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MG MGA - Gasoline 'Top Tier' Standards

Whats going in your car's gas tank when fueling up? I found this web site after reading an automotive column in 'Car and Driver' magazine. http://www.toptiergas.com/index.html
This is a listing of the gasoline companies who's detergent additives meet the 'Top Tier Standars' set by BMW, General Motors, Honda and Toyota. This is a standard for all grades of gas, not just the premium high octane grade.
In case you can't open the site the complete current listing of the eight companies that meet the standards are as follows:

TOP TIER Gasoline Retailers:

QuikTrip
Chevron
Conoco
Phillips
76
Shell
Entec Stations
MFA Oil Company

-M.S.
Martin Straka

Now if we could only find a cheaper supply of fuel! The prices around here are outrageous.
Ed Bell

I believe that a lot of the reason for Top Tier gasoline would be to insure clean running injectors; something that isn't necessary with our engines. Is this correct thinking, or are there other reasons I don't know?
mike parker

Mike,
I'd assume this would be relevent to our MGA's by reducing intake valve deposits and a general reduction of varnish in the carburettor and float chamber. -M.S.
Martin Straka

Gasoline quality varies more than most realize. All gas sold in the US has detergent, but here is were the difference is. Most additive packages will limit deposits that build up in carburets. But Intake valve and combustion chamber deposits will still accumulate. The higher quality fuels tend to use Polyether Amines which limit or lower deposits in the caburetor and intake but are nuteral in combustion chamber deposits. The major companies listed tend to use better additves, discounters or box merchants buy gas from which ever refiner or reseller offers the best price not nessacery the most advanced fuel. They sell on price alone not quality. They do sometimes have fuel from the majors listed but it may or may not have the higher quality additives.

Mark

PS, Have been a long time lurker I've gotten much good direction and info from you all.
Mark Bidwell

Ed, "our prices are outrageous", that's a joke. You want to come over to the UK and look at ours. gasoline is approx 9op per litre making it £4.09 per UK gallon or £3.30 i.e. $5.87 per US gallon. Now, how much do you pay ??
Iain MacKintosh

Iain,
We are in the $2.30/$2.50 per gallon range at present. I realize that is lower than a lot of other countries, but is quite a shock to our drivers of large autos and pick-up trucks. When you pull into a filling station with an empty 36 gallon tank and say "fill it up" you better have the checkbook with you! I am curious as to how far others drive their cars? It is not unusual around here to go for a Sunday Drive and put 200 to 300 miles on the odomoter. There is a sign on a road about 25 miles from my house that reads "NEXT GAS 69 MILES". This is a warning to drivers not to procede unless they have enough fuel to make the next stop! We don't drive the MGA all that much, but have put 11,000 miles on it in just over 2 years.
Ed Bell

Your situation is very different from ours Ed. You have large open spaces whereas we are all very much closer together. I live in Inverness in the Highlands and because we have many events within an 80 mile radius we seldom do the same mileages. Most people have their friends and relatives fairly close as well so I guess that our need to travel long distances is much reduced.

Yes I am aware that most of your vehicles have very large engines and that 8/10 mpg might be the order of the day. Even at $2.30 these prices are crippling but then our engines have become much smaller and more economical over the years. I run an Audi A4 Turbo Diesel and it will run for over 600 miles on a 60 litre tank and it aint slow either. I don't know where all this global warming and emissions business will eventually lead us.

Let's enjoy our MGs

Iain
Iain MacKintosh

Iain,
I believe that we have much better than 8/10 mpg on our modern cars. I have a 94 Taurus which gets from 22-28 mpg, city vs. hwy driving. My 98 Ranger 4wd pickup gets about 17 mpg, city or highway. Newer cars go get better mileage for the most part, with the notable exception of Hummers, which anybody buying one of these should not gripe about the fuel prices.
mike parker

I wonder if gas from, say, Texaco or Mobil is really inferior to the products listed. Or is it just that this is kind of a new thing, and not everyone has decided to go through the qualification procedure.
Steve Trovato

So its you Americans who are contributing most to global warming is it ? Stop winging about fuel prices, and use less.
M Nunn

Us contributing to global warming? I rather think that we all might be a little guilty of this.
I think that we had better have a little lesson on global warming.
Apparently the increase of the Earth's temperature by between 1 and 3 degrees is considered to be a threat to modern civilization. Well, as I understand it, we are also overdue for another ice age, which will eliminate modern civilization. We are due to be hit from a comet, again being overdue. Now, let us consider facts.
We have a population larger than ever in the history of the Earth presently residing around the globe. What is the average temperature of the human body? 98.6 degrees F? Well, multiply that by the amount of people on this earth, and calculate the BTU output of that mass, and what do you get? Add to that the amount of heat produced by the farm production of our food (cows, chickens, etc) and you see that all that heat produced by people and animals is considerable. People and animals expel carbon dioxide, a constituent of what is considered to cause global warming. Add to that the furnaces running in colder climates, the cement and asphalt surfaces throughout the planet which hold solar heat, and you can consider that there are several reasons that the Earth may be warming up.
mike parker

C'mon Ed do you really need a vehicle that requires a 36 gal tank? What do you tow or haul on a regular basis?

Sunday drive of 200-300 mi's? Go play some golf instead!

Let me guess- It's an Excursion with a GAS engine cuz the deisel equiv is too slow. Or, it's a F350 crew cab lwb to haul the kids to soccer practice?

If it's that bad and you NEED a big truck to haul, then get a 2nd car for everyday. Or better yet, ride a bike, Oregon is beautiful this time of year...

Your have a ranch or farm? Use those tax breaks to help pay for your gas!

Can you say SMART? http://www.smart.com/smart_uk/smart_uk_start.html
The Brits started the US sports car revolution with the TC in the 40's. Thanks!
Let's let Daimler/Chrysler bring us some REAL economy cars! Let's get these things approved for US market!

Or, is everyone afraid of driving one of these "little" cars in traffic with a bunch of soccer mom's in thier H2's?

Yours,

62MGA requires at least 108oct $4.00/gal
58MGA 92 oct $2.50/gal
97 Audi A4 92 oct $2.50/gal
98 Cherokee 87 oct $2.20/gal
2005 Not griping about gas prices.
Shoo

Well you have convinced me Mike, burning huge amounts of carbon fuels does not affect the atmosphere. I will be able to sleep soundly tonight knowing that!
Perhaps you can put my mind at rest over another obviously incorrect statement.
The USA having a small proportion ot the worlds population actually consumes most of the world natural resources.
We in Europe are suffering from high taxes to try and save these deminishing resourses whilst the USA doesn't appear to give a t0ss. I am sure this is untrue and will await your reply so I can create a case to my government for a huge reduction in tax and the use of enormous tanks for our local shopping journies.
Bob (robert)

Bob,
The USA while having a small proportion of the world's population actually consumes most of the world natural resources.
OK, well, we also have one of the most robust economies, which if it fails, yours will too, regardless of the country you reside in. We import from everybody, and provide for their economies. We export food to everywhere, even when we disagree with their politics.
What is the problem?
mike parker

When you put it like that it all becomes so much clearer, yes that bed is just waiting for me.
Bob (robert)

Bob,
Maybe not 100% but in a nutshell I don't feel too badly about the US and our consumption. You better watch China, they will overtake the rest of the world on all fronts, and they don't yet do much about pollution control.
mike parker

Well Mike that is at last a correct and unbiased comment, China will overtake the USA in polluting the atmosphere and consuming "our" resources.
Perhaps we should not be buying there cheap products made at the expense of good jobs in the west and no though for the environment and safety of employees.
Bob (robert)

Hi Guys,
How come this board politicolises all the time? ;)
These treads always start with fuel prices and then..

No offence Mark, but:

"one the most robust economies", any idea how big the European economie is? USA vs Europe in GDP, $8511 billion vs $7752 billion. (that is just EU15, old Europe ;)

"We import from everybody, and provide for their economies." The USA is one of least importing countries (percentage wise) in the western world, 18,2% (2004) compared to 48,1% in the Eurozone.
(OECD.com)

Agree Chine will become a problem. Maybe we should have a chat with these guys.... :)

All the best ,
Koen
Koen Struijk

You really cant have it both ways. I your first stat Europe was 1 unit but in the second were imports listed between countries in europe? It appears so. Thats like US counting as imports sales between any 2 of the 50 states. Stats can be "true" and mislead. Just try to be consistant.
R J Brown

Sorry, I spelled it wrong, it should be "into" the Eurozone. (=EU15)

Wrong spelling, correct equasion.

Koen
Koen Struijk

To quote; 'M Nunn, Kent, United Kingdom, maxnunn@fsmail.net
So its you Americans who are contributing most to global warming is it ? Stop winging about fuel prices, and use less.'

What global warming?
Where are the scientific facts??????

This should go to the 'Flame Wars' thread.
Global warming is just meant to scare people into following after a more liberal philosophy...........
!

Oh boy, now I did 'er.......


Safety Fast
Dwight

Dwight

As a CALIFORNIAN I am aware of the FACT that WE CALIFORNIANS REDUCED exhaust EMISSIONS (CARBON MONOXIDE, HYDROCARBONS, & NITROUS OXIDE) BY 95% OVER THE "UN-REGULATED ENGINES" YEARS AGO! Getting out that LAST 5% is going to be REALLY HARD AND/OR REALLY EXPENSIVE! As for the upcoming CHINA/INDIA SMOG PROBLEM; "THE TREATY" actually EXEMPTS THEM FROM ANY CONTROLS AT ALL! Sorry, but I don't think "THE TREATY" is the way to go. Now we COULD "DUMP" ALL THOSE "UN-CONTROLLED" MGAs and reduce the smog a bit, but somehow I doubt it would make all that much difference, and I would HATE for THAT to happen. Incidently BIG V-8s ARE REALLY "RARE" THESE DAYS!
wattswh1

This thread was discussed between 03/07/2005 and 27/07/2005

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