hey guys got 5000mi on my truck now been running good, got some other questions please give any help if you want to thanks.

i changed my oil first at 500mi to supposedly flush out the junk from the factory and used a mobil 1 m1-210 oil filter along with 7qt motorcraft 5w-20 syn blend oil, and changed it out at 4000 mi a few weeks back. is this oil and filter good to use? is mobil 1 5w-20 extended performance oil better?

1 other question is all gasoline the same? i have my choice of exxon, sunoco, giant eagle get go gas, walmart gas, sheetz, shell, bp, in my area all of these have up to10% ethanol in them, which out of these brands has the least ethanol in the western pa area and what brand, if there is a ranking for them will my engine run better on and give me better mpg, the lie-o-meter is currently telling me i am getting 13.9-14.1 combined mpg. driving, also i dumped a couple cans of bg 44k in at the second oil change and seen a mpg increase slightly is bg 44k safe to use my ford dealer has been selling the cans for years.

 

As a previous dealership service manager I can answer this for you:

BG makes excellent products that do what they say they do. No need to run the 44K at every tank, but as preventative maintenance, at every oil change is fine. If and when you want to do an injection service, the BK kit is great for gas and diesel. Also check into their other synthetic fluids (i.e. trans, differential, transfer case, coolant, brake, etc). If you install them in the vehicle at less than 30k miles, they will give you a free extended warranty on those components that you have their product installed in.

I only run the Mobil 1 oil filter and oil in my personal vehicles. I just sold my 1997 Mercury Mountaineer with 144k miles on it. I started running Mobil 1 in it at 73k miles when I bought it used. At 144k, it still had never started using oil, never smoked on start up, never leak any oil. I changed the Mobil 1 oil and filter every 10k miles on it.

I try to use Exxon/Mobil or Chevron fuel when I can, I've had the best luck with them. I prefer the Chevron brand because they use Techtron in their fuels which does basically the same thing as BG 44K.

Depending on your area, I would expect all the fuels to now be 10% ethanol. One thing to remember, in most cases, all the tanker trucks pull into the same refineries, it's just the additive package that gets blended with the fuel that makes them different. It's not practical for all the gas/oil companies to have their own refinery near every major city, so they "sublet" or whole sale to each other as needed. Plus there are many gas station brands out there that don't have a refinery of their own, period.

Hope that helps.

 

6L - you and I have very similar trucks except I got the CC and V10. You need to up some pics in your gallerey. So you beleive you saw an increase with the bg 44k? or could it have been break-in related. I've never used any kind of additives/cleaners before but also never planned on keeping a truck forever either. Is this stuff recomended? I to have just broke 5k miles on my 09 (well actually I think just this week I hit 6k). My MPG just took a hit though, last 3 tanks down slightly which I figure is winter blend fuel. But still reading about the same as your getting, last 3 tanks were reading on dash 13's and low 14's down from high 14's to low 15's.

Is ethenol the only difference in 'winter blend' fuel, or are there other additives as well?

My F150 would drop ~2mpg in the winter and our RX300 suv will drop 2-4mpg. I assume the winter blend fuel must have some other benefits, but seems to me like decreasing the economy of most every gasoline vehicle by 10% is a pretty non-green thing to do in todays world.

 

I don't think the ethanol content will change seasonally. It's more about the additives that relate to vapor lock, vaporization, freezing, etc.

 

fuel mixes are controlled by state laws for the most part. some of the additive packages may be different. but basicaly its all the same, just watch out for unscrupulus stations.

 

Guys,

I own an unbranded service station in New York. I get Sunoco, BP, Conoco, Gulf, Mobil, Shell, and many other "branded" gasolines delivered to my station. My supplier is a distributor for many brands, and he gets me the lowest priced one for the day. There is NO SUCH THING AS UNBRANDED GAS. UNBRANDED GAS IS BRANDED GAS SOLD WITHOUT THE BRAND NAME AT DISCOUNTED PRICES. Oil companies will sell gas cheaper to outsiders than they do to their own stations. It makes no sense, but they have to keep their image up, and they do that by keeping the prices up at their own stations.

Many years ago, I had the Mobil dealer around the corner come over to my station complaining that I had a sign saying that I sell "branded gas" including his Mobil brand at discounted prices. He insisted to see the loading sheet from my last delivery. I showed it to him and he was flabergasted to see that it was actually Mobil gas delivered from the same terminal as he gets his from. When I showed him how much I paid for it, his face fell to the floor--It was 12 cents lower than Mobil charged him.

So, remember, unbranded gas is branded gas sold without the name--It contains the exact same ingredients as the branded station across the street.


RON

 

chevron and shell are great fuels, they have at least double the government standard of detergents in them. i hope this link works. www.top tier fuels.com.
if not google top tier fuels, its interesting

 

Same ingredients just diluted a little with water

Sorry just kidding

I had heard many rumors though that this happens at some of the gas stations I used to visit, namely the one on a native american reservations.

And is having double the amount of detergents in em really a good thing? i tend to avoid those places but it maybe unfounded IDK.

 

Here's the link...

Top Tier Gasoline

I usually run the cheapest gas I can (except my race car) and run a bottle of techroline through the tank at each oil change (5K). I've been doing this for the last 20 years or so and never had an engine related problem. I usually keep my vehicled between 125 and 150K miles.

 

I will not try to change anyone's opinion on branded and unbranded gas but here is my knowledge.

I worked for Exxon (then, now ExxonMobil) as a marketing engineer. I built gas stations and then worked as a distribution engineer at 7 terminals (the large storage tanks where the transports load)

Exxon had it own branded additive (called XL12) and a generic additive at every terminal. No Exxon additive went to gas delivered to an unbranded station. Yes all the gasoline is stored in the tanks and the trucks depart from the same gate, but it is not all the same. If no Exxon additive was available, I had 48 hours to fix the mechanical problem or no Exxon branded fuel left that terminal. I had other branded additive tanks at some terminals. In western PA, Neville Island had a Chevron additive tank.

The common Exxon dealer compaint in Pittsburgh was the Neville Island terminal supplied Sheetz fuel, and it was cheaper than Exxon fuel. The independent branded Exxon dealers complained that Exxon was selling gasoline to Sheetz cheaper than what they were charged.

But the Sheetz gasoline had the generic additive.

The gasoline for the terminal in Charleston WV came by barge from the Ashland Refinery in KY.

 

^^^
Interesting, thanks for the info. I didn't realize that.

 

Basically, I shop for the lowest price locally, then try a few tank to see how the truck feels. If it doesn't seem right, I cross that station off and move to the next one.

When on a road trip, I stick with major brand only, no independent fuel dealers. You may get 200 miles down the road before you realize that last tank full just clogged your fuel filter. I realize that most independent distributors are great (and not all major retailers are good) I don't want to experiment with it when 1000 miles from home.

 

The base fuel used to PRODUCE "branded gas" is all the same.

The only thing "branded gas" has is the brand's additive package.

Otherwise, the base gasoline is all the same.

Whether or not ethanol is added as part of the brand's additive package, or before that, I don't know, but I suspect it's added BEFORE the particular brand's additive package.

 

Our station sells Citgo gas. We have been told that our fuel does not have ethanol in it. I do get better mileage on it than when I have to use something else.

 

Ethanol is nothing more than a scam and political pay-off on the American public. It takes roughly 40% more ethanol vs. gasoline to get a burnable mixture. That's why it will never be a replacement for gasoline at this time or in the near future.

Race cars/turbo cars love it because it runs cooler and at a much higher octane rating. But you have to have a fuel system capable of supplying the higher fuel flow demands.