Walmart Gasoline?

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Originally Posted By: eljefino
FWIW Walmart's gas station is typically branded "Murphy USA."


Back in Feb 2016 Walmart announced that all their new gas stations would be branded as Walmart, and not Murpy. More profit for Walmart.
 
I will be sticking with top tier gas.

Quote:
...New testing from AAA has uncovered significant differences in the quality of gasoline sold at fuel retailers in the United States. The independent laboratory testing compared gasolines that meet TOP TIER™ standards often marketed to consumers as having enhanced, engine-cleaning detergent additives with gasoline brands that do not participate in the automaker-backed program. Among brands tested, non-TOP TIER gasolines caused 19 times more engine deposits than TOP TIER brands after just 4,000 miles of simulated driving…

“AAA was surprised to learn the extent to which detergent additives impact gasoline quality,” revealed John Nielsen, AAA’s managing director of Automotive Engineering and Repair. “As advertised, tested TOP TIER gasolines kept engines remarkably cleaner than other fuels we tested.”

...For testing purposes, AAA selected TOP TIER and non-TOP TIER gasolines from a southern Texas market that represents the type of gasoline sold across the majority of the United States. To measure intake valve and combustion chamber deposits, AAA engaged the services of an independent International Standards Organization 17025 certified engine testing lab to perform an ASTM International standard test on fuels.


http://newsroom.aaa.com/2016/07/aaa-not-gasoline-created-equal/


Quote:
For its test, the lab operated an engine continuously for 100 hours on a cycle to represent 4,000 real-miles of use. The engine was then disassembled, photographed, and its key components weighed and measured to determine the thickness of carbon deposits. Six fuels were used, randomly selected and split among three basic gasoline sources and three Top Tier.

The results showed that on average, Top Tier gasoline had 19 times fewer carbon deposits on injectors, intake valves, and in the combustion chamber when compared to regular gasoline.

AAA also found Top Tier gasoline can have a cleansing effect, reducing intake valve deposits by 45 to 72 percent when used over a 5,000-mile interval. Variation in the results is attributed to the detergents used by different brands.


http://www.consumerreports.org/car-maintenance/study-shows-top-tier-gasoline-worth-extra-price/
 
Originally Posted By: y_p_w

A few days ago I had some errand to do in Richmond, California and drove by the Chevron Richmond Refinery. Tankers were all over the place. However, it's kind of hard to tell exactly where the fuel came from since they actually have 4 terminals in the same general area. Obviously the location of all of them near a refinery isn't a coincidence. All of them (even the Phillips 66) probably get most of their fuel from that refinery.

This doesn't necessarily correlate to what you might have regionally where you live, but it does indicate that as a practical consideration it makes sense to load fuel close to a refinery. Still - they have customers to serve and may still need to get fuel delivered from further away by rail, ship, or pipe depending on how much fuel they can get from the closest refinery.


You forgot Philips 66 in Rodeo(their tanker rack is down the street from Chevron), Shell in Martinez, Valero in Benicia and Tesoro's Golden Eagle refinery in Avon(unincorporated Contra Costa, just nestled above Concord off Arnold Industrial Way). Kinder Morgan also has a pipeline terminal about 2 miles away from Chevron Richmond and Kenan Advantage(Beneto) has a tanker terminal in Martinez - all refineries in CA feed into the network.

There isn't Wal-Mart gas anywhere with me, I'd use it out of convenience if I was near one. It won't be additized to the same level as a Top Tier gas, but you can always walk inside the main store and get a bottle of Techron or Regane.
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: nthach
Originally Posted By: y_p_w

A few days ago I had some errand to do in Richmond, California and drove by the Chevron Richmond Refinery. Tankers were all over the place. However, it's kind of hard to tell exactly where the fuel came from since they actually have 4 terminals in the same general area. Obviously the location of all of them near a refinery isn't a coincidence. All of them (even the Phillips 66) probably get most of their fuel from that refinery.

This doesn't necessarily correlate to what you might have regionally where you live, but it does indicate that as a practical consideration it makes sense to load fuel close to a refinery. Still - they have customers to serve and may still need to get fuel delivered from further away by rail, ship, or pipe depending on how much fuel they can get from the closest refinery.


You forgot Philips 66 in Rodeo(their tanker rack is down the street from Chevron), Shell in Martinez, Valero in Benicia and Tesoro's Golden Eagle refinery in Avon(unincorporated Contra Costa, just nestled above Concord off Arnold Industrial Way). Kinder Morgan also has a pipeline terminal about 2 miles away from Chevron Richmond and Kenan Advantage(Beneto) has a tanker terminal in Martinez - all refineries in CA feed into the network.

There isn't Wal-Mart gas anywhere with me, I'd use it out of convenience if I was near one. It won't be additized to the same level as a Top Tier gas, but you can always walk inside the main store and get a bottle of Techron or Regane.
smile.gif


I didn't name the 4 terminals in Richmond, but they are all listed in the Google Maps link. I used the satellite view to get a better look at the facilities, like tanks, rail, and docks.

I'm aware of all the Bay Area refineries, but I was concentrating on those in Richmond and the general belief that a tanker that's coming out of there must be getting fuel that was refined at the Chevron Richmond refinery. The fuel could still be coming from anywhere.
 
Some vehicles and driving patterns (I would say driving patterns are a bigger factor), are more prone to causing more deposits to form.

For those vehicles, you would benefit from the additives that are in top tier gas and which are in higher concentrations in fuel injector cleaners such as Techron fuel injector cleaner and in even higher concentration cleaners such as Techron concentrate and Gumout All In One & Regane.

If top tier gas is convenient and not hugely more expensive, then it's a sensible and easy choice.

Otherwise you can buy a multiple pack of Techron fuel injector cleaner from Costco and use it every few tanks, or you could wait 3000, 5000 miles or even longer and use the concentrates that are one tank cleaners and also advertised to keep clean for those kind of intervals.

If you want to determine whether top tier gas is for you, simply buy the Techron or Gumout concentrate and use it according to instructions. Within a few gallons, the effect of it should be apparent, firstly as your fuel injectors get clean and then as combustion chamber deposits are removed. If you don't feel any benefit by the end of the tank, and you were using non top tier gas before, then you probably don't need top tier gas in the future.

If you get a minor improvement at first but no ongoing improvement during the usage of the tank, then it is likely your fuel injectors were cleaned but that you had no combustion chamber deposits were there to be removed. In which case, it is likely that a fuel injector cleaner would have had enough strength to have had the same improvement you saw with the concentrate.

My own experience from using non top tier gas was that significant deposits formed that led to very poor performance and mpg. The effects were reversed using concentrate products and fuel system cleaning. I then switched to top tier gas and use the concentrate cleaners every 10k miles or so, after seeing that there was very little effect when using them every 5k miles.
 
I used mostly Walmart Fuel in my 2004 Hyundai Elantra. Over 130,000 miles with no fuel related issues.
I did use a bottle of Techron occasionally though.

There is a Walmart about to open on my way to work, and they will probably be my primary fuel again (depending on price, Sunoco and Kroger are also both close and are some of the cheaper stations around with both easy to get to. Kroger also has the fuel rewards that knocks off up to $1 a gallon).

I have no issues using Walmart gas. I do run a bottle of Regane AIO every oil change though (I got a great deal on it, so have a bunch).
 
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