Best gas to run?


:o| :o| :o|

apparently i miss worded my original question... i am not trying to save money buy running 87. nor am i going to at this point... my concern was that the 93 i buy from the gas station is junk because no one buys it and it has been sitting..

i filled the $^% thing up with 93 lastnight... i plan on doing to from here on out... i just hope im buying good gas since there isnt a born on date for it...

then after i smoke a piston, ill say... "well ill be, guess that gas must have been stale or had some water in it" "good thing i didnt run that 87 stuff everyone uses in their car and i know is fresh"

as a matter of fact i went to the local full service station lastnight to get gas since i was in a hurry and didnt want to drive out of my way to the high volume place. as the kid was filling my can i asked "how much of this (93) do you guys sell?" he said "we hardly sell any" to which i said "great thats what i was afraid of, how much of it is water?" he said "i guarantee there isnt any water in it because we have this special stuff we put on the measuring stick that changes color when there is water in the tank. we check it once a month" that is a 100% true story and you can take that to the bank

but like tommy boy says "if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, i can. i've got time!"

PS i should have asked the kid when the last time they got a shipment of 93 was but it was 0 out and i was freezing already
 
I'm in CO so 91 is about as high as it goes, is 93 your premium octane rating, or even higher than premium?

And he's right about the stick.

The fuel haulers should be sticking the tanks and checking for water each time, but I don't, so why would they. I get paid by the load, not by the hour, so I get in and out as fast as possible.

How rural are you?

You don't really just get a load of 93.... There's bays on the truck which usually have premium and unleaded, which mix in the ground to make mid.

So give me some more info on your station and I might be able to give you an idea of what's going on.
 
I see what your sayin! But high octane gas comes with the territory when ya have powervalves. Ive owned nothin but yamaha sleds and 2 are srxs and ive personally never had one blow up from bad gas..only from my stupidity lol ;)!
 
Lucinda has a 1200 person population?!

If thats accurate and the store isn't on a heavily travelled road or something, or is the only station in town, that gas may sit for a while.

If you're as rural as it seems your best bet is to communicate with the station on when they're getting drops.

You live in the middle of know where by the looks of it and you don't have many options by the sound of it.
 
Tyler440 you ask some good questions and bring up some good points as well. If this whole thing was so simple ya wouldn't have people smoking their pistons and motors. The general consensus is that gas sucks these days and isn't getting any better. If I had to put in order of importance the qualities of gas coming out of the pump as far as what I would want. Well here goes.

1. Freshness is certainly at the top of the list. Stale gas of any type is no good. And I realize its very difficult to tell by looking. Especially when ur standing at the pump. This were the high volume station comes into play.

2. Octane rating. I want it as high as I can get with or without ethanol. On a high performance engine that needs at least 91 octane as per the manufacturer.

3. Ethanol. I would love to have my gas without it but that usually isn't an option.
Some may choose to agree or disagree but since this is my list, this is how I see it.

Even those who run the best gas they can will eventually be in a spot where there is no premium or old gas or whatever, and they have to put it in there tanks for whatever reason. Maybe their stuck out in BFE. The only other solution is that ya have to take it easy on your engine. No long hard pulls especially. Couple years ago I had an mxz 670 that was ALWAYS run on good premium and jetted right to the absolute edge. Ran it that way for several years and never had a problem. Then one day had to put some questionable gas in my sled because I had no other choice. Guess what? Few days later on that same tank of gas I had a midrange burndown that cost me a piston. Should have known better and put good gas in it at the next possible opportunity. But I didn't and it cost me a piston and an overbore. Went a little fatter on the jetting after that. Ya just never know.

Last point. The guy who says he puts a gel on their stick at the station to check for water, yes they do. Gas is lighter than water. So eventually the water if present, will seperate and sink to the bottom of the tank. This is how they measure it because the water comes into contact with the gel and changes color. I know that because I worked at a gas station Ion's ago. But since alcohol (ethanol) absorbs water that test is of little value for us snowmobilers.
 
milo... 93 is the highest i have seen at the pumps around here... maybe 94 at another station that is further out of the way but im not sure....

like i said before i think im just going to run 93 from the highest volume station near me.

ill probably do a little mason jar test for water and see what it get, plus i run those tubes in my tanks that are supposed to suck water out of gas. hopefully with the people trailering through my area the 93 will stay fresh at the station
 
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That's your best bet... Highest volume store, highest rating.

If you get a store like the ones I do once a day atleast, you won't be finding water in the tanks
 
i dont believe our highest volume station gets even 87 once a day let alone 93.... im thinking more like 2 or 3 times a week... ill know the delivery frequency when my friend that works there gets back to me... hopefully im pleasantly suprised and they get deliveries much more often.... ive got this funny feeling she is going to tell me they havent got any 93 in 3 weeks or something haha

basically i think we have came to the conclusion (at least for now) that running even crappy 93 is better than fresh 87 with no ethanol... which was the original question, no matter how poorly worded it was. not "can i pinch pennies and run 87 instead of 93"
 
I am hoping there is some "engineer" typre guy developing a carb sysytem that is freindly to ethanol and 2 stroke. I would gladly drop more than a few bucks for a re-designed 2 stroker carb with ethanol in mind!
 
mrviper700 said:
10 gallon of premium 93-94 octane fuel-$4.20, $42.00 fill up/throw in half bottle of 104 booster for good measure, a bottle is $8 you get 2 tanks from 1 bottle, so thats $50 total at fill up..................hmmmm, which one will be cheaper................. :o| :o|
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Not to mention the lost riding time and possible season. And the tow home from hopefully.....not a CAT.
 
How about yamaha develop a fuel cell that has a petcock in the lowest point of the tank, easily accessable on a daily basis and there is enough room to get a clear jar into wherever the drain is. That way we can check for water before we ride. This happen everyday on your daily aircraft inspection.

Mabey even a desacant type fuel cap that is easily changed after the water has been pulled out and has turned bad/pink.

Tyler....I'll have to agree w/ the statement.....it's better to run crappy 93 w/ ethanol than fresh 87 w/o corn.

I don't know what the compression ratio was on my SX7 w/ one layer removed, but it ran very well on Shell 91. Not nearly as well with 93. And that particular station gets fresh fuel at least twice a week. Although probably 75% of the fuel comming into all stations are more than likely the low octane fuel that goes into all of our cars/trucks. Mabey Milo can elaborate on this one?

All grades of Shell at my filling station have ethenol. Startron is always added to the fill ups. I allways keep it in a Sta-bil bottle so it can be metered out in correct incerments(their bottle stinks). And always w/ the sleds also. Same can be said about the kids SX6.
 
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MountainMax Man said:
you need to run the lucas ethonal juice or your sled will burn down
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I've never even heard of the stuff, and I've never burned down an engine.
 
I have heard of it, Its green I think. Hit the shelves in local auto parts last year. IMO its similar to stabils product designed for ethanoled fuels. Picked the bottle up...read it...put it back on the shelf.
 
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