The Truth about Gasoline

Here is some great information about gasoline
The truth about Gasoline (http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=452828)
Click on the link at the bottom.

Here is part of it.
A number of myths about octane have grown over the
years. There is a widespread perception that the greater the
octane the better the performance. However, once enough
octane is supplied to prevent engine knock, there is little, if
any, performance improvement. One exception to this would
be in vehicles equipped with knock sensors. In these vehicles,
if octane is insufficient, the computer will retard the timing to
limit engine knock. If the vehicle is operating in the “knock
limiting” mode (retarded timing), using a higher octane fuel will
allow timing to be advanced, resulting in some level of
performance increase. However, even in these vehicles,
tests have shown that there is no perceptible performance
improvement from using a fuel of higher octane than that
recommended by the vehicle manufacturer.
Another myth is that using a higher octane fuel will result
in improved fuel economy (increased miles per gallon). Octane
is nothing more than a measure of anti-knock quality.
Fuel economy is determined by a number of variables including
the energy content of the fuel. Some premium grades of
fuel may contain components which increase energy content.
In those cases, fuel economy may improve slightly as a result
of higher energy content, but not as a result of the higher
octane. Two fuels of identical octane could have different
energy content due to compositional differences.
Consumers need only use a gasoline meeting the
vehicle manufacturer’s recommended octane levels. If engine
knocking occurs on such fuels and mechanical causes
have been eliminated, then the consumer should purchase
the next highest octane gasoline (above the manufacturer's
recommendation in the owners manual) that will provide
knock-free operation.

This s excellent and accurate information! There are a lot of folks throwing their money away thinking that they're doing their engine a favor.

I have never put in High Octane gas into my vehicles. My reason is that High Octane is designed for High Performance vehicles. Hence why Manufactures will put high grade Octane recommendations for high performance cars ie: camaro, GTO. Vette, Viper, etc...

All of my vehicles have lasted over 100K with no issues using low octane gas. Another thing I stick to sticking to the same gas company or staying with similar gas companies.

The other thing I stay away from are additives. Those to me are a big no no in my book. I beleive that if you stick with the same gas and the same octane you will not need additives to regain your performance.

Just my thoughts

I have the 2000 Silverado with the 5.3. I've noticed more pinging lately, which is lessened by using the mid-range fuel, 89 octane around here. I'm told this is all controlled by the computer. Why did I need to go to a higher octane?

I have the 2000 Silverado with the 5.3. I've noticed more pinging lately, which is lessened by using the mid-range fuel, 89 octane around here. I'm told this is all controlled by the computer. Why did I need to go to a higher octane?

You may need have a diagnostics ran on your truck to see what codes are spitting out.

When do you notice the pinging? Engine cold or hot?

My 1999 Silverado Knocks for about 45 Seconds when i first start it cold in the morning. Is this pretty normal for that year?

My 1999 Silverado Knocks for about 45 Seconds when i first start it cold in the morning. Is this pretty normal for that year?

If yours quiets down in only 45 seconds, hang onto it. You've got a good one.:wink:

My 1999 Silverado Knocks for about 45 Seconds when i first start it cold in the morning. Is this pretty normal for that year?

Yes, it is very normal.. what you are hearing are the rockers and pistons rubbing against medal. It takes about 30-45 secs to get oil pumped to it when the engine is cold.

My 1999 Silverado Knocks for about 45 Seconds when i first start it cold in the morning. Is this pretty normal for that year?


I had the same problem and switched to shell gas vice the Top Tier Gasoline and it went away. Try it......I was a disbeliever and so was the Kwik Trip guy who had the same problem that now uses Shell lol.....It's the cleaner that's in it, it cleans out the carbon between rings.

Another way of looking at the issue.

Higher octane..... gas burns slower.

Lower octane......gas burns faster.

Faster burning gas gives more push against the piston.

Some engines, such as those with lots of compression, need a slower burning gas.

It is likely your engine does not need slower burning gas.

actually i am pretty sure high octane gas burns hotter, meaning higher compression engines need it so the heat the air generates when it gets compressed does not pre-ignite the charge in the cylinder. :2cents:

If anything it burns cooler, although I don't think that is stating things correctly. The actual temperature of the burning fuel really has nothing to do with it. High octane fuel has a higher flash point meaning it is harder to ignite, lessening the chance of pre-ignition. Hot spots in the combustion chamber are less likely to ignite the mixture prematurely.

In college (35 years ago) I was putting Super Shell 100 octane in my '64 Corvette. I tried a tank of Chevron Custom Supreme (103 octane) when it came out. The 327 would burn rubber with about half the throttle opening required with Shell.

Adjusting my right foot to give the same easygoing, everyday performance I had been getting before, my mileage was still off by about 10%. I switched back to 100 octane; wasn't going to pay more to get less mpg!

In my wife's newer BMWs a computer adjusts the engine settings based on the fuel used. Same story: 87 octane gives better mileage than 91.

The other thing I stay away from are additives. Those to me are a big no no in my book. I beleive that if you stick with the same gas and the same octane you will not need additives to regain your performance.


As having multiple family members, friends, and having worked offshore myself, i know additives are usually a plus. All gasolines have additives, but the amount that each has is varied. The companies additives are added to enhance the performance of their product. Shell for instance puts detergents in their gas which would have no negative effects (not really sure on the upside is to them though).
I can not say to what extent they enhance them or how many are actually needed. But the majority of them, to my knowledge, have no adverse effects on vehicle performance.

HiSpeed

I'm pretty sure the additives he is talking about here are the ones you can get at autozone and come in a bottle to add when filling up the tank. I hope anyway.

I had the same problem and switched to shell gas vice the Top Tier Gasoline and it went away. Try it......I was a disbeliever and so was the Kwik Trip guy who had the same problem that now uses Shell lol.....It's the cleaner that's in it, it cleans out the carbon between rings.
I believe this noise that you all are talking about is a sticking lifter. It happens on my 2000 K1500. After your truck sits for a while the oil drains out of the lifters, reducing the pressure. When your truck starts there isn't enough oil pressure built up yet to lubricate the lifter properly. Just let your truck sit in idle until the "knocking noise" goes away.

But by using a different gas should not effect this problem in anyway.

I added (1) Qt. of Lucas Oil a few oil changes ago and it helped, but didn't eliminate the problem.

My 1999 Silverado Knocks for about 45 Seconds when i first start it cold in the morning. Is this pretty normal for that year?

I have a '01 and I took it in while it was still under warranty. It was making what I still believe was lifter ticking while under acceleration. It does it upon startup when it has been sitting for a day or two also. The dealership gave me a printout from the factory engineers saying it was "carbon buildup" on the piston skirts. I didn't believe them then nor do I now. It still ticks until the lifters pump up. But, if they present an explanation from the guys "in the know" what can you do. I just kept the paper so when a lifter goes out I will make a bunch of noise in their showroom until they replace the set for free like they should have done while it was under warranty.:banghead:

I also had the 45 second knocking issue at first startup of the day. I was using this same brand gasoline (sorry can't think of it right now) for a while. I changed routes to work and now use Shell and my 45 second knocking is completely gone in the morning start-ups.

My dad has the same truck as mine just a couple years earlier and I told him about the Shell experience and he is about to go on a long trip and he is going to try Shell gas to see if it improves it.

I will let you know his results.

Yes, it is very normal.. what you are hearing are the rockers and pistons rubbing against medal. It takes about 30-45 secs to get oil pumped to it when the engine is cold.


Not entirely true...I fought with GM for years over this...This condition is known as pistion slap and they call it "normal"..The piston skirt was made to short(unbalancing the piston) and the piston is in fact rocking back and forth and colliding with the side of the cylinder wall during the travel up with cylinder...Gm won't do a thing about it...It's simply a yet another GM brain fart.

Not to change the subject, actually this is the truth how oil is made.
I use to work for a oil field service company (Halliburton). Halliburton, has several companies, which do different things in the "Oil Pach". They have a Frack devision - Cement devision - Acidizing division - Coil Tubing division - Wireline division - Snubbing division - And so on. About the only thing Halliburton does not do, is do the actual drilling for oil. But some could say, that a Coil Tubing Unit does drill. Which it can do to some degree. But mostly, Halliburton does prety much everything, after "the hole is dug". I use to work in the Wireline division, which does things like logging - running guns for perferating the well casing - fishing tools - setting plugs - and so forth. Without companies, like Halliburton, oil would not get to market. At one time, it was said that Halliburton had more vehicles than the U.S. Government. This is why Halliburton, has so much influence in the oil field. At one point in time, Red Adair worked for Halliburton.
After the history lesson, of Halliburton, let me give everyone some actual facts, about how oil is actually made. The term "Fossil Fuels" is a myth. Oil does not come from dinasours and rotten plants. Oil is, what is called "ABIOTIC". Oil is made, every minute of every day. It is made, from the Earths' Mantle. It is like, when you put enough heat to water steam is produced. I urge everyone, to read the book (Black Gold Stranglehold). I forget who the aurthor is. But, he explains everything about the oil process.
Oil is everywhere, it is in every state, and in every country. What is not told, is that a drilling rig just needs to drill deeper. And eventually, oil will be hit. This is why, offshore drilling rigs, are so productive. Because, the ocean floor is closer to the Earths' Core. Getting oil, is not the problem, refining it is. Here in the U.S., a new refinery has not been built, in quite some time. I think since something like the mid 70's or 80's. The issue, with refineries, is no one wants them in their back yards, but mostly, the oil companies only want so many. To keep the refinery capacity down. So they (the oil companies), tell the public a half truth, that no one wants them in their back yard. To really understand, the whole problem, one must read the book I was talking about. This whole problem (mess) we (the world) are in now, is something like a perfect storm. The oil companies, and the military industrial complex, are in colusion with one another. Hence, the perfect storm. If you see, the military prety much walks lock step with the oil companies. This is why you see Halliburton along with the military, after and during a conflict (war). When we went to Iraq, special forces were trained on how to shut down the pipelines, by oil field experts. I typed Black Gold Stranglehold, in to Yahoo Search, and there was over 230 thousand hits on it .
In "Black Gold Stranglehold," Jerome Corsi and Craig Smith expose the fraudulent ... "Black Gold Stranglehold" is a thoughtful work that is certain to ...
shop.wnd.com/store/item.asp?ITEM_ID=1769 -

Until everyone, understands the perfect storm, we will always be held hostage. And there will always be wars. And our politicians, when they get to Washington, are told how the cow eats the cabbage.
Any way, this is the truth about gasoline! In no way, did I intend for this post to be political. Or to push a book. It's just, the only litature, that explains the hows' and whys', of why the price of gas is what it is. If nothing is done, as far as telling people, it will get to the point, of everyone talking about which bycycle is easier to peddle.
People, in Europe and as close as Canada, have been paying the prices, of gas per litre which is about half a gallon, for years. It is just a matter of time, before we pay those same prices or more.
And then there is the drug connection, with all this too. Which is the same subject, but this post is not the place to get in to that. I just wanted to add that, to get people to start thinking and looking.

l cant agree with you more on that matter, l work for BJ Pump Services Alberta Canada and l to know the nity gritty dirty secrets.
l Also HATE the 6-8Bux A GALLON for Regular well in my hometown right now its
$1,07.9cent a litter

as to the shell postes actuly l'v tryed many fuel companys l preffer UPI,SHELL as my top picks there fuel seams to work better for what/how l drive

wow, this is helpful stuff.

The O.P. is correct, as are the comments from twomorestrokes. The octane rating does not indicate a percentage of octane but is a comparison between the fuel being rated and a blend of cetane and octane. 100 octane rated fuel compares to 100% iso-octane when tested for knock in a combustion fuel research engine.

The opposite end of the scale would be the ideal diesel fuel which is given a cetane rating.

Octane rating is obtained these days with additives that yield the same effect as octane. Octane ratings above 100 are obtained by interpolation of the knock performance graph beyond 100%.

Octane rating does not reflect energy content. Diesel fuel contains about 35% more thermal energy than gasoline.

one more thing yall should know is 87 89 octane gas is the same thing as long as it is 10% ethanol blend

My 99 5.3 knocks under load if I use anything but premium.

well, here's good news for diesel owners. per last Popular Science magazine, there's a company in CA that already produces about a 1000 gallons of cheap biodiesel for the town they are in. they rigged E.Coly bacteria so that it brews ready to use fuel out off sugarcane. cost $50 a barrel, vs. $400 regular diesel fuel.
they are supposed to go into mass production in several yrs. also, they plan on bringing cost down to $8 barrel, when they will "teach" the bacteria how to do same from sawdust or woodchips.

about 2 mths ago there was article in Newsweek, with a guy who was 1st to descramble human genom. he is now finalizing process for genetically engeneered bacteria to brew ready to use gasoline out of something cheap, forgot what it was. he's planning on mass producing "personal" breweries so folks can brew their own gas in the backyard.:runaround: :runaround:

i use sea foam in my bike and my cars. i'm going to try lukus see how that does.

well, why don't we all go here:
http://www.topgear.com/us/videos/more/endurance-race-to-blackpool/
and watch it. I had pleasure yesterday (very disappointed with Veyron's performance, but hey...)
Anyways, let me translate that race into the things we know:
they, actually, covered 819 miles, not 750(British mile is longer)
they refer to mpg on an imperial gallon, which is 1.2 US one. Basically, at their 70 mpg, you have 58 American mpgs.

Of course, kudos to Jeremy, doing his best trying to kill mpg on his Jag, he-he.:screwy::runaround:

So, getting to my point:
12 cyl twin turbo Jag does 819 miles on a tank after 3/4 of the route gas guzzling driving? And still could go some, as it did not halt in Blackpool by itself, it still had some go-juice to go on

My question is: wdf is wrong with gas and cars in this country?:banghead:
Even better - what kind of trickery they have imposed onto imports that, as soon as they are made for American market, they lose half of their European mpg in a click? I want to see same Jag, made for and sold here, do same!:nono::nono::nono:
And those cars were not even the best mpg ones. Brits have van that does 96mpg on imperial, VW has some car that does over a hundred miles.

higher octane fuel is infact detuned fuel to reduce combustion chamber temperatures. it costs more cuz it has more additives. the lower the octane u can get away with the better the performance and economy even though it is so slight u will not likely notice the difference. on the other hand the higher octane fuels will keep the eng cleaner cuz of the additives. also not likely to notice much difference unless used for the entire life of the veh and u trust the refinerys and delivery drivers who add a large portion of the additives when delivering. sincerely ex GM engineering employee.

If you are interested in reading? Check the link below. It coinsides with the truth about gasoline article. I have used Xylene as a substitute octane boost with great results! It might not be a good idea for all cars, I used it in a high performance built 355, 400+HP.

www.brightgreen.us/lubedev/smartgas/additive.htm