Anyone have any thoughts on whether Jags like any particular brand of gas. I see a lot of posts on here about throttle body crud and I've wondered if different brands of gas could be better or worse. Given a choice, I always buy Exxon 93 octane and avoid the discount brands...although I'm told that some of them are actually name brands.

Interested to see people's thoughts.

 

I'd definitely stick with one of the top name brands. I am partial to Shell because my father worked for them and I think that it is a good gasoline, but I feel that the other top brands are also good quality. I have always run some of the carburetor or injector cleaners through my cars every few tankfuls. I don't know if they really work as claimed, but for the minor expense I give it a shot.

 

Brand of gasoline and TB crud. Huh?

 

A close friend of mine builds racing engines, ported carburetors, and is the world's first to manufacture his own brand of matched fuel injectors (flow rate and impedance, etc.). He's one of those hyper-meticulous guys that has to prove everything to himself, do it his own way, and make his own measuring equipment. He has tested the 'street' gasolines and found that only one brand has reliable control of their octane ratings. That brand is Chevron. He found that all other brands had wide variations in octane levels. It could be surmised that Chevron also has better control of mixture ratios of what is blended and delivered at the pump. I go out of my way to purchase Chevron and don't mind a few pennies more if a cheaper brand is nearby.

 

I usually stick to Chevron or BP and they're close so it's convenient. I stay away from the "generic" filling stations. No proof that the gas I get is better, just that I have one less variable to concern myself with.

 

Not sure about the rest of them but I can tell you that Seafoam actually does remove deposits from intake valves. I was working on an old Ducati and the intake valves were dirty as hell. I ran some Seafoam through it and checked them again after about 500 miles and the valves were actually clean. Not sparkling and new looking but, the heavy deposits were gone. The bike smoked like mad for a while but I noticed no other issues. I still wouldn't poor it in the tank of my Jag though lol

 

You can spend your money any way you want but I have been using Exxon middle grade 89 octane for many, many years and my cars 93xjs, 95xj6 4.0, 99 xk8 and 00 s-type 3.0 and none of them has blown up, has not failed me, does not ping and goes when I want it to goooooooo. Oh, and I should note that I get great gas mileage 24mpg + to 28mpg at times and i use BG44k once a year.

 

And the "premium only" crowd hasn't crucified you yet?

 

Not yet!!! It is what it is!

 

I use the Marathon/Walmart 89 octane gas.

After being forced to for about 6 weeks due to a gas shortage I could not identify any negative affects. Fuel mileage was the same, no pinging, no codes, no nothing.

The knock sensor are queried 500 times a second and would restrict spark advance if a knock is detected. My car will not produce the Jaguar rated horsepower because of the octane restricted spark advance but I have never asked it to. Casual driving does not require the higher octane/horsepower and the car is smart enough to deal with it.

'Regular' fuel meets the industry standard injector/fuel system 'cleaner' requirements.

Let the gas wars begin! . . . . . again


Tight Wad Tom

 

Your fuel, no matter what the brand or grade, doesn't get near the throttle body. Only intake air, crankcase gasses and some exhaust gasses (on North American cars) move through the throttle body.

The crud that builds up in the "throat" of the throttle body comes from the crankcase gasses and oil mist in the intake airstream, which enter that airstream through the full-load breather tube that connects your right bank valve cover and your intake tube.

The crud at the BOTTOM of the throttle body- which is technically the induction elbow- is made worse by exhaust gasses being sucked through the EGR valve and into your intake airstream (again, on North American cars), and by more crankcase gasses moving through the part-load breather tube, which connects between your LEFT bank valve cover and the induction elbow.

 

In any given region, ALL the gasoline comes from one or maybe two different refineries irrespective of which retailer it ends up at. A person may swear up and down that Brand X is better then everything else- but it's all the same base gasoline from the same place. The refineries add the specific additives as the gas enters the delivery truck which may vary slightly from one brand name to another- but no retailer is stupid enough go cheap and sell a badly formulated product.

The stories that no name gas stations or Costco sell 'old stale cheap gas' are just silly.

 

I have run 1oz per gallon of seafoamfor the last 6 months with good results as far
as mpg and smooth running in my 96 XJR. I suspect the throttle body will be cleaner for it.

 

Again, gasoline does not get near the throttle body, so it cannot be cleaned by Seafoam in your gas tank. See post # 11 below.

 

As written by Mikey
What Mikey is saying is true. One of my friends runs the BP distribution center here. The one thing that he told me was to buy fuel from one of the major brands because if it's a independent your local convenience store manager will make the decision on what additives to put in the fuel. He claims most do not have any idea what to order. The major brands have specific formulas for the seasons. This is also true for the octane rating, all of the gasoline is the same and the additives increase the octane rating. These fuels are delivered through out the U.S. through pipelines The Shell and BP distribution centers here are running off the same line.

 

You all do realize that along the mid-atlantic region, every drop of gasoline from shell to mom&pops blue plate special uses gas from the pipeline running from La to Ga. There is no difference in gasoline, except the additives and if you do not believe me, go to north Ga and watch the shell and chevron trucks line up behind each other.

As far as additives go, there used to be a website that compared the additives used in gas, not sure who was best, but I remember reading about staying away from chevron because it was hard on seals, but that was before ethanol and vitro seals.

 

Your friend must be pretty old, matched injectors have been around since the early sixties, GM used them on their FI 327 race engines.

 

I echo the basic sentiment that gas is gas and is fed to us from the same pipeline regardless of where we purchase it in our neck of the woods. I do add a 20-ounce bottle of Chevron Techron to all of our vehicles' fuel tanks whenever I do an oil & filter change. Been doing that for years and have never had a fuel injector problem in any of our vehicles. Some call it a waste of money, but I believe that Techron is good stuff. I pick some up at the buy-one-get-one-free sales that Advance Auto Parts runs every few months....

 

My company inspects the fire suppression systems at a huge tank facility in Selma, NC. This place is one of the main delivery points for all types of fuel. There is a pipeline that goes from the Houston area, across the southern US, and then up the east coast. In Selma there are about 60 huge tanks which each hold millions of gallons of gas, diesel, kerosene, and jet fuel. I've spent a great deal of time at the tank farm talking to the man who runs the whole place. I was very surprised to learn that EVERYTHING is sent in a single pipeline from Houston. They pump the 93 octane through the same pipeline that the 87 octane goes through, which is the same pipeline that the diesel fuel, kerosene, and jet fuel go through.

When they switch from 93 to 89 octane, for example, they just allow the two grades of fuel mix in the area of transition. They don't do anything to keep the two grades apart. When it gets to the tanks in Selma they just keep pumping the 87/93 mixture into the 87 tank until all of the 87 is out of the line, then they turn off that valve and pump the 93 into the 93 tank. When switching from gasoline to diesel they will put a rubber "pig" in the line in Houston to keep the two fuels separate. There are many points along the way where they have to switch from one size pig to another as the pipe changes sizes, but the pig prevents diesel from mixing with gas and vice-versa.

All brands get THE EXACT SAME FUEL from Houston. The Texaco tanks in Houston might get gas that was refined at an Exxon refinery. It doesn't make a difference to the oil companies whose gas they get as long as it is the proper octane. Once the gas goes into their tank, they then add their own detergents and other additives to customize the blend.

The tanker trucks that pick up loads of fuel in Selma then deliver that same fuel to various gas stations. It all depends on who they have contracts with. A tanker might pick up a load from the Texaco tanks, deliver some of it to a Citgo gas station, deliver more of it to a no-name station, and deliver the rest to a Texaco station. The guy I know says that most of the big names (Texaco, Exxon, etc) just use the gas that came from their own tanks with their own custom blend of additives, but quite often there will be a shortage of one type of gas or another, so their gas station might get another company's blend. The oil companies don't care and neither do the gas stations. If you buy from a no-name gas station you're going to be getting Texaco, Chevron, Exxon, or some other big name gasoline. It's not like there are little companies that blend their own gas for the independent gas stations. The independents just buy from whoever will sell it to them the cheapest.

Since I learned all of this stuff a few years ago I no longer care which brand of gas I buy. It's basically all the same.

Here's an aerial view of that tank farm. This place supplies gasoline to all of eastern NC.

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&l...27527&t=h&z=16

It looks more impressive from ground level.

 

I ran regular without issue for a long time. I switched to Premium without Ethenol and got a bump in fuel economy enough to make up for the difference in price.

They call it "recreational gas" up here in Wisconsin. I use it in my jet skis, boats and even chain saws, pump motors, etc. Anywhere the fuel might sit around in the tank for a while...