ARCO Fuels

[blackdiamond]

Anybody know what the deal with ARCO fuel is? It is about the only brand that I know of that I would rather run out of gas and walk than fill up with.

A specific example: I filled my 85 Toyota truck (22RE) up with Premium 92 octane ARCO a few years ago and went around the block a couple of times and stopped back in for some octane boost. The poor truck ran terribly until the tank was empty. I'm sure it wasn't "bad" gas because the way it ran was essentially the same way it ran on any quality brand on 87 or 89 octane. It was a picky engine.

I know other people that won't touch the fuel as well. Personally, I won't even put it in a rental car. I know it is owned by BP which is a quality brand, so what's wrong with it? Can it really be this poor of quality?

What have your experiences been?

 

[another Todd]

I use it and have no issues in any of my vehicles.

 

[Big Jim]

It might be better today but it has a very tarnished history. Even today it is not know for having any more than minimal levels of detergents.

In the past, ARCO pioneered MMT until it was banned as was lead for about the same reasons. I suffered greatly from problems caused by MMT laced fuels when I made my living as a drivability technician. It fouled plugs, EGR valves, oxygen sensors, and anything else in the exhaust stream.

Later, ARCO pioneered heavy use of Methanol added to gasoline. They attempted to increase the dosage by finding "cosolvents" to aid in the overdose. It was not uncommon during this period to end up with a dose of water in your tank, damaging in tank fuel pumps and the like.

You can do whatever you want with what you put in our tank, but I've suffered enough from their #@$%!.

 

[Chris142]

Every car I have ever had got worse mpg on Arco gas. Even my mom brought up the fact that her Sportage mpg dropped when using it.

 

[Durango]

Arco's past history has not been good. I use to use it but stopped due to making my engine knoc badly. After that I've stopped until recently. Now that it's under BP it appears to be a pretty good gasoline. Out here in Los Angeles California no matter what brand you use they're all priced about the same. Arco being cheaper by about a nickle I'd get it outta shear economics. So far Arco appears to be OK in my Dodge Durango and Toyota Camry just as is but admitly add extra additives as supplements (Tchron,Lucas UCL)If you have the money go buy Shell or Chevron. One has to be wealthy to buy those gasolines.

Durango

 

[Jeremiah]

ARCO here is $0.10 to $0.15 cheaper a gallon. It's all I use. It's all the guy used who owned the Celica before me, and it's approaching 250k miles. All we use is 87 octane. I've used LUCL for about 20k miles. We both change the oil ever 3k-5k miles and think that's what's kept it alive for so long.

 

[Durango]

Quote:

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ARCO here is $0.10 to $0.15 cheaper a gallon. It's all I use. It's all the guy used who owned the Celica before me, and it's approaching 250k miles. All we use is 87 octane. I've used LUCL for about 20k miles. We both change the oil ever 3k-5k miles and think that's what's kept it alive for so long.

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Jeremiah,

You seem to have allot of experience using Lucas UCL. Do you use the entire small bottle everytime you tank up? In past posts it's been hinted to me that one does BUT I feel that's too much. What do you think and how much of that bottle do you use? Entire contents, half of it or what? This weekend I plan to buy another small bottle and try it again. So far I haven't really felt it did much but was told to use it more and the difference will emerge.

Durango

 

[m2200b]

with CA spec gas requirement pretty stiff ARCO and others are closer to the same product than in days of old for ARCO

 

[Jeremiah]

Durango

I've been very happy with it in my celica. I get the larger bottle (I think 64 oz?), but I keep the smaller bottle in my car. It's indexed with a sharpie at the 2 oz and 4 oz. I use 2 oz per fillup (about 11 gal).

I use it in my Kawasaki... but I have not done a comparison to see if it's really "working". I just throw in a SMALL shot (1 oz or less) ever fill since it's got a small tank.


I just purchased a Geo Tracker (really a suzuki sidekick) and will be keeping a log this summer to see how well it works. I've heard of other products working better... and I'm not saying LUCL is the best product. It's just what I have experience with. I'm going to be trying other products down the road (when my bottle runs out) to see if I get better results with them.

 

[Durango]

Quote:

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Durango

I've been very happy with it in my celica. I get the larger bottle (I think 64 oz?), but I keep the smaller bottle in my car. It's indexed with a sharpie at the 2 oz and 4 oz. I use 2 oz per fillup (about 11 gal).

I use it in my Kawasaki... but I have not done a comparison to see if it's really "working". I just throw in a SMALL shot (1 oz or less) ever fill since it's got a small tank.


I just purchased a Geo Tracker (really a suzuki sidekick) and will be keeping a log this summer to see how well it works. I've heard of other products working better... and I'm not saying LUCL is the best product. It's just what I have experience with. I'm going to be trying other products down the road (when my bottle runs out) to see if I get better results with them.

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Jeremiah,

Thanks for your quick reply. I just added another bottle yesterday and seemed to noticed an immediate effect to my engines performance. Since I just use a 1/4 tank per week I'm not going to add anymore for another month. Now that I understand how to use this product. Currently I've added more than what's is needed so my tank must be staurated with this stuff. I just hope adding too much won't disturbe anything.

Durango