Gas in CA for Ferrari

I'll only use top tier and gas stations that get a lot of traffic so there's fresh gas constantly. All gas from the same area comes from the same distribution center, just different additives for each brand.

 

If you see a tanker truck refilling, keep driving ...

 

As opposed to what?

 

As you likely know CA has a different summer formula for summer fuel than winter fuel. It seems most problems are with the summer fuel. That is also why CA has the highest gas prices in the nation. No other than CA refiners make the CA fuels.

I have read several years ago that all the manufactures use Chevron when they do their mileage tests. Also several years ago I had trouble with dirty injectors using 76. The dealer then suggested I try Shell or Chevron before doing anything else. At that time I changed to Chevron on all my cars and never had another injector problem. Occasionally on long trips I use Shell when I can't locate a Chevron station and that also seems fine.

 

Had my car shipped from East coast to CA and I always thought it ran better in the east coast when I was feeding it 93 rather than 91.

Havent really paid attention to the brand though, might stick with Chevron and Shell next time.

 

I try to drag my boat down to Lake Shasta and also the Sac River, once per year. Its only a 15 hour drive. California has the worse gas in the U.S.! Besides its very difficult to find non ethanol fuels, ethanol is horrible, google Jay Leno and ethanol. If its not a daily driver ethanol can cause all kinds of problems.

Ethanol-free gas stations in the U.S. and Canada

The CA summer blend is extra awful. Had a half tank of 91 in the boat sit for 3 weeks. The gas turned into gum paste material. I was changing fuel filters for months after.

 

I think most of the difference is placebo effect. I can't really feel difference between 89 and 91, let alone between the brands.

I use whatever is cheapest and freshest. This can be quik stop, 76, Valero or Costco. The biggest downside to cheap gas is waiting in line and sometimes have people cutting the wait line.

For those that say I am doing harm, I used to stick with shell and chevron until 1.5 years ago when shell gas made my m3 misfire and run on 4-5 cylinders. I spend $$ and it took me a month to fix. Eventually my bad gas was used and the misfire was fixed with a new tank of gas.

So, shell doesn't mean better gas. This is just before they switched to nitrogen enriched gas.

Btw, additive doesn't really do much cleaning. There are tests that use chevron techron additives followed by engine tear down on YouTube. You will see little to no effect on cleaning the engine after a couple treatments. It would be naive to think $7 can clean your engine I think. Techron, v power nitrogen, etc are all product differentiation marketing like bottle water.

 

Higher octane does not equal more power, especially at altitude. Just run what the manufacturer recommends, or the highest available if the recommended octane is not available. 91 in CA is fine for all modern fcars.