I don't know what you guys are paying for gasoline.... My line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money's worth for every gallon:
Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose , CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline.. One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium grades. We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons.
✅ Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening....your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role.
A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.
✅ When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. You should be pumping on low mode, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.
✅ One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL. The reason for this is the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.
✅ Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up; most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.
Thanks for that.
I don’t know if you consider premium gas to be topped here, but once I started using premium gas, I started getting five more miles per gallon with an 18 gallon tank. Even though the gas was a little bit more expensive, it was still worth it. Also I get my gas at Costco, every time. That way I’m not putting gas like you might get from Arco, which is horrible gas, and gives you much less gas mileage. I don’t know what they do to their gas. But I used to drive back-and-forth to California all the time. Whenever I would use Arco gas, I would have to fill up twice to get there instead of once. Just my two cents. Lol
Premium doesn't always have ethanol. And I think ethanol burns faster. I get premium for the same reason as you. Get better gas mileage. And ethanol messes up your engine, so there's that.
So true. I found a link here or on PDW the other day about gas stations that sell gas without ethanol. There are few and far between but there happens to be one 2.3 miles away from my house. But it’s $10 a gallon. Generally used for people who have race cars and stuff like that. Gives them a booster in the race. I hear it the lower the amount of ethanol, the more bang for your buck when you’re stepping on the gas pedal.
Recommend u use the manufacturers octane.
My experience is the exact opposite, it requires 91 octane, but tunes the engine down for lower octane and I get better mileage, it cost me some horsepower,but I have it to spare.
Ugh, don't get me started on EPA regulations making it attractive to slap a turbo charger on an engine with inadequate displacement for the vehicle.
A lot of people are going to be in for a rude awakening when they find out that the days of a well-maintained engine going over 300k miles are gone. Higher rpms, higher heat, and a high-performance part that your average car driver doesn't know how to maintain properly.
V8 engines are going the way of the dodo in lieu of turbo and twin turbo charged V6's. V6's are turning into turbo charged 4 cylinders and what used to be girthy 4 cylinders (2 to 2.5 litre) are now turning into tiny turbo-charged lawn mowers. Our neighbor just bought a Chevy Equinox (a regular sized SUV for those unaware) and it has a 1.6 litre turbo-charged 4 cylinder. He opened the hood and it looks like I could pick up and carry the engine away.
I'm a gear head. I love turbo and super chargers. But I love them on engines that already have adequate displacement for the vehicle they're powering. With this new trend, vehicles simply aren't going to last anywhere near as long as they used to.
Okay, getting off of my soapbox now.
Correct- Dodge Charger ! Vroom vroom!
When I was trucking (longhaul owner-operator) The Flying J corp. was busted for heating the diesel in the tanks at their truck stops. They obviously did it to cheat drivers.
It went to court, they were convicted and paid a big fine. This was maybe a dozen years ago.
Not the exact case but Flying J are crooks:
https://www.ttnews.com/articles/ex-pilot-flying-j-president-mark-hazelwood-sentenced-1212-years
Stopped buying gas there when this happened...
"Punishable by fine" means "legal for the rich."
Correct. Complete bs. The ground temp doesn’t change daily. Air escapes. Fuel being pumped is under pressure minimizing air entrainment. That which may immediately escapes during fill.
I deal with folks like this daily. They’ve Been in the industry for decades. Not to be mean they just don’t have basic physics or chemistry education.
As in the deep layers of ground doesn't change? Like maybe 10cms of earth is warmed but not down where the tanks would be stored, right?
Why are they BS?
Just coming by and dumping "this is BS" is not as helpful as you may think without the reasoning behind it
Tbh after seeing your response here it kind of did anchor me to look for the reasons why whereas if I didn't I probably wouldn't have scrolled as much or looked as deep. So I gotta retract this statement
+1
Some great things to know there.