Shell V-power

[kikie]

Did a search but couldn't anything releated to this.

Shell V-power

Is shell V-power as good as they claim or is it just a marketing stunt????

 

[KaiZen]

It looks like it might be similar to Shell Optimax in Australia, but with a lower Octane rating of just 93 RON (Research Octane Number).

That's weird.. why does the US have such shiet petrol?? After looking at this page on the US Shell site it states that "The most common levels of octane are 87 (regular), 89 (mid-grade) and 93 (premium)" and compared to Australian Shell fuels, Regular Unleaded has 91 RON, Premium has 95 RON, and Hioctane has 98 RON.. and the RON level for Leaded petrol, which has now been phased out, is 96.

And I thought aussie fuels weren't good enough compared to Japan's 100+RON fuels, which is the reason why Japanese cars usual get de-tuned when being sold in other countries.

Optimax has been selling here for about 5 years now (2000) and was the only Hioctane fuel on the market for a year or so untill Mobile (2001) released Synergy 8000, and BP (2002) slowly released Ultimate across the country, and then a few months later Caltex (2002) released Vortex, which at first was a 96 RON fuel next to their 95 RON Premium (stupid). They're slogan was something like "You don't need to have 98 RON for a cleaner, economic fuel" and just a few months ago (2005) they release Vortex 98

So, yeah, it's weird that US has such crappy fuels but what about Europe? Is it better than Australia's or on par with Japan's?? Can someone confirm?

In my opinion, Hioctane is worth the extra cents you pay for it. Apart from the obvious power gains people talk about (it's hardly noticable) the view and smell from the exhaust is cleaner (ie. less carbon build up, the fumes aren't as strong and doesn't smell as bad), and I also get more miles out of it with an average of about 10% more km/litre extra.

So, it sort of works out to be costing the same per km but the benifits are a slight power gain and cleaner burning engine..


BTW, my woman is a Product Scheduler for BP so I've always liked researching fuels... in my opinion, Ultimate is the cleanest, Optimax is the strongest, Synergy isn't as clean or strong as BP or Shell, and I hate Caltex..

 

[TsLeng]

We have Ron 97 premium and Ron 92 regular here.

Even regular is hard to find because most stations do not sell regular.

 

[StevieMo]

87 is average in Canada. I think we have as high as 91 at most places. Probably higher at others.

 

[zoxxy]

We have 95, 96, 98 and V-power. But all of them cost over 1.20€/ litre.

 

[Joey D]

The less the octane the cheaper the gas, hence why it is cheaper in the United States.

Shell V-Power is a marketing scheme I think, it doesn't add mileage or make my truck run any better then any other gasoline. If I wanted to clean my engine I go out and buy a 4 dollar bottle of fuel treatment and it does the same thing.

 

[kikie]

Shell V-Power is a marketing scheme I think,...

Just what I was thinking

 

[xcsti]

I'm trying to find it, but famine had a good post about the differing fuels and fuel measuring systems a little while ago. I think the main point was that it is hard to determine whether the quality of the fuel in the us is better than that of, for example, the UK.

 

[KaiZen]

My advice is to at least try it for a tank or two.. pay close attention to your mileage and the exhaust. Rev it a few times on idle and see if there is more or less crap coming out of the exhaust.. the throttle may feel a little more responsive too..

It's not exactly breaking the bank either. It's only an extra couple bucks for a full tank that I can get an extra 50 km out of. If I were to "buy" an extra 50km of Regular Unleaded it would take about 4 litres of petrol, costing about $5.

So it works out well for me..

 

[Jedi2016]

It's all the same gas. Literally... the fuel from one brand is 100% identical to the fuel from any other brand. The only difference is what additives they put into it when they get it. Basically, when the truck shows up and fills the tank, the station owner will go out and dump a bunch of "Brand Name" additives into the tank. The "Techron" stuff that Chevron sells is like that.. it's just an additive.

 

[blargonator]

yeah, but there is quite a difference in the additives. i believe its called top tier fuels or something like that (i think honda and toyota helped develop the standards), i don't remember what companies it includes but i think BP, chevron, and shell meet the standards. they are better than regular fuel, but shell stands above the rest, i believe they have 2 times the additives in their regular and mid-grade and 4 times in their V-power.
one thing that pisses me off at shell is the buttons. at one shell the order is mid-grade regular V-power and at another it is just regular mid-grade v-power and i accidentally clicked the middle <8- \
yeah, famine did make a great post about fuels a while ago.....but i can't seem to remember what it was in.
not everwhere in the U.S.A. gets 93 octane, most of the places i hear about get 91

 

[Famine]

I can't remember it either. But it goes roughly like this:

Don't be fooled by RON ratings. RON - Research Octane Number - has little to do with everyday driving, unlike the lower MON - Motor Octane Number - which is more realistic and usually 8-10 points lower.

US ratings are PON/AKI/CLC, which is an average of the combined RON and MON ratings. So US 91 "Octane" can be a mixture of 87MON and 95RON. But with no way to check, European/Australian 95RON could be a mixture of 95RON and 4MON (remembering that RON is a show-pony number and MON is what matters) - you just don't know.


In any case, if you don't have an EFi engine - or know how to advance/retard your own timing - different rated fuel is of little use to you.

And above all else, you should always use the lowest rated petrol which gives you no knock/ping/preignition.

 

[xcsti]

I can't remember it either. But it goes roughly like this:

Don't be fooled by RON ratings. RON - Research Octane Number - has little to do with everyday driving, unlike the lower MON - Motor Octane Number - which is more realistic and usually 8-10 points lower.

US ratings are PON/AKI/CLC, which is an average of the combined RON and MON ratings. So US 91 "Octane" can be a mixture of 87MON and 95RON. But with no way to check, European/Australian 95RON could be a mixture of 95RON and 4MON (remembering that RON is a show-pony number and MON is what matters) - you just don't know.


In any case, if you don't have an EFi engine - or know how to advance/retard your own timing - different rated fuel is of little use to you.

And above all else, you should always use the lowest rated petrol which gives you no knock/ping/preignition.

Thats the one 👍

 

[skip0110]

And above all else, you should always use the lowest rated petrol which gives you no knock/ping/preignition.

Generally, this is true. However, on certain cars with a "chip" (or even the stock computer on some cars, WRX STi comes to mind) the timing is determined "aggresively"--it is advanced until some knock occurs, then backed off a bit. On these cars, using a higher octane gas can improve performance, becuse the greater ignition advance allows more time for the a/f mixture to fully combust. Lower octane gas will not knock, but you will be getting less advance. But again, this only applies to a few cars.

 

[KaiZen]

Jedi, you are quite right. The same Gas Oil is used for each company and here it is shipped from Singapore to the nearest Oil Refinery to each city, and shared by BP, Mobile, Shell and Caltex. Though, what each company takes from the refinery is of their own spec ie different amounts of sulfur etc.. in the gas oil (come to think of it I'm not exactly sure about this part. It may be a standard spec and Flash Point for Australia, I'll check)

So the additives are added after shipping at each terminal, not at the station, by each company.


Famine, good point.. high numbers always speak volumes to the general public, though here, it's said that the higher the RON spec of a fuel, the less a chance of detonation.

Alot of cars in Australia, these days, are advising the use of Premium Unleaded (96RON) for environmental reason as Regular will be phased out in the future.. plus, the amount of higher performance/technology engined vehicles (about 140+kw) is steadily growing which, if Regular (91) is used, are said to Ping..


Skip, another good point.. which is why I say, Do some testing! Each engine will react differently to each fuel..
Not only with different specs, but with different brands aswell as they all come from the same Tank, but are just customised to suit each Company's requirements..

 

[Taurine]

My car does not like 2nd gear pulling from 25/30km/h on 91 octane. It stutters and hesitates before taking off.

On 96 octane the effect is gone and response is almost immediate.

I only use 91 when there is nothing else to use.

 

[KaiZen]

For those living in Australia, did anyone watch Today Tonight last night? It may have been shown on another night in other states but in Melbourne the program ran a fuel efficiency test between Unleaded, Premium Unleaded, E5 (Unleaded mixed with 5% Ethenol) fuels and E10 (Unleaded with 10% Ethenol) fuels.

Here's the article:
http://seven.com.au/todaytonight/story/?id=24813

You may be quite surprised with the findings and as I've stated above I generally use BP Ultimate, which is a Hioctane Premium Unleaded fuel, but also, it has 10% Ethenol (I think BP's other fuels have a max of 10% also) which may explain my high mileage. Though I can't recall ever seeing any marketing at BP stations stating that their fuel's are mixed with Ethenol down here in Melbourne, but when I was living in Brisbane in '02 there was.

I do remember at the time there was alot of speculation regarding the benefits of Ethenol so I think Brisbane may have been exposed to Ethenol earlier to see consumer reactions, as was done with Ultimate.

 

[SS69]

Well from my experience with different vehicles any V8 i drove and even some larger 6 cylinders ran badly if i didnt use at least 89 octane, and 93 seemed to show really no difference. any 4 cylinder and smaller 6 cylinders i drove ran just fine on 87 octane. the car im currently driving has a 3.8 V6 and runs just fine on 87 octane but has slightly noticable difference when i run higher octane in power and mileage, though not enough to matter. Of course these are all american cars, i know nothing of foreign motors.