Hey Canucks - Petro Canada Fuel Discussion

[webfors]

Originally Posted by StevieC
I've decided to run the Petro Canada Premium not for the octane and slightly better mileage but because it seems that grade of gasoline from Petro might not have ethanol in it. (Hard to confirm for sure) and it contains more fuel system cleaning agents than the regular as per what they state on the website. (Regular as being excellent at maintaining an already clean fuel system and the Premium offering enhanced cleaning power capable of cleaning up a fuel system that has had poorer quality gasoline used previously).

As I'm direct injected along with port injection I wanted to use this to help keep the direct injectors as clean as possible in between my regular uses of Amsoil P.I. which I typically do every 10 tanks of fuel or so as it has yielded good results in the past. Also because my company pays for my gas the cost isn't a concern. Lucky me.

I would like confirmation that Petro 91 is ethanol-free. Until then I'll continue to use brands that are confirmed for the bike and small engines.

The ATS only ever gets Petro 94. It's tuned for 93, and you can definitely feel a difference with 94 versus 91.

Another reason to use premium in a DI (especially forced induction DI) is to minimize fuel dilution IMO.

 

[StevieC]

webfors, I'm going to send them an e-mail and ask them about Ethanol and see if they will respond.

This is what is currently stated on their website.

Quote
Does Ultra 94 contain ethanol? Does Petro-Canada still offer an ethanol-free gasoline?
Ultra 94 contains ethanol. Due to the fact that various fuel grades are blended at the point of sale, most grades of Petro-Canada fuel may now contain up to 10% ethanol. This represents a change from the previous state, where premium fuel was ethanol-free at Petro-Canada.

 

[webfors]

Originally Posted by StevieC
webfors, I'm going to send them an e-mail and ask them about Ethanol and see if they will respond.

This is what is currently stated on their website.

Quote
Does Ultra 94 contain ethanol? Does Petro-Canada still offer an ethanol-free gasoline?
Ultra 94 contains ethanol. Due to the fact that various fuel grades are blended at the point of sale, most grades of Petro-Canada fuel may now contain up to 10% ethanol. This represents a change from the previous state, where premium fuel was ethanol-free at Petro-Canada.


If you're up for it, a good deep sniff of their 91 will tell you

Ethanol in gas is easy to detect via smell.

 

[StevieC]

What should I look out for?

 

[Darris]

One theory, possibly a myth, is that in Ontario & Quebec the companies meet their regulatory quota of ethanol content sold exclusively in the greater Toronto & Montreal area because of the volume sold so they send all their ethanol blended gasolines to the stations in the those major markets and everywhere else there is no ethanol content. I'm not sure if I believe that because it would seem cheaper and more efficient to just blend each grade the same ship it wherever but the rumor persists on some online communities.

 

[StevieC]

Ok I heard back from Petro Canada here is what they said....

Quote
Dear Steven,

Thank you for contacting Petro-Canada Customer care regarding gases.

As per your request, we would like to inform that we offer four gasoline grades - 87, 89, 91 and 94 octane.

• Ultra 94™ is Petro-Canada's 94 octane fuel contains up to 10% ethanol. It also has a Research Octane Number of 101.5 and a Motor Octane Number of 88.

• SuperClean is Petro-Canada's premium 91 octane gasoline. It's does not contain ethanol. Also, Tactrol is our exclusive deposit control additive that acts as a detergent to clean and prevent the build-up of harmful deposits. Tactrol is used in all grades of Petro-Canada gasoline - including RegularClean, PlusClean, SuperClean, Ultra 94, and WinterGas™.

SuperClean and Ultra 94 come fortified with an extra dosage of Tactrol - so it can actually remove stubborn deposits, help restore your engine's performance, and keep it clean. No other company uses Tactrol except Petro-Canada.

Should you have more inquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us via Email.
Thank you for your business.

Swathi
Petro-Canada Customer Service Representative
[email protected]
Proudly serving you from Canada

 

[webfors]

Thanks! So it appears that all 91 octane gas in Ontario is ethanol free from what I can tell. Petro was the only one I wasn't sure about. I've confirmed this with CT, Ultramar, Esso, Shell and MacEwen.

Regarding the Tactrol additive, and knowing that most all gas comes from the same source, they must be adding the additives at time of delivery. I find that highly suspicious, because it would either need to be the truck driver, or the franchisee, neither of which give me a high level of confidence of this actually happening, or happening with a high level of consistency. Thoughts?

 

[StevieC]

I have been at a station when they are filling the tanks. I had just bought gas and was waiting my turn in the carwash and I saw the driver connect to the tank, deliver the fuel and then take the hose off and close up the fill-port in the ground. At no time did I see him add anything so I suspect that whatever is added to the base fuel is done at the terminal when they are filling up.

 

[21Rouge]

Originally Posted by StevieC
Ok I heard back from Petro Canada here is what they said....

Quote


• Ultra 94™ is Petro-Canada's 94 octane fuel contains up to 10% ethanol. It also has a Research Octane Number of 101.5 and a Motor Octane Number of 88.

• SuperClean is Petro-Canada's premium 91 octane gasoline. It's does not contain ethanol.

Petro-Canada Customer Service Representative


Our Golf R 'requires' a premium grade gasoline. So I guess there is a trade off i.e. using 91 having no ethanol or 94 with a higher octane but having ethanol (and a higher price per litre). So which choice will provide the best 'performance' for this engine requiring premium fuel?

(I use PC because we get a discount due to our use (too much) of Hwy 407.)

 

[Patman]

^^^ It's hard to say without hooking up a scan tool on your Golf R and seeing if you get any of the timing pulled out when running the 91 octane. If you aren't having timing pulled, then you won't see any horsepower increase going with the 94. What is the minimum octane in the manual? With my Corvette it says 93 octane is recommended, so if I run 91 I would probably see a little bit of a horsepower loss due to some spark advance being pulled out. That being said, I clocked a 0-60 time of 3.8 seconds running 91 octane with an ambient temperature of about 68F, so chances are good that I wasn't having much, if any timing pulled under those conditions. It's possible on a hotter day I would though.

So without doing those kinds of tests, off the top of my head I would say to run the 94 octane in the hottest months when you're likely to see temps of 75F or higher. Below that temp, run 91 octane and get the benefit of the lower price and better MPG from having no ethanol.

 

[xxch4osxx]

Originally Posted by webfors
Originally Posted by StevieC
I've decided to run the Petro Canada Premium not for the octane and slightly better mileage but because it seems that grade of gasoline from Petro might not have ethanol in it. (Hard to confirm for sure) and it contains more fuel system cleaning agents than the regular as per what they state on the website. (Regular as being excellent at maintaining an already clean fuel system and the Premium offering enhanced cleaning power capable of cleaning up a fuel system that has had poorer quality gasoline used previously).

As I'm direct injected along with port injection I wanted to use this to help keep the direct injectors as clean as possible in between my regular uses of Amsoil P.I. which I typically do every 10 tanks of fuel or so as it has yielded good results in the past. Also because my company pays for my gas the cost isn't a concern. Lucky me.

I would like confirmation that Petro 91 is ethanol-free. Until then I'll continue to use brands that are confirmed for the bike and small engines.

The ATS only ever gets Petro 94. It's tuned for 93, and you can definitely feel a difference with 94 versus 91.

Another reason to use premium in a DI (especially forced induction DI) is to minimize fuel dilution IMO.


I have personally tested the 91 octane from a local Petro Canada to me and it did not contain any ethanol.

 

[xxch4osxx]

Originally Posted by webfors
Thanks! So it appears that all 91 octane gas in Ontario is ethanol free from what I can tell. Petro was the only one I wasn't sure about. I've confirmed this with CT, Ultramar, Esso, Shell and MacEwen.

Regarding the Tactrol additive, and knowing that most all gas comes from the same source, they must be adding the additives at time of delivery. I find that highly suspicious, because it would either need to be the truck driver, or the franchisee, neither of which give me a high level of confidence of this actually happening, or happening with a high level of consistency. Thoughts?



As far as I know, additives are added when the truck is getting filled, not at the station.

 

[Patman]

Originally Posted by xxch4osxx


I have personally tested the 91 octane from a local Petro Canada to me and it did not contain any ethanol.


I'm curious, how did you test it?

 

[StevieC]

Well it has been a couple of months running straight premium 91 Octane Petro Canada gas and the results for mileage and performance are excellent. Very smooth operation and at the lights you can't feel the engine running at all. Like it stalled.

According to my scan-tool it shows 0% ethanol in the fuel tank (Flex-Fuel equipped vehicle), so what Petro Canada sent me above in response to their ethanol content in that grade of fuel is accurate.

It's nice I can benefit from the increased cleaning agents in the premium grade and have slightly better protection against possible pinging with higher octane than required. The exhaust pipe is still aluminized steel in colour with no soot ring in this lean-burn engine even with 8,000km on the clock.

Good stuff I guess.

 

[Mau]

Does anyone know if Esso 93 contains ethanol? My C43 is tuned so I've been using Esso 93 or Petro 94 in it exclusively. I was running Shell 91 when it was stock.

 

[StevieC]

I could run a few tanks and check my scan tool. I'm supposed to use Petro Canada but could use Esso and just expense it.

Have you tried e-mailing them?

 

[Kjmack]

Yeah it's called socalism

 

[Garak]

I can't answer for sure, but I wager it would contain it. It's probably an ethanol enhanced 91 like the other stations sell.

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted by Kjmack
Yeah it's called socalism

 

[StevieC]

Ok so it looks like Petro Canada stations that carry Ultra 94 are served by Suncor and all their fuels will have Ethanol in them.

Only stations that carry 91 Octane or less have ethanol premium as shown by these photos.

On previous tanks of fuel in the Caravan I filled up at only stations with 91 octane where they only carried 91 or less.

Tonight I refueled with 91 octane but at a station that has up to 94 octane and here are the results.... (The last picture shows 2.5% Ethanol, sorry I know it's hard to read)