Best Gas?

[franzhelmer]

What's the best and cleanest gas out there?


Listen to my story...

We have 4 vehicles...
1. BMW R100 motorbike
2. Civic Esi
3. Lxi
4. Mitsubishi lancer Glx 1991

I don't use these vehicles frequently. They take turns depending on coding. Point is recently... I've been tanking in shell (Unleaded Gas). For some reason I felt like driving the mitsubishi more often for a month. Well guess what?

I tried starting the 3 vehicles that have not been used for only 1 month. ALL the three of them.. Sabay sabay. Stuck ung valve. It only stays open and won't close anymore due to some sticky black thing that prevents the valves from moving. So.. I removed the head of each vehicle.. Popped the valves and cleaned them out with "firefly" (seemed to really dissolve the black stuff better than the brake cleaner). Put em back in with new head gasket of course and readjusted the valve clearances a bit. Then tada.. All the vehicles started to run properly.... Put em back aside.... Next morning all of em won't start again. I did a big mistake and didn't drained the Shell Gas. But how come only now!? This is the first time this happened!

What are they putting in our gas these days? Is this because of the bio stuff and coconut essence or whatever that makes it this sticky? Did you guys have these problems as well?? I'd expect problems with the carburator but not on the valves!

So here I am repeating the entire steps again. Not wanting to make the same mistake again. I'd like to know who has knowledge about local gas in the Philippines and what they mix in their soup. Obviously the gas today is worse than the gas we had 10 years ago. This unknown substance is able to pass through the fuel filter. It's really weird. *confused*

[ghosthunter]

All Shell gasolines now have E10 mixed into it. One major problem is the gasoline will "expire" within a few WEEKS when left in the tank of a car. This results in poor running engine. Only fix for this is to drain the fuel tank and replace with "fresh" gasoline.

This is the exact same problem with my car. Since it is using Auto-LPG, the gasoline in the tank is not used up quickly, remaining in the tank of weeks to months.

Since you mentioned you rarely use those cars, it might be advisable to look for gasoline stations that sell non-E10 mixed gasolines. Currently I use Petron XCS since it doesn't have E10 (yet). I suggest you to do the same for those cars you have mentioned that you don't use often.

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You might also want to read the following thread:

E10 Ethanol and your engine [MERGED]
http://tsikot.yehey.com/forums/showt...=59222&page=48

Just back read it to the areas where it is useful for you.

[niky]

E10 isn't good for being stored long... (as GH has said) but if your valves got gummed up, it may also be that your oil got contaminated while the vehicles were in storage.

[franzhelmer]

Thanks for the info. This really helped build up my knowledge hehe. I figured the oil was sticky black and the gas was colored brown. Just drained it a few hours ago. This really sucks. I have now 70 Liters of stupid brown gas. Can't even use this #$%^ for making a BBQ grill. Sayang sa pera.

I fixed my problem with a few tricks. Bought a gallon of firefly from the hardware shop and poured it all inside the spark plugs (no smoking of course) one after another. Removed the fuel injectors and cranked it. Amazingly the valves started to move again. This saved me time and headache to remove the damn head again. Now for change oil as well. Jesus headache talaga yung gas! We need a better fuel filter for this. It's scam.

The firefly solvent works amazingly good in disolving carbon deposits.. Better than the commercial brake cleaners.

[p_borj]

Umm, mag-comment ako dito. My adventure is always "full tank" with E10 Unleaded Gas (Shell, Petron, Caltex) basta kung saan ko nalang gustong magpakarga. I use this car every friday only (coding car), so in short, naiimbak ang gas ko ng months.

Anyway, pero kapag ginamit ko kasi ito, hataw mode talaga, I drive it hard, no baby-ing. Kayo po ba sir? Baka naman po kasi dahil soft driving yung "hinay-hinay", eh naiipon tuloy yung mga hindi dapat maipon.

[youngrider]

Ethanol Reformulated Gas does not like to be stored for long. Ethanol is hydrophobic, though it mixes very well with petrogasoline it tends to absorb water overtime making it heavier.

Eventually it will settle into a different layer at the bottom of the tank, leaving a low octane gasoline at the top. Either layer will be very nasty to the engine.

Once the water-laden ethanol is separated from petrol, there is no DIY procedure at the moment to restore it back. You have to drain your fuel system and pour a supply of fresh E10.

[franzhelmer]

Forget the E10. I would never buy it again. I just bought an imported LPG kit from italy. This should fix my fuel issues from now on..

p_borj.. The civic is loaded... and I drive it hard.

As for the R100 I drive it hard also.. Since this is a BMW.

Hard means on the red line I guess.

The only vehicle I don't drive hard is the Lxi and mitsu since it's carb and intended for family use only. On the mitsu the fuel pump also died.

This E10 is really bad for my babies... If they go E10 all the way then it means LPG all the way for me. Not to mention I could use it for cooking pag sobra ako sa LPG hehehe Pwede na siguro mag install ng oven sa car lolz.

[youngrider]

Correction po, nagkamali ng tipa yung assistant ko: Ethanol is not hydrophobic it is hygroscopic_it is a water maniac, it will suck water even from the air.

Actually, the engine will not run particularly with that 'water laden ethanol layer'.

Gumming and varnishing which can plug the fuel injection/carburation system were also reported with E10 when the vehicle is not used for a long time. The current consensus is don't let the E10 hibernate in your machine for around thirty days or more.

It will also help if you will keep your fuel at about full tank level as this will prevent or minimize water condensation.

[hakkinen]

anyone knows if petron extra unleaded has E10 content?

i've read somewhere that looking at the exhaust tip will give you an idea about the efficiency of the fuel being burned by our engine, hence the quality of the fuel that we always use. any visual signs to look out on this? thanks!

[franzhelmer]

Extra Unleaded does contain E10. Best is buy XCS or Blaze. Having higher octane raiting doesn't do a good combustion but its still way way better than putting ethanol in the car. Ethanol is very very bad since its stick and guey and like to absorb water like hell, this is terrible when used in a tropical humid country like here. If I had to drive with ethanol, I'd rather pay for a LPG conversion kit. You can throw your savings away once ethanol will really mess with the engine este (bent valves,misfire,ruined spark plugs etc etc). This is for both.. Injected or Carburated. No exemptions. Dunno what people say or what they write for recommendation but even my titas bnew civic went down. Symtomps is the same.. Stored the car outside for 2 weeks without using it hence -> Stuck valve. They even overhauled it change head gasket etc etc. Imagine the pain in the ass to do that. Spending 8k for labor and parts just because nagpagas sila ng E10. You can never really predict when not to use your car. Kaya your better off building a high compression car then tank with blaze or converting to LPG/CNG and nothing in between. I am phobic with this ethanol and went nuts over it. Now I'm currently flushing all the lines with diesel on the civic unit. Terrible talaga.



Gas Stations with ONLY E10 -> Total dunno the rest.

I know there is another thread regarding E10 somewhere here. I just didn't know what E10 was so I actually started a new thread about it. Sorry. Anyway I think a general thread should be stickied somewhere regarding E10 and its effects to the engine. It kinda shocked me knowing how many people fell victim to this.