the "Kirkland Signature Gasoline" brand name. By all accounts, nothing really changed with the stations that already had the dispensing system set up, but they were allowed to market it as Top Tier once they could guarantee that every Costco gas station was meeting the standard.
There are probably some oddball ones. Arco is a Top Tier licensed brand name, but it's operations are by different companies by region. BP sold the brand to Tesoro, which was renamed Andeover, and then was purchased by Marathon. But almost immediately BP licensed back the Arco brand for specific regions (Northern California, Oregon, and Washington). I suppose BP and Marathon could have different additives, but both can submit the additive test results for each one. And as far as I know, one brand could theoretically submit different test results where they have the option to use different additives as long as each one meets the requirement.
No. Injector deposits are still an issue. My understanding is that it's generally a matter of the varnish inherently present in gasoline, where it eventually has to shut down. The gasoline evaporates leaving varnish behind. Then the varnish oxidizes and hardens. The other thing is whether or not the detergents can clean off the DI injectors. I heard DI injectors can be even worse because the heat inside the combustion chamber bakes in the deposits.
There are various photos of gasoline direct injection deposits.
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2024
- Messages
- 170
In the rural PA area I live in, there aren't many choices for gas. Shell, Marathon, 1 Sunoco, and "unknown".
One of the Sunoco stations switched to Marathon. Even though it's top tier and the cheapest around, I stopped using it. Throttle response was off. Shell and Sunoco are great. Have to go 30 miles for a Chevron station. Want to try it, but never happens.
Also Here in PA they're really good at having the Top Tier stickers on the pumps. Although if the brand is listed, all stations are Top Tier.
One of the Sunoco stations switched to Marathon. Even though it's top tier and the cheapest around, I stopped using it. Throttle response was off. Shell and Sunoco are great. Have to go 30 miles for a Chevron station. Want to try it, but never happens.
Also Here in PA they're really good at having the Top Tier stickers on the pumps. Although if the brand is listed, all stations are Top Tier.
Carlostrece
$100 Site Donor 2025
I'm not an expert, but I've reasearched this a lot. Any top tier fuel is pretty good enough.
However, my research says Shell and Costco gas are the best, followed by Chevron.
After that, all the other top tier gas (including U76 and Sinclair) are approx equally 3rd best.
I don't know anything about Exxon or Mobil, but we don't have those in my town.
I used to use Shell whenever possible. I currently have a tank of Chevron. I look for Shell, Costco, or Chevron gas, but I don't mind filling up with U76 if that's what's most conveniently available. U76 is fine.
There's more to consider than brand. There's also how well the gas station is managed and maintained. We used to have two Shell gas stations in town. The good Shell station became a Sinclair. Nothing wrong with Sinclair as it's top tier. However I prefer Shell. We now only have one Shell station in town and it's a bad station that's poorly managed and poorly maintained. That could result in water in the gas because this is a wet climate. How well managed and maintained a gas station is is more important than brand.
So now I'm using Chevron when possible because I like the Chevron brand gas and all the Chevron stations in town are well managed and maintained. The U76 and Sinclair stations in my town are well managed and maintained. A U76 is conveniently located 2 blocks from my home. So I'll probably be using U76 a lot.
I like Costco gas, but the nearest Costco is 50 miles away.
So there's more to consider than just brand. I'd prefer to use Shell and/or Costco gas in my car, but that's no longer possible for reasons explained above. So now I'm using Chevron when convenient. Mostly I'll be using U76 or Sinclair because those are conveniently located close to my home.
The important things are to use top tier gas (of any brand) at a well maintained gas statiom that's conveniently located close to where you are when you need to fill up.
Last edited:
Every station here regardless of price or brand is packed every day. Stale or bad gas is not an issue here .
Carlostrece
$100 Site Donor 2025
That's a good sign regarding fresher/drier gas. However, the gas station owner/manager also needs to do the proper maintenance of tanks, filters, pumps for the gas to be reliably good.
- Joined
- Feb 6, 2025
- Messages
- 656
I found out that my car does not like Costco gasoline. I found that out after about five tankfuls of Sinclair.
Disappointed to find out today that my next door Chevron is becoming a 7-11. I've been using my VONS/Albertsons points to get $1 off per gallon for the last few years. Good gas at a good price. I guess I'll have to venture a bit farther afield to gas up or go back to Arco at the AM/PM.
CleanSump
Site Donor 2026
What gas will they be using? The two 7-11 stations near me are also Shell stations.
Don't know yet about the fuel source or whether they'll continue the rewards program with VONS/Albertsons. There's already a 7-11 across the street that dispenses Sinclair and another down the block the does Shell. Who knows?
Similar threads
