I was wondering where everyone goes to get gas. I live in Minnesota so we don't have shell or anything like that. We do have SuperAmerica, Holiday, and Amoco. I was going to a generic gas station whose premium was 93.5 octane, and as it started to warm up, my car started to be sloooooow. I filled up at an SA (92 octane) as I was not near my usual gas station. About 2 days later my cars boost went from sustaining a quarter the way into the white to sustaining nearly two thirds. My car started to be noticibly faster. I did g-tech my car with the generic gas and the best 0-60 I could get was 8.58, with SA it brought it down to 7.14. Also has anyone had a bad experience performance wise with any certain brand of gas.

Just wondering,
Anthony Randall
1995 850t5

So.............

At 7000' above sea-level is it 85, 89 or 91 octane???????? I've been using 85, but after reading this chain, I'm nervous.....

Ken

95 855R, tinted, K&N, Bilsteins, Brembos

Well in Minnesota low grade is 87, midgrade is 90 and Premium is 92-93. I'm not sure if altitude affects octane or what. Have you ever done a quarter mile or 0 to 60 run with a G-Tech or at a drag strip or something? I'd be interested in seeing how well 850's do at high altitude.

Anthony Randall
1995 850t5

From what I have been told, altitude has no effect on the turbo.

I live in California and I only use ONLY premium grade gas from either Chevron or Unocal. I find that when I use premium I get about 1-1.5 mpg better mileage. The better mileage offsets the extra $1.80 (10 cents/gallon) that it costs to put in the premium.

We only get 91 Octane in California so occasionally I will toss in a couple gallons of Unocal's 100 octane unleaded racing gas to 1/4 tank of 91 octane when I plan on driving hard. ;-) The 100 octane runs about $4.00/gallon and is 100% compatible with all other gas.
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Nathan Valles, Black 855R, Tint

It does pay to try a couple of tankfuls of different brands of gas.

Three caveats

1. Never buy gas during or right after a delivery. The filling of the tank at the station stirs up any sediment and water in the tank. Right after a delivery? - ask when they usually get deliveries, observe deliveries if you can.

1. If the gas station has modern pumps called MPDs they mix their middle grades as you pump, just like Sunoco used to. One way to tell if they are mixing is if they started selling diesel without digging up the yard. (They convert their middle grade tank to diesel.) It is possible that a MPD is adjusted improperly.

3. I once worked for an independant who pumped regular into the premium tank if he was short of premium.
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2 8s & 2 7s 600,000 miles total

I live in MN too,and have gotten the best performance with either Texaco or Citgo.The past few months,though,I've been a good tree-hugger and started using Holiday's Blue Planet.(it's supposed to have 75% less sulphur than other brands)I'm willing to sacrifice a little performance to breathe easier.

You must definitely use Premium gasoline despite what you are going to read here from the Regular gasoline pundits. The manual recommends Premium for optimum results.

Now, I have learned that "generic" gas is not the best. I have talked to quite a few people who work for several of these generic companies, two of which our clients of ours. They do admit that the reason their gasoline is so much cheaper than major brands is the lack of "certain additives". None would name which additives were missing but they both told me (they both work for different companies) that "they were not that important". Well, gasoline and motor oil are two things that I am not willing to experiment on, especially when it comes to my own car which did not come cheap.

Yannis
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2001 V70 T-5M SR, Classic Red/Graphite Lthr., ipd ME7 ECU Upgrade, K&N Air Filter, Cold Weather, Dolby Surr. Sound, Rear Spoiler, 17' 'Tethys' alloys

Interesting. My wife told me that her grandfather told her to stay away from no name stations because they sold cheap gas. A few days later I happened to be at one of those no name gas pumps while a tanker was parked next to me ready to fill the tanks. I asked the driver of the no name tanker what the difference was between brands and octane. He told me that this no name station was actually a shamrock brand. We have a refinery located north of Denver in Commerce City. He said that the only difference in gas is the additives each company puts into it, otherwise gas is gas, it simply depends on how much you are willing to spend for one brand over another. He didn't know anything about octane. When he was at the refinery, which is a Conoco refinery, he said there were two Amoco trucks parked next to him. At the station I was at, 85($1.29--most stations are 1.35) was regular, 87(1.39) was midgrade, and 93.5(1.49) premium. It is the only station I know of that has 93.5, all of the rest only go to 91 octane. My owners manuel says to use 91, so does the dealer, so does my mechanic, so I do.

I just use any good gas that the station has good (frequent) turnover of the tanks..

I used what ever gas avalable it make no different in preforman

I don't race at every stop light...

I use 87 octan.. it been runing fine since we own the car...

I also just use low grade here in Vancouver BC. The car has 185km on it and runs just fine. The interesting part is that we pay Can40c more for 91 Octane per US gal. 1994 855T Wagon