Dodge Durango Forum II

Re: Shell, Chevron, Mobil, Texaco...

Grant Matsushige Kamuela Hawaii
grant@cfht.hawaii.edu

That's an interesting question. I was sort of interested in that a while ago because here on the Big Island we don't have a lot of choices and depending on what part of the island you live one, prices can be as much as 0.20/gal more. Add that to our 25 gallon tank and you can see it is significant.

With the work I've done on my D, I've tried to make sure all mods work with 87 octance because I don't want to have to use 91 octane. Face it, we're trying to move a 4800 pound vehicle around, it just isn't going to be as fast as say a 2700 pound vehicle with and easy 350 HP. Besides, the 91 octane stuff is 0.20 more per gallon over the 87 octane stuff.

Okay, so what I've found is gas needs to meet certain requirments. It is made at certain refinerys through out the country and then piped through out the continental US in common pipelines. So Chevron is mixed with Unocal is mixed with Shell etc. They put a gallon in on one end and get a gallon out somewhere else. It's not the same gallon of gas but that's okay, it meets certain criteria. At the other end they'll add certain additives but if it is 87 or 91, it meets certain federal (or California) standards.

I'm not saying it is all identical, I'm just saying there isn't that much difference between the brands. They want you to think so but I haven't seen any tests between them so I'm not convinced by the hoopla.

I found most of this information on the "How Stuff Works" website. They've got some clever explanations on how all kinds of things work and what they are comprised of.

Here's some good information I looked at:
http://www.howstuffworks.com/gas-price.htm

I can't seem to find the article on the distribution. Unfortunate. It was very revealing, perhaps the oil companies didn't want that information divulged.

Aloha,
g

Fri Jan 31