Costco Gas for a Ford V10 - any issue ?

[CYingling]

I was just talking with my mechanic and he told me that I should not use Costco or Kroger gas. I usually fill at costco (price and 3% cash back), and now I am worried that using this gas in my new SunSeeker 3170 with Ford V10 will cause trouble.

Does any one have any experience with issues caused in the Ford V10s from using this gas?

Thanx in advance

[powerboatr]

why would he say that?

is it because of the ethanol content? ethanol wont hurt your v10, any gas engine built in the last 10 years can run ethanol mix just fine.
mpg wont be as good as straight gas. if your rig sits for long periods you should use a fuel stabilizers to limit moisture build up in the tank and slow the degradation of the fuel.

always ask the hard question of mechanics....WHY and based on what research? then watch as they stutter around.


best bet is use what the owners manual recommends, ford and gm have pages devoted to fuel and storage and ethanol

[Chasboy]

I use Costco Premium in my Acura as often as I can get it...no problems.

[Midniteoyl]

I'm sorry... ANY gas of the same octane in any given area will be exactly the same, minus a .01% 'additive' mixture particular to the actual brand.

Your mechanic is just biased...

[LVJ58]

For whatever it's worth, we gas our coach at Costco as often as possible. Our v10 is now 11 years old with 72k miles and no problems whatsoever.

What evidence does your mechanic have that Costco or Kroger gas is harmful and should not be used in the v10?

It would be very interesting to hear.

I plan to continue using gas from Costco whenever I can.

[CYingling]

Basically he was talking about injectors. I had him replace an injector on my 2003 Explorer Sport Trac, and he commented that "cheap" gas was a contributor to the injector going bad. IN the conversation he said that almost every time he has folks come in with injector probs, he asks them and the are users of "cheap" gas. Then I asked the questions regarding the V10. We talked about the ethanol content, and he suggested I stick with BP or Shell. He did say the the new V10s did not seem to take the "cheap" gas so bad.

I will have to find some of the commentary from For on the web. Seems to me if I put a premium gas in every 2 or 3 gas ups, I would think I would be fine.

[RustyJC]

Well, the additive package CAN make a difference - see Top Tier gasolines. Realistically, though, you could use the Costco gas and treat it with a bottle of Techron concentrate (available at auto parts stores) every now and then and ensure injector and intake valve cleanliness.


Rusty

[ulric]

Quote:

Originally Posted by CYingling Basically he was talking about injectors. I had him replace an injector on my 2003 Explorer Sport Trac, and he commented that "cheap" gas was a contributor to the injector going bad. IN the conversation he said that almost every time he has folks come in with injector probs, he asks them and the are users of "cheap" gas. Then I asked the questions regarding the V10. We talked about the ethanol content, and he suggested I stick with BP or Shell. He did say the the new V10s did not seem to take the "cheap" gas so bad. I will have to find some of the commentary from For on the web. Seems to me if I put a premium gas in every 2 or 3 gas ups, I would think I would be fine.

With all due respect, and this is not meant to denigrate good technicians, a lot of busy mechanics out there are good wrench twisters and have good experience working on machines, replacing parts, etc. but lack the training, skills, and time to get beyond a kind of "folksy" knowledge of underlying cause. "Cheap" anything will always be an underlying cause for failure because it sounds reasonable, but that premise will not necessarily be examined critically, so anecdotal evidence will always "seem" to support it. You see the same kind of thing when asking mechanics which is the best oil, or whether you should use OEM replacement parts.

The history of "cheap" gasoline might have something to do with the apparent reasonableness of the statement. Years ago, some cut-rate stations would buy from suppliers who had stored gas too long, gotten water in it, etc.

This is not likely with Costco or Sam's, but just in case your mechanic had a point, why don't you ask Costco where they get their gas and why it is cheaper?

Most real experts poo-poo the idea of using "premium" gas to "clean out" an engine, saying that the only thing it will "clean out" is your wallet.

Injectors and other parts fail for a lot of reasons.

[wa8yxm]

There is no significant difference between Costco, Kroger and many of the major brands... Gas stations can be divided into basically 3 groups.

Discount stores, (Costco, Kroger, Murphy's) which are part of a large chain of stores generally are as good as you'd get at most "Brand name" stations.

Brand names,,, Now there are a few that have one or more outstanding features that make them superior... Most have very tight quality control programs,, Standard, for example, back when there was a Standard Oil, the standards for water in the underground tank were exactly half of what the State of Michigan allows (that is they only allowed half as much water) then they pumped out the tank. This was to guarantee quality, also in the winter they added gas line antifreeze... (We know it today as Ethanol) to prevent gas line freezup in the winter. This, then, made it superior to many of the brand names. Of course Standard Oil is now BP and I don't know the standards of BP.

Finally we get the independent and "no-name" stations, some of these are chains as well.. The gas may or may not be as good (I know of one station owner, and I might add this was a brand name, who topped off his storage tanks with a garden hose)

The major danger here is this: Texas, recently padlocked something like a third of one brand's stations (One of the "off brands") for selling 7pint gallons, (A gallon is eight pints) The pump was delivering short.

Costco.. The pumps are inspected and certified not only by the state but by Costco, Same for most of the big name chains like Kroger and Murphy, Flying-J/Pilot, Loves, and so on.. But the dirty looking bargain gas,, May or may not be good gas, but the odds of a short gallon... Very high.

[Midniteoyl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RustyJC Well, the additive package CAN make a difference - see Top Tier gasolines. Realistically, though, you could use the Costco gas and treat it with a bottle of Techron concentrate (available at auto parts stores) every now and then and ensure injector and intake valve cleanliness. Rusty

And BP is not on the Top Tier list....Top Tier Gasoline

Ask him next time if he thinks Kwik Trip is 'cheap' and we'll know if he is trying to stear you towards top tier or not...

Your local Chevron station may sell gas refined by Shell or Exxon Mobil. Suppliers share pipelines, so they all use the same fuel. And the difference between the most expensive brand-name gas and the lowliest gallon of no-brand fuel? Often just a quart of detergent added to an 8,000-gallon tanker truck.

True, additives help to clean your engine, but what the companies don’t tell you is that all gas has them. Since 1994 the government has required that detergents be added to all gasoline to help prevent fuel injectors from clogging. State and local regulators keep a close watch to make sure those standards are met.

The 'Top Tier' gasoline are those that meet a slightly higher detergent standard than those required by law. The gasolines are tested by a standard developed by a group of 5 auto companies: BMW, General Motors, Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen and Audi (Audi is owned by VW)

[frankdamp]

We live close to two refineries here in Anacortes. The same independent delivery company tankers deliver gas to all the stations except Chevron, who still have tankers with their logo. They fill up at the refineries also.

Gasoline is gasoline, the only difference is in the proprietary additives, which are added to the tanker at the refinery depending on the brand of gas station they'll deliver a particualr load to.

We use either Costco, our local Swinomish Tribal Chevron or the in-town Safeway. Since it's a 45-mile round trip to Costco, a 20-mile round trip to the tirbal station and only 9 miles r/t to Safeway, we use Safeway unless we're going past the others for other reasons. Costco is usually a couple of cents less than the tribal price, and Safeway (with a store card) is maybe 3 cents more. The Shell station on Highway 20 headed out of town is almost always 25 cents a gallon more than the tribe.

With the RV, I use the tribal station the most because access is much easier. I almost always fill up as we're heading home to get an accurate mpg calculation for the trip we just did.

[RustyJC]

The reason these vehicle manufacturers supported a Top Tier effort is that their vehicles were experiencing emissions and driveability problems related to injector, intake valve, etc. deposits. I have one vehicle (a 2007 BMW K1200 GT motorcycle) that is especially susceptible to marginal fuel/additives as it will build up deposits in the intake tract and injectors due to its design and state of tune (152 HP from 73 cubic inches). That's the only vehicle that I will religiously fill up at Top Tier stations, and I've had none of the deposit buildup problems that other owners have reported. BMW's short-term "fix", by the way, was an industrial strength dose of Techron additive as developed by Chevron's Oronite division. My Acura and my wife's Toyota are somewhat more forgiving when it comes to fuel quality, but I try not to run "swill" through them nonetheless.

Here's more on the Top Tier story in case anyone is interested.


Rusty

[Midniteoyl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RustyJC The reason these vehicle manufacturers supported a Top Tier effort is that their vehicles were experiencing emissions and driveability problems related to injector, intake valve, etc. deposits. Here's more on the Top Tier story in case anyone is interested. Rusty

Agreed..

[IC2]

Unless it has changed in the last few years, in the NY Capital District we have had Hess and everyone else. Texaco, Exxon/Mobil and Sunoco have left the area though some stations still use the franchise name - and of course charge 5-10 cents more per gallon for the privilege. Elsewhere, no clue, but my '06 V10 F350 seems to run on anyone's 87 octane just fine with the 10% ethanol at ~10mpg mixed and 13+ totally open road. If I can get "100% gasoline",those figures will jump 1-2mpg respectively. Now, where's that economy the gov't said we should be enjoying with ~76000btu gas vs 114,000 (Gasoline gallon equivalent - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and Miles per gallon gasoline equivalent - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)