Fuel Choices

When I first got my Boxster, 93 octane Texaco was available. When they pulled out of my area, I went with Shell, 91 octane. (Highest octane available). Now they have left and those stations have changed to Phillips 66. Other Top Tier fuels available to me are Conoco and Exxon. Any recommendations on which of these three would be best for the Boxster?

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p-wagen
When I first got my Boxster, 93 octane Texaco was available. When they pulled out of my area, I went with Shell, 91 octane. (Highest octane available). Now they have left and those stations have changed to Phillips 66. Other Top Tier fuels available to me are Conoco and Exxon. Any recommendations on which of these three would be best for the Boxster?

Over the years and miles I've run Chevron, Shell, Texaco, Phillips 66 and Conoco in both of my cars (all of my cars actually) with no differences noticed except for one I'll get to in a bit. (Exxon is not listed as I can't recall ever using it as the other brands are just more familiar to me and I naturally gravitate towards one of the more familiar brand names when it comes time to buy gasoline.)

Of the 3 brands you have available, Phillips 66, Conoco, and Exxon, Phillips 66 would be my first choice all other things being equal as there was a 66 station just a couple of blocks from my house and I spent a lot of time there watching the two owners/operators -- brothers -- working on cars. They treated me very kindly and let me observe without shooing me away.

However, ignoring any preference not based on emotion, any of the 3 brands gasoline should be just fine. In the outside chance the car reacts unfavorably to a particular brand try another brand. This is what Porsche advises.

You don't have Chevron available to you but if you do have a brand of gasoline that offers Techron -- I think Texaco is the only other brand to offer Techron -- I would use that brand of gasoline. I found that after a couple of years of using Shell almost exclusively that when I switched to Chevron -- the Shell station raised its prices quite a bit over the prices charged by other stations in its immediate vicinity -- this switch to Chevron after a couple of tankfuls caused a noticeable improvement in my performance of my 2.7l Boxster engine. I attribute this to the cleansing of deposits by the presence of Techron. Shell gas would all manifest this noticeable improvement in performance but only after a longish drive at highway speeds. Chevron gas did this during my normal usage which is nice as arranging time for longish drives was getting harder to do.

Whichever brand you settle on some rules: Buy the highest octane gasoline you can find -- barring race gasoline (unless you are going to the track). 93 is best but if all you can get is 91 so be it. Buy from a busy station to ensure the gasoline you get is freshest. Busy stations get their tanks refilled more often -- I've come across stations that get their tanks refilled sometimes several times a day during real busy times -- and this helps insure the gasoline is fresh. I try to avoid filling up when the tanks are being filled, but a number of sources have told me the filtration systems at the pump prevents any sediment stirred up by the refilling being carried by the gasoline into the car's tank. Still, old habits die hard and this has been my habit ever since I have owned a motorcycle/car.

Last but not least try to avoid running the fuel level real low, avoid making a habit of this. The fuel pump resides in the fuel tank and is cooled by the fuel. Thus I do not make it a habit of driving to the point the fuel tank level gets real low, though I admit sometimes -- not often but sometimes -- driving until the low fuel level light comes on. By running the fuel level way down this results in the fuel pump running warmer than it would otherwise. It might not matter but it just feels "right" to me to try to minimize the time the fuel pump is exposed to low fuel level in the gas tank.

ITs all the same... governed by law.... all flows through the same pipe system in USA... What does make a difference is the additives. These are added at the fuel depot into the tanker when the tanker loads to deliver to stations. Some say this just an attempt at companies trying to differentiate a commodity product.... others say some additives are good. All gas coming through the pipelines have some level of detergents again determined by law. Do you think each comapany has its own pipelines crisscrossing the USA? Heck no.

Your choice. I like Marc never could tell a difference in brands.. no kidding, as it is all the same. However I have what I believed to be bad gas but that may have been water in a station's tanks or in the tanker delivering the stuff.

Buy the highest octane as your car will adapt and advance/retard timing to match... and buy the cheapest. My opinion.

Peace
Bruce in Philly

I did notice a difference between Shell premium (V-Power) and Chevron premium. After a few tankfuls of the Chevron gasoline the engine perked up, become more responsive to the throttle and regained some vigor.

Also, while the OP didn't ask about discount gasolines, I have noticed a difference between discount gasoline and Shell V-Power. Running a discount gasoline had one of the converters generating an error more frequently that appeared less frequently after I switched to Shell gasoline.

Furthermore, a gasoline test in the UK found discount -- "supermarket" in UK speak -- gasolines did well but discount gasoline performance was inconsistent. This was attributed to the variability of gasoline stock at the various distributors as the discount gasoline stations sought out the cheapest product so they could make money with their discount pricing. Name brand gasoline was found to be much more consistent although it was found that even with name brands stale gasoline could be a problem. The recommendation was to buy from a busy station to ensure the freshest gasoline.

There were differences noted between the name brands too. I do not recall the details now -- I have the article in PDF somewhere -- but Shell V-Power was found to be about the best gasoline for power. The testing was done on the dyno and the track with a trained professional driver. None of the gasolines though came anywhere near matching race gasoline. Sure race gas is too expensive to run on the street of course, but worth every penny on the track. The subject didn't come up in this thread but the habit of some drivers to blend street gas with race gas to try to come up with a just good enough octane number while trying to save some expense on race day is just wrong. Drive the car until the tank is quite low then put in as much race fuel as you can to maximize its benefit.

For the street one can settle on a particular brand though my recommendation is to avoid a discount gasoline. If one is so inclined he can try different brands -- try two tanks -- and see if the engine reacts favorably to a particular brand. My tech sources tell me Shell delivers more power but Chevron helps keep the engine cleaner. One tech said he runs Shell most of the time for the power but every so often -- I do not know how often -- he switches over and runs a couple of tanks of Chevron to clean the engine.

Can't really vouch for the power since switching to Chevron I have only used Shell once or twice. While the Shell station dropped its prices and now is once again competitive I have gotten out of the Shell habit and now only fill up with Chevron gasoline almost all the time and have no real desire to experiment.

[www.toptiergas.com]

Maybe it's just placebo, but I tend to stick with Shell V-Power.

I too, would have stayed with Shell V-Power, but since they have left town, the available Top Tier fuels in my area are Conoco, Exxon or Phillips 66. Just trying to figure out which one is considered the better option by fellow Boxster owners.

... as far as I can from Shell.
Since my early racing days (60s and 70s) we had known to not use Shell because of possible damage to aluminum components in our Kart's engines.
Then they had a big campaign of how safe it was and that it had been blown out of proportion, etc.
Gradually I used the stuff sporadically as a last resort.
But then, When I moved back to FL from the Midwest the only station iny town was a Shell station.
About 6 months after using their gasoline, two of my cars were affected with their additive that damaged the fuel pumps and gas gauge.
They only wanted to compensate Chrysler owners. I had two VWs and had to fix the cars on my dime and then fight with Shell.
Eventual they paid 75% of my repairs, but I've bought 0% of my gasoline from them since the year 2000 if I recall correctly.
They may not have the issue any longer but they lost me as a customer for life.
I'd rather push my car with an empty tank to the next gas station than fill up at a Shell.
YMMV
Happy Boxstering
Pedro

PS. The Boxster was a garage queen back then and not driven much (what did I know?) so it wasn't affected.

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

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Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/2015 11:24AM by Pedro (Weston, FL). (view changes)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/2015 09:04AM by Laz. (view changes)

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Laz
n/t

My info is all fuel refiners/blenders limit the amount of ethanol to under the 10% nominal amount that the fuel is said to contain. The amount is in the 7% to 8% range.

Not sure what would be gained by in this case Shell upping the percentage to say a full 10% or even a point or two more. Power would drop off by some amount albeit a slight amount. Fuel mileage would get worse again albeit by a slight amount Cold starting could suffer a tad maybe. Of course, the slight drop off in fuel mileage would have people having to fill up more often. A percent or two drop in fuel mileage ain't much but over a large number of vehicles I guess it could add up. Hard to believe a company would resort to this for the sake of a bit of improvement in its bottom line. (Yes, I am aware of what VW has done, but I think, hope at any rate, that VW was the exception.)

For both of my cars I track fuel consumption and I've never noticed any change -- down or up -- between Shell vs. some other brand of gasoline. On long trips I fill the tank -- sometimes with Shell, sometimes with another brand, most often Chevron -- and then drive until the tank is low again and I calculate mpg at every fill up and without looking at the name on the previous pump credit card receipt I couldn't tell you which gasoline was in the tank over the previous 250+ miles by the mileage. I can go through 2 sometimes 3 tankfuls in a day's driving and over the span of 2 or 3 days. I would love to find a brand of gasoline that delivered a consistent MPG or so improvement in fuel consumption. So far I have not found any.

As an aside I suspect if I could run 93 octane this would have the biggest impact, positive impact on fuel consumption, but I only have managed to find 93 octane in Wyoming, this a few years back. The Turbo reacted quite favorably to this fuel. Unfortunately in enjoying the Turbo with this fuel gas mileage was down quite a bit so I didn't get a chance to compare 93 octane fuel consumption to 91 octane fuel consumption.

I have to wonder with just your isolated negative experience if the problem was something unrelated to the gasoline but the gasoline received the blame?

Regardless, I have no problem with people using some other brand besides Shell, as long as it is a name brand and top tier fuel and as long as the engine doesn't react unfavorably to the choice of fuel.

… you may be surprised.
There was a big issue in Canada as well.
There's also been several class action lawsuits regarding the issue.
Shell has probably paid many $$$$ to scrub most of the negative on the web.
Happy Boxstering,
Pedro

Pedro Bonilla
1998 Boxster 986 - 311,000+ miles: [www.PedrosGarage.com]
PCA National Club Racing Scrutineer - PCA National HPDE Instructor - PCA Technical Committee (Boxster/Cayman)

---

Racecar spelled backwards is Racecar

"Racing is life. Anything before or after is just waiting" ... Steve McQueen as Michael Delaney in "LeMans"

"If you wait, all that happens is that you get older"... Mario Andretti

"Being second is to be the first of the ones who lose" ... Ayrton Senna

I have used Sunoco in both my Boxsters (my 987 for over 60K miles) when it's available. Here in Canada, Suncor bought Petro Canada a few years ago, but use the PetroCan name. They still have Sunoco's 94 (not 93 like in the US.) octane fuel. They're also the only company that sells anything more than 91 octane fuel here in Canada.

When travelling and Sunoco isn't available, I try to stick to Top Tier fuels and try to purchase from busy locations to hopefully ensure I'm getting fresh fuel.

Is broaden this discussion to include:

1.motor oil;

2.whether the use of a crow's foot alters the torque reading, when tightening wheel lugs;

3.wrist watches.

Since I am not interested in reading about watches, etc., I guess I have received more than enough information to make a decision on fuel. Of the Top Tier fuels in my area, (Conoco, Exxon and Phillips 66), I will try them in alphabetical order. Of the Top Tier fuels mentioned in this thread that are not in my area, I will choose not to use them.

Not sure about your area, but in mine, Exxon tends to be the hightest priced, but it doesn't sound as though you have many choices. I'm not talking pennies, either. I've noticed some Exxon stations in my area are way out of wack with others.