Linner

Anyone start using the new 93 octane V power gasoline by shell? I was talking to the attendent and he was telling me that they have additives in the gas so that you dont have to clean the fuel injectors. Im currently trying it out now and the car seems to run very well on it just like the competitors similar octane. Just wondering if anyone else is using it and/or has heard anything about this new gas?

Justin.CL

I use shell alot and it works well for me. I can usually get better mileage with it. If it really works as well as they say it will with the new additives I might cancel the BP/Aamoco card and use Shell all the time.

EricL

Local Shell just got new pumps, tanks, etc.

Put in some V-power and it sure felt better after the Mobil I got.

In CA, the premium is 91 octane.

I mentioned this previously: with the local Mobil, I actually went to check the actuator to see if it was busted.

I've had good luck with my corner Shell. They were given the "rap" to my wife. They left me alone.

OTOH, the Chevron seemed to work fine too. They have a good additive package and the "Big 3” US Carmakers uses their gas for emissions testing.

Here's a translated blurb from Europe (different octane -- so don't draw too many conclusions):

http://translate.google.com/translat...D%26ie%3DUTF-8

Cruz_msl

From the Shell Public relations folks:

"Shell, which enjoys a position as the No. 1 selling gasoline brand in the United States, tested Shell V-Power prior to its introduction through independent, third-party testing facilities and at the company's advanced Westhollow Technology Center, a fuel testing facility in Houston. Over the course of more than a year, this advanced fuel formulation was exposed to laboratory tests, engine test beds, and actual driving tests in vehicles of various makes, models and ages.

The tests proved that Shell V-Power helps remove deposits and can protect your engine from future carbon deposit build up. Removing these deposits is important because an engine will work most effectively when it has the maximum amount of air and an exact amount of fuel to burn together. Unfortunately, engines that have carbon deposit build up on intake valves and fuel injectors, may work less effectively while the engine is warming up to its normal operating temperature. If these deposits aren't removed, the vehicle may experience hesitation during the engine's initial warm-up phase."

Before you go filling the tank with this new and improved product, let's just keep a level head here. Almost ALL gasolines that have additives that will do this, although maybe not as well. And YES, our motors do like 93 octane. So if you want to fork out the extra cash for 93 octane, then feel free. I have a Shell station right next door to my work and fill up with V-Power all the time. Good stuff.

kevin79925

i used to work at westhollow shell spot in houston...wish they would rehire me dammit.

UNCTYPE-S

so this new v-power, instead of them mixing reg water with gas, now their using bottled water an gas.

its all a scam. gas is gas.

NiteQwill

I just filled up with V-Power 15 minutes ago, I'll see how it does when I go out to drive tonight.

Nashua_Night_Hawk

I am really interested in this V Power gas... now is it only an Ad Hype ($300 millions Ad budget) or does reall work?

Nashua

123456SPEED

I usually buy Chevron, but Exxon has been cheaper lately (1.82) so I'm using that. I noticed Shell is pretty cheap too, maybe I'll try it. 6 speeds don't get very good mileage, at least mine doesn't.

Justin.CL

Is the $1.82 for premium?

I thought Knoxville would probably have the close to the cheapest gas but 93 octane out here is still at $1.95 at the grocery store gas stations, $1.99 and $2.01 at BP and Shell.

I hope it keeps going down.

Amoeba

Yea is this V power worth it I get 3% off on gas for my perfect card so I wouldnt mind paying a little more if this V power does anything at all...is this one of shells gas that also supposedly gives you more miles per gallon?

UNCTYPE-S

you guys ever see that fast n furious shit they sell at murrays or autozone? its some type of performance booster you mix with the gas.

on the back of the can it says "for maximum performance boost aloud by law" or something like that.

1killercls

Been useing ONLY V (93) power for a couple of months now....I like it.

anothercls

I am going to try and find a shell station, haven't seen any local, and don't remember where I've seen them before.

darrinb

hmm i usually dont like shell and stick to amoco/bp premium, i guess i'll give this new stuff a try

dfreder371

Never ever do this:

Yesterday after giving out a full day of flight instruction I saw this again. After the student did a pretty good job of landing, we pull the airplane up to the pumps and there he is again. A silver Lambo Countach at the pumps and he is filling up with Aviation 130 octane low lead. By the way, about $3.60 per gallon. I instruct Susan to shut down the engine so I can talk to him.

I asked him why he was using aviation fuel and he replied "Hey, it's a Lambo. Only the best for my baby."

I had to explain to him that "low lead" is a relatively comparative term as compared to cars. Compared to auto gas, aviation fuel is relatively loaded with lead! Our Acura engines have about .0005" to .001" of clearance between the pistons and the cylinder walls, where as airplane engines have about .008" of clearance. Because airplane engines are air cooled, they expand a lot under full throttle and contract alot when the throttle is closed. In fact, with very expensive aircraft engines (turbocharged) and in all helicopter piston engines, it is SOP to park the airplane and let the engine run at idle for five minutes to let all of the parts size "equalize".

Airplane engines are much harder to start than car engines because of that .008" inches of clearance, and we depend on the rings to do most of the sealing, and on top of that, aircraft engines are relatively low compression, and short piston stroke affairs. Different from the Acura v-6, which is high compression and a long stroke. The difference? Airplane engine; not much horsepower, but lots of torque. Acura engine, lots of horsepower, not a lot of torque. Why? Ever floor the CLS in sixth geat at 30 mph? Nothing happens. With aircraft, we want that TORQUE to be there to get out of dicey situations, and we want it NOW! It's a tradeoff.

And another difference, I explained to him. Car engines remain in a fairly predictable attitude (pretty much flat most of the time), but aircraft engines do not. They can be inclined up or down, and banked pretty severely, left or right. In fact, you cannot get the Private Pilot ticket unless you demonstrate 60 degree banks to the left and right with no altitude loss to the Examiner. This makes lubrication systems for aircraft engines much more complicated to design than car engines. The oil does a great jog of lubricating the cam, crank, rods and pistons, but may not be always available for the valve train on one side or the other.

That is what all that lead is there for. Lubricating the valve train and particularly the valve and the valve guides, directly in the fuel path.

Now I had to tell this rich but dimwhitted bunionhead the bad news. He has almost certainly trashed all four of his catalytic converters as lead will render them ineffective. And I will bet he has way higher carbon deposits than his engine should have. I wonder what a new V-12 Lambo engine costs? Nahhhhhhhh...I don't want to know.

Moral of the story: For car engines, use car gas.

And in my CLS6 navi, I buy the cheapest 93 octane I can find, but only 93. Marathon, and on a recent 376 mile road trip for my real job, I got a little over 31 mpg, my best yet. The car runs perfectly fine.

NSX-Tuner

Has anyone found it available in CA, most specifically in the Bay Area?

EricL

Perhaps this will help:

http://www.localshell.com/
OR
http://www.localshell.com/Search.aspx

Enter you zip code and call a local station to make sure they have it.

Zip codes for CA cities: http://www.555us.com/555CA/555ca_zipcodes.htm

The CA V-power stuff is 91 octane. Well, at least around my area.

(I don't know if you're thinking there's 93-octane V-power in CA )

When I play with a bit of 100 octane, I get it at a few 76 stations -- or a local independent that just resells the 76 product. They also have a table on how much of 100 octane to add to get 91 to end up with 93 (or higher). The math is pretty easy as well.

http://www.76.com/products/76racing.asp (chart is down the page)

http://www.76.com/76locator/Distribu...p.asp?State=CA (The old search was much easier with a check box to filter/select stations that carried racing fuel.)

dj5

Sounds like Shell's marketing campaign is working on you guys.


Gas is gas and there is very little difference in gasoline additives especially among the major brands.

NSX-Tuner

I can confirm that CA V-power is only 91 octane in the Bay Area. I'm staying with Chevron 91 octane.

Shawn S

Excellent explanation, but here’s a dumb question……Is it possible the Countach was an old model that was designed to run on LEADED gas?
I believe that model goes back into the early 70’s and was made for about 20-years.
Didn't the old ones require leaded fuel or are all the US spec ones unleaded?

fuzzy02CLS

iTrader: (2)

As said Gas is Gas in my book. As long as the octane is correct. If gas was cheap again, I'd try it, but not at $2.12+ for 93.

NSX-Tuner

Also... the two stations near me; Shell V-power 91 octane is $2.35/gal. where as Cheveron 91 octane is $2.33/gal.

mattdaddyz

Jesus.. 93 octane in Atlanta is right at 2 bucks. I can't believe how much more expensive a lower grade gas is out in Cali

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

I've been using 93 Sunoco since I've had the car... so I'm assuming there's no point in using this Shell stuff... however, I will keep an eye out to see if it becomes available in my area.

philgates

I put V in my car yesterday but it has been raining all day so i havnt opened her up, cars feels alitte more responsive but im sure its phsycological

EricL

The basic stock -- yes. The additives -- no.

I can think of two brands that I’ve gotten in the area from different stations and the car sure felt like crap.

And, the price is about $.20 gallon cheaper. The car ran like crap with it -- I won't be back and I've already tried two stations.

And, just to be clear, there are a number of other brands in the area that work fine too. (Chevron for one.)

EricL

I knew a number of people that had older high performance cars that were 1960 - 1970 vintage. One of them had 3 planes and a hanger at the local airport. They used AV-gas on occasions, and never had a problem.

That was quite some time ago, and the cars getting leaded were made for leaded premium. A '69 911 E seemed especially happy with a few gallons of AV-gas in it...

As for today, I would NEVER run AV-GAS in my catalytic equipped cars.

dfreder371

Shawn: No, this Lambo might be two years old, tops.

And I come in pretty much on the side that gas is gas. But I agree about the additive comment. One in particular, the one that determines "Reid vapor pressure", which has not been mentioned in this thread yet. This may explain why people complain of that "crummy winter blend gas" when the seasons change.

First, a short but very true analogy. For you charcole burning BBQ guys, you go out and buy lighter fluid to start the coals here in the lower 48, and what you are really buying is kerosene, which by the way, is also jet fuel (jet A). You buy the same labeled product in northern alaska during the winter, you are buying gasoline.

Why is this? First you all need to understand that there never is, never was and never will be a liquid in the world that burns. But the vapors of that liquid will. Gasoline has a naturally higher vapor pressure than kerosene. Lighting kerosene in alaska at -40 below simply will not work, but gasoline will.

Depending on your area of the country, additives are added to increase or decrease the reid vapor pressure of a gasoline blend. The vapor pressure is increased when it gets colder out, and decreased when it is warmer out. If the refineries did not do this and took a "middle of the road average", Our cars would start just fine at 50F, but be bitches to start at 0F or 100F. At 0F, there wouldn't be enough fumes to ignite (mixture too lean to burn), and at 100F, there would be too many fumes (mixture too rich to burn.) So they vary the reid vapor pressure several times a year depending on the average temperature.

But there are times even this will not work, and I can provide a perfect example. When I start a new student pilot out, we start with a simple airplane, one with a carbeuretor. They require a cetain starting technique to start, both when cold, and when hot, but nothing fancy is really involved.

But as the student advances and wants to move to more sophisticated aircraft, we move to fuel injection. Here is where things can get interesting. The fuel injection lines definitely need inspecting before flight (for leaks), so they are placed in plain view, right on top of the engine. And almost all small aircraft as designed as horizontally opposed, and the cowling and associated air baffeling, one of the most important design factors regarding speed, cooling drag loss, makes the design "under the hood" a pretty tight and heat retaining affair when the aircraft is shut off.

This is the worst on a hot, summer flight and you land an FI airplane strictly to stop for fuel only. The fuel in those fuel lines gets cooked, actually "percolates" on the top of that air cooled engine that is not being air cooled anymore.

The only way to restart this mess is to completely shut off the fuel supply to the engine, advance the throttle to wide open, turn on both magnetos and turn the key. The engine will not start for several seconds, but boy, when it does, you get busy in one hell of a hurry reducing the RPM by reducing the throttle and resupplying the mixture (gas supply).

I learned in one hell of a hurry to make sure the student has the brakes applied fully, both foot brakes and parking brakes. Starting a 300 hp airplane engine at full throttle without the brakes locked can have you turned 90 degrees in about 15 feet. I now check three times before I allow an engine start.

So, RVP has a lot to do with the starting and running qualities of you engine.

darrinb

i put in some v-power today, saw a black 350 next to me filling up with 87 octane

Shawn S

Then it’s not a Countach.

Black CL-S 4-Life

Diablo

michiamo

I've always used Amoco. This new Shell stuff is really good, though, maybe even better!

As for gas being all the same, I've always owned high performance cars, and they always ran shitty if I used any other than Amoco Premuim (or, lately, Shell or Chevron - their new formulas are great).

Joe5.0

I use Citgo, Mobil, Shell, Sunono, Amoco, or BP. I only get 93 and have never noticed any mpg difference or performance difference between any of the brands. I just stay away from the cheapie brands.

The local BP is usually 10-15 cents cheaper than even the Speedway's. Right now its like $1.99 for premo.

juniorbean

iTrader: (5)

Well, looks like it's out in my area... saw it last night on the way home. Still not sure if I'll try it since i've always used 93 octane anyway.....

fuzzy02CLS

iTrader: (2)

Just saw the the V power posted at this gas station that always has high prices. $2.44 for 93 V power!

Linner

im payin 2.13 for the v-power right now, it might be all psychological but I really think my car runs better with this new gas. Especially when I have the ac on it doesnt seem like it bogs down as much as the normal premium gas. Ill keep using it for now since the 91 around me is going for about the same price.

dfreder371

I stand corrected.

darrinb

i dont notice a differene with the v power...

proaudio22

I still prefer Chevron gas (or Texaco - same thing).

For some reason tho - in Huntsville (where a good deal of my family lives) - people flock to Shells like the sky is falling. Never understood it.