My truck toes (autocorrect lol)better with Shell VPower

[kevden]

On our last few long distance trips, I have noticed more power towing with our 2003 Yukon (6 liter) when using Shell VPower 93 octane. I have a bully dog tuner on the truck, set to the highest power setting which requires premium fuel. When traveling I used to fill up at any station that was convenient, I could fit into, and had a name that I recognized. Last year, we happened to fill up at shell stations a lot and I noticed that the trans was not downshifting as much on the highway over the minor hills. We just returned from a vacation from our home in Maine to Virginia and back. I tried to fill up at shell whenever possible in order to confirm, and when I filled with other brands there was definitely less power and the trans shifted to 3 on minor hills, where with shell it would stay in 4th.
I doubt I will convince anyone this is true, especially when shell 93 octane is the most expensive gas out there, just wanted to share what I have found.

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

The bottom line it this. Gasoline is gasoline. The base stock comes from only a few refineries in the US. In other words the only difference in gasoline brands lets say from Shell to Chevron is a small additive package. That's it. These additives don't give gasoline more power. Most are cleaning additives like Techron or octane additives like alkie or toluene.

An off brand gasoline with 92 octane has 92 octane. Shell 92 octane gas has 92 octane. What makes a top tier gasoline is not more power or octane but the cleaning additive package it has.

I really wish there was a cheap additive that I could put in gasoline that would give me 10 to 20 HP. I would buy it by the case load.

The reason amature racers like E85 so much is because it's dirt cheap and we can make big power with it and our hobby is subsidizes by the American taxpayer. :B

[Lynnmor]

Turtle n Peeps wrote:

Lynnmor wrote:
Unless your race car has a knock sensor and emission controls controlled by a computer, you cannot compare it to stock mass produced vehicles.

Sure I can.

I'm burning premium pump gas and so is the OP. I have maximum advance set, but I do it mechanically his does it electronically. Maximum timing is maximum timing.

I really wish that by switching gas brands I could pick up 10, 15, 20 HP. Now that would be cool! Remember, Ford and others can only pick up about 15 HP by going from E10 to E85. And yet some on this forum are saying they pick this up by going to a different gasoline brand.
Like I said; I wish.

What I am trying to convey is that current vehicles adjust as needed to prevent knock. Power can go up and down as the engine self adjusts. Of course you already know that, but some have no idea why they might benefit from a higher octane fuel.

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

Lynnmor wrote:
Unless your race car has a knock sensor and emission controls controlled by a computer, you cannot compare it to stock mass produced vehicles.

Sure I can.

I'm burning premium pump gas and so is the OP. I have maximum advance set, but I do it mechanically his does it electronically. Maximum timing is maximum timing.

I really wish that by switching gas brands I could pick up 10, 15, 20 HP. Now that would be cool! Remember, Ford and others can only pick up about 15 HP by going from E10 to E85. And yet some on this forum are saying they pick this up by going to a different gasoline brand.
Like I said; I wish.

[Lynnmor]

Unless your race car has a knock sensor and emission controls controlled by a computer, you cannot compare it to stock mass produced vehicles.

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

kevden wrote:
I doubt I will convince anyone this is true, especially when shell 93 octane is the most expensive gas out there, just wanted to share what I have found.

I would be one of them. Why? Because my race car uses pump gas and winning and losing can come down to 1 thousand of a second. I have used race gas, Shell, Chevron and countless off brands. The proven time slip verdict? No discernable difference in power in any of the gas brands I tried on any given day.

The only difference there was, was between straight gas and gas that was E10. The E10 won out by a very, very small margin every time. This makes sense because the more alky that is in the gas the more power it will put out. I would be able the pick up about 15 to 20 HP if I switched to E85 but the fuel system in my car was not, and is not set up to handle this fuel. Also where I live E85 is just not readily available where I live.

I also work in a building where the weights and measures are done for the county I live in. I personally know the guy that does the tests in stations around the county for octane. The last time I talked to him about this some off brand won the octane war by 1.5 points over the minimum. Now this was only one test but all brands were on the money or over for octane.

They say in the racing game that you can not feel a power gain unless it's about 10 HP or more. I agree with this statement. What you are saying is VPower will gain you over 10 HP. I say that is impossible unless the Vpower you are getting has a whole hell of a lot of alkie in it. If that's the case you would see a big loss in mileage over other brands.

[Grit_dog]

Race gas to make the pass!

[Dave_H_M]

:R I hold my F250's nose and dump the cheapest stuff i can find in it. Not saying that is the way to go.

However i have noticed (I don't think it is my imagination) that at times I can get a tank full that seems to pull noticeably stronger. :h

[Lynnmor]

Apparently the gas that gives you better power or mileage is higher octane. Engines have knock sensors and the computer ******* ignition timing when knocking occurs. With your tuner, timing probably is kept advanced as much as possible and the results are even more pronounced than stock. Octane has everything to do with it. There are probably other brands that will work as well, but repeated testing would be a pain, and then there is the possibility that additives, ethanol content, summer vs. winter fuel, refinery variations etc. will skew the results. Premium fuel is recommended in the owners manual for some trucks when towing, but time after time owners of such vehicles choose to ignore it.

[SoundGuy]

kevden wrote:
On our last few long distance trips, I have noticed more power towing with our 2003 Yukon (6 liter) when using Shell VPower 93 octane.

I doubt I will convince anyone this is true, especially when shell 93 octane is the most expensive gas out there, just wanted to share what I have found.

Here in Canada regular Shell contains 10% ethanol, mid-grade 5%, but premium is 100% ethanol free and is the only fuel I ever used in my Honda gensets. I'd expect Shell formulations to be similar in the US and it just may be that your older Yukon simply runs better on non-ethanol gas, with higher octane rating having little to do with it.

[Jack_Diane_Free]

Not really relevant to towing but a testament to Shell gas. My son has an Audi S5 and when he uses other than Shell premium gas his check engine light comes on. With Shell premium gas it goes out. He did not mention performance.

[classic_31]

I also try to only use shell.even if it is a little more I was surprised my owners manual said to only use top tier gas .it's a 2017express van

[kevden]

ScottG wrote:
Makes total sense to me. Tuning for premium fuel will indeed give better performance when one actually uses that fuel.

To be clear, I am using premuim at every fill up, no matter the brand. It seems that my truck just likes shell better, lol.

[ScottG]

Makes total sense to me. Tuning for premium fuel will indeed give better performance when one actually uses that fuel.

[Lwiddis]

Naturist ignores that real world of gasoline as do you. It’s all in your mind that one national brand is better than another.