Gasoline in the crankcase?

[Riptide]

There is ONE local station with 93 octane gasoline. Myself and some friends have been fueling up at this Cenex station with the 93 octane fuel.

One person's car started smoking. White smoke under acceleration. He took his WRX to Subaru and they said the gasoline was contaminated with diesel fuel. They charged him $540 to flush the entire fuel system to fix the problem.

Another friend has a Suzuki SX4. He claims his car started to run cruddy and that his oil level started to rise - all on it's own. He insisted to me that the fuel was getting in with his oil.

Yet another friend with another WRX has noticed his car's ECM pulling timing and generally not running right. His oil level has not been coming up however when he changed his oil it was extremely thin and watery. He believes his oil was contaminated as well with this bad fuel.

I have had no obvious issues. When we changed my oil (MC 5W20) and put in a fresh six quarts of Mobil1 - it seemed fine. Only 1000 miles on the MC and it looked good. Car seemed to run OK as well.

What do you guys think of this? A friend of mine told me that those cars, especially since they were newer cars, should not be having issues like oil being contaminated by their gasoline. The rings just shouldn't let that stuff in there. Are my friend's imagining things here? What's up?

 

[Quest]

depending on how bad the gasoline is/was, different engine management/designs may behave differently and some may not be able to handle the gas "mixtures" well enough to warrant complete fuel combustion, and any unburnt fuel will go down the cylinder wall contributing to increase of oil level (oil mixed with unburned fuel).

w/o knowing the specifics, that's all I can speculate.

Q.

 

[chevrofreak]

I don't think I would use Cenex gas. I get more detonation with Cenex gasoline that's the same octane rating as the Conoco gas I normally use.

If it was the station up on Grand Avenue and Rehberg, we may have got the same contaminated gas.

 

[element_42]

Originally Posted By: chevrofreak
I don't think I would use Cenex gas. I get more detonation with Cenex gasoline that's the same octane rating as the Conoco gas I normally use.

If it was the station up on Grand Avenue and Rehberg, we may have got the same contaminated gas.


Cenex Cetane blend gasoline

 

[DmanWho]

Do you pump your own gas there in MT?

We don't here in OR, and that can lead to problems sometimes. Recently at a 76 station, unleaded only vehicles were being filled with diesel by the attendant, resulting in multiple break downs.

 

[Riptide]

It was the Town Pump up in the Heights. The only one in the entire "city" that has 93 octane fuel.

 

[Quest]

Here in beaverland (I only fill up @ mirastar, Texaco or Shell when I travel down the states), most gas pumps I visit are solely on gasoline only (no diesel pump) so the likeliness of tanker truck guy accidently filled it with diesel is low at best.

And for those who wonders what we do here, we have been on 10% ethanol in gas for 2+decades and no issues so far (may have suffered from mild fuel economy degradation but when winter comes, it doesn't matter any more for winter city driving, fuel economy suuks anyways.

Q.

 

[Riptide]

Even though as far as we can tell my car never got any of this allegedly contaminated fuel I have loaded a 91 octane tune on the car and have started to go to Conoco again. I just don't want to take any chances.

I just wondered how it was possible that this gasoline could have got into the oil since the rings are supposed to keep that sorta thing from happening. I can see from at least one reply that it's technically possible.

 

[chevrofreak]

Conoco is pretty much the only Top Tier gas station around here, so that's what I usually use. Exxon and Cenex aren't on the list from what I can see.

http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers.html

 

[FZ1]

I am curious why Exxon/Mobil does not have a top tier gasoline. They certainly have the money and technology to produce a top tier gas. Anybody have any info on this?

 

[Quest]

Originally Posted By: FZ1
I am curious why Exxon/Mobil does not have a top tier gasoline. They certainly have the money and technology to produce a top tier gas. Anybody have any info on this?


Just like the MMT made by Ethyl corp, Exxon/Mobil (or Esso here in beaverland, which is owned by Exxon), they may have a different agenda.

That being said however, if not because of me being critically aware of top-tier gas for Honda cars and such, I would have resort to using Exxon 87octane simply because I tend to get 30~50kms more per tank of gas than, say , Chevron or Shell here of the same octane rating.

Dunno why but staying with top-tier gas now.

Q.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Quest
Originally Posted By: FZ1
I am curious why Exxon/Mobil does not have a top tier gasoline. They certainly have the money and technology to produce a top tier gas. Anybody have any info on this?


Just like the MMT made by Ethyl corp, Exxon/Mobil (or Esso here in beaverland, which is owned by Exxon), they may have a different agenda.

That being said however, if not because of me being critically aware of top-tier gas for Honda cars and such, I would have resort to using Exxon 87octane simply because I tend to get 30~50kms more per tank of gas than, say , Chevron or Shell here of the same octane rating.

Dunno why but staying with top-tier gas now.

Q.


I observe the same. An extra 50Km/$40 with the Esso. Somewhere CLOSE to that with Petro Canada, which IS Top Tier. Significantly poorer mileage (my baseline) with Shell or Sunoco.

 

[FZ1]

Thanks,guys. I use Shell regular because of the claimed extra detergents....but....I previously used Exxon and got good,maybe better, mpg with the Exxon.

 

[oilyriser]

I filled up with non-ethanol 87 octane gas a few weeks ago, at an Ultramar station way east of Toronto. I couldn't believe the lack of ethanol smell while filling. I even filled a jug, and no ethanol smell. It was also about 5 cents a L cheaper than stations in other towns. Maybe it was Reservation land or something.

 

[FZ1]

Wish I could get some non ethanol gas down here 'cause I got up to 10% better mpg without it. The gas w/ethanol costs the station a few cents more.

 

[Drivebelt]

A while ago I watched an episode of Motorweek where they tested a Tahoe on their test loop … mpg …

19 … regular gas
14 … E85

So, … in this vehicle they got a 36% increase in gas mileage by using regular gas over E85. Over at the TTAC (The Truth About Cars), there were a couple of posts by people who reported getting > 10% worse fuel economy using E10 compared to regular gas. Don't know if those reports are accurate, but ethanol does contain less energy than gasoline per unit volume, so any amount of ethanol blended with gasoline will reduce your gas mileage -- YMMV.