Shell Optimax - your views?

[Cobra]

Is it possible that Shell's new fuel can provide greater perfomance and economy? Does it have much of an edge over super unleaded?

Also, this "cleans your engine" business - didn't Shell land themselves in hot water in the 80s over this? The detergent burned engine valves out... Obviously they won't be making that mistake again, so how does it work?

I have just fueled my car up on it from empty (juddering up to pump) and it feels a little more powerful at low revs only. It could be psychological, but I'm not sure.

Does anyone use Optimax? And, if so, what are your views on it?

CobraDMX

[twodogs]

Higher octane = more power.
The rest has got to be marketing bullshit.

[Phunkie Munky]

It tastes good though, mmmmmm Lemonaid.

Its Good, Good, Good ..........its............ Good, its NICE!!!!

he he he

[MOVIEGEEK]

Higher octane = more power.
The rest has got to be marketing bullshit.

Only if the timing and electronic engine controls are programmed that way such as sports cars,AAA says high octane(>89) is useless on the contemporary family truckster and a waste of money.
I read a article way back when from Consumer Reports that said gasoline(petrol) that had detergents was better at removing carbon deposits than normal fuel.
What I do is buy 87 octane from "Joes" gas station and once a month I add a bottle of fuel injector cleaner,it's cheaper and I get the same effect.

[defense]

I know a guy who is a family friend of a friend of mine...anyway, he worked for Mobile Oil as some type of technician for over 30 years...he says that their is no difference from 87 octane to 93 octane. It's all psychological and a bunch of crap. It's basically a marketing gimmick..just like bottled water. Fox down here did a test...channel 7 news..testing the top 3 brands of bottled water...Zephyrhills, Evian, Deer Park, and tested them against MC DONALD's water....u know the water they give you FREE STILL...lol...anyway...Mc Donald's water was more pure then ANY of the three bottled waters. It's a marketing gimmick.

Where you will see a difference is where you get a person who has used 93 octane for a LONG TIME....if they try to all of a sudden fill up with 87 octane ...they will sometimes experience a clinging noise from a piston or pistons in the engine....but it won't affect the performance of the car or cause any type of issues.

Shell is just trying to compete with Amoco Ultimate and Chevron 'TECHRON' and all that other crap...it's all garbage....same thing with gas from Shell to a smaller station like 7-11 gas...it's all the same thing....only difference in psychological.

[g_shocker182]

I've seen Mustangs that only operate on 104-octane gas -- very expensive at $50 per 10 gallons.

[EddyH]

Funny... over here "regular" gasoline is 95-octane (probably why every pump says 'premium'...) and the "super" is 98, including optimax.. no wonder our cars run so well

I dunno, gave into the marketing bull one time when I thought I could do with some extra ooomph for some long fast motorway runs. Didn't do anything except add five pounds onto the cost of filling a tank, far as I could tell. If there was any increase, it was very marginal (rather than what the graphic of the turbo-boosted fish suggests), and believe you me.. even a marginal increase would be clockable on my car Think 87 octane might hurt mine a little, it doesn't have a knock sensor for one thing (euro models don't need em) and the manual has a warning against using anything lower than 93, or 91 in emergencies, and it's far from being a racer. It sounds horribly low... what we might call 'scooter juice'

There's possibly something in it, but i'll happily just take the lowest priced regular that can be reasonably expected to not contain any water or other cheap thinning agents... been a quiet ruckus about that last year too.

The smart money these days is on turbo diesels anyhow, wonder how long til we start seeing various 'flavours' of DERV..

[g_shocker182]

What does a liter of your cheapest gas cost over there in England? Austrailia?

[defense]

Funny... over here "regular" gasoline is 95-octane (probably why every pump says 'premium'...) and the "super" is 98, including optimax.. no wonder our cars run so well

And the guy who worked for Mobil Oil as some type of engineer for over 30 years lives in Germany, and also told me about the higher ocate gas there. Said the same thing...marketing gimmick. I think if anyone would know, it would be a guy like that. I also read the same exact thing he said in a Car and Driver magazine a couple of years ago...so i'd think they know what they're talking about too.

[pacmania_2001]

What does a liter of your cheapest gas cost over there in England? Austrailia?

Around 70 (sometimes in the 60 range) cents is the cheapest you are going to get over here. Our petrol is heavily taxed by the government so it is a bit expensive.

During the 2nd Gulf war prices came down to 65 cents or thereabout whilst before that prices were up in the 90 cent range so it varies greatly according to the international oil situation.

In other parts of Australia (i.e Not Queensland where I live) the state governments charge an additional tax so Queensland has cheaper fuel than states like Victoria and New South Wales.

[Craig Tucker]

What does a liter of your cheapest gas cost over there in England? Austrailia?

In my area between 70 and 80 pence per litre, we can only dream of USA fuel prices.

UK and USA Gallons are different a gallon to us is 4.56 litres so that would be £3.42/ UK Gallon using an average of 75 pence per litre.

There is only 3.78 litres in a USA gallon so that would be £2.84/USA Gallon

Doing the currency conversion to USA Dollars

1 litre of fuel = £0.75 or $1.20
1 UK Gallon = £3.42 or $5.48
1 USA Gallon = £2.84 or $4.55

So when you say "I've seen Mustangs that only operate on 104-octane gas -- very expensive at $50 per 10 gallons." Thats pretty much what we pay for regular unleaded over here.

UK Fuel Prices

[EddyH]

our cheapest 'gas' per gallon (get ahold of yourself man, it's a liquid! not gas! ) is... well... far too friggin much. Filled up my ickle 9-gallon (40 litre) tank and the spare can, cost the wrong side of £35... dunno if the octane rating has any bearing on that, or if it's all just the huge amount of tax.

And, well, I don't really know how well the cars run in europe vs america, just a little poke. probably makes very little difference, so long as you have that ol' sensor to adjust the ECU, spark timing, and fuel-air mixture accordingly.
mind you american cars seem to spend an awful lot of time in the 'shop'

[g_shocker182]

Well I know you English/ Austrailian/ and even other Americans aren't going to believe it but I have a receipt from a gas fill in 1999 for 59 cents (USD) a gallon (A gas war b/t two close gas stations). If this were in liters, it would be ~15 cents a liter is my math is correct. I can take a picture of the receipt (no scanner ) of you wish to see it....

[EddyH]

prefer you just to tell me the location and precise date so i can fire up the delorian
hell it only gets about 10mpg with that stainless steel body but it'd be worth it to attach a bathtub-sized tanker trailer and do a bit of temporal smuggling.

now if only we could find somewhere that cola is cheaper than gas..

[mrtristan]

Depends on what kind of engine you're running. I don't mean to discredit what defense's friend said, but that was probably relative to the majority of cars out there. I would say the exceptions would be super/turbo-charged engines, as well as the more modern supah high performance engines.

A lot of people running a supercharger experience knocking or pinging, when they don't fill the highest octane gas (supreme, or whatever they call it in your area).

Personally, I haven't noticed a difference between supreme and regular. I just fill regular, because it's what Toyota reccomends for my engine and supreme is more expensive. I do regular oil changes, so I don't worry too much about the longevity of my engine.

Gas on Oahu is about $1.95/gallon, down the street from where I live. Rape, I tell you. Rape. We have our own refinery, yet the gas companies claim that it's more expensive to process gas here. Even though the oil tankers can come straight here. Right.

Oh yeah. I did notice a difference in torque, when I made my own few tanks of "racing gas." I created a 1:10 ratio of denatured alcohol to gas, by adding the proportionate amount of alky to my tank. At 2,000 RPM, my truck had the kick in the pants, like it does at about 4,000 RPM.

[defense]

I would say the exceptions would be super/turbo-charged engines, as well as the more modern supah high performance engines.

Yea, I believe he was referring to the majority of the cars out there...not "racing" cars and supercharged cars....those are a horse of a different color. Although, I will ask him about that when he comes back from Germany....he and his wife come to Miami every six months.

A lot of people running a supercharger experience knocking or pinging, when they don't fill the highest octane gas (supreme, or whatever they call it in your area).

And not just that type of car. IF a person has put in the highest octane, "in the states that's 93 octane" and their car has gotten used to it....if they try a lower octane, especially regular at (87 octane) they will get the same exact results.

The thing is that most of those cars never need the highest grade octane to begin with. The most popular cars down here are Honda Accords...and almost everyone that gets a Honda Accord, especially a new one...will always use 93 octane...when you think about the difference in price being sometimes more then .40 cents a gallon differential...that's just a waste of money.

Again, all this is according to a guy who did some type of engineering for Mobile Oil company in Germany for about 30 years.

[EddyH]

Hmm... true... the supercharged version of my car (specs included in the same manual as the crappy shopping-cart versions) allegedly needs 95 octane minimum for smooth running, and works best with 97 or more, compared to 91-93 for the vanilla motors.
What's sad is that you could just drop in a more modern NA unit that's got 25%-33 greater CCs and probably get similar performance.. on regular gas.. with better economy But there's a level of cool in owning a supercharged car i guess.

Would that "racing gas" have any effect in 'normal' cars, or just high-powered ones? If only i'd heard of such things when I was in a lab where denatured alcohol was available... a kick in the pants at any revs would be nice

premium fuel in an accord? foolishness. they can probably easily cope with red-eye whiskey and come up running smooth and smelling of roses with all the VVTi and onboard computer technology they have

[defense]

premium fuel in an accord? foolishness. they can probably easily cope with red-eye whiskey and come up running smooth and smelling of roses with all the VVTi and onboard computer technology they have

LMAO...and check this out...Honda Accords are also the most stolen car down here by far. So not only are the car thieves with the chop shops stealing a New Accord...they are almost always getting it with 93 octane....ain't life grand.

[mrtristan]

EddyH - A lot of "car" people that I've talked to tell my that it's not supposed to work, but that kick in the pants doesn't lie. I thought it was just subjective, but I did some experiments over the course of about a month and a half and came to the conclusion that it did make a difference in my truck. There's a lot of factors which could affect the outcome, though. Almost everywhere is sea level, so the air pressure is "normal" across the whole island. Things are different on the mainland, so the thinner air in higher altitudes might have an effect. I would assume that the brand of gas also makes a difference, as not all gases are created equal. The octane ratings may be standardized, but the rest of the chemicals that they throw in there could be different. Finally, I have a V6 engine, so I don't know how it would affect the dynamics of an I4 or V8.

Anyway, I ran through three tanks of gas, to let the ECU readjust to the "racing" gas. I also have a 5" hole bored in my airbox, just because it was the cool thing to do for all the Tacoma owners, a year ago. (The hole was already there for a while). It's kind of like adding an intake system, since it allows more air to get to the engine.

The benefits of the gas were a neato sounding engine, and I could peel out from a stand still with 31" tires. Peeling out is not to bad if you have a race car geared accordingly, but trucks have relatively low gear ratios. It's really hard to peel out with an automatic truck, unless you have one of those big ass Chevys or Fords.

I conducted my "tests" on a strip of road that I take every morning, on my way to work. It's pretty much empty, so I can drive like a fool for a distance of about a 1/4 mile. I swear that there was more boost at 2,000 RPM, than there was without the modified gas. I don't really have a way to standardize anything, except for that kick in the pants rating.

The reason why it works, is because alcohol is helps the octane to be more explosive. I can't remember what the term was, but it essentially gives each molecule of octane more power to go boom! So, the same amount of octane burning with alcohol added, is capable of pushing a piston harder, although the RPMs may not necessarily increase.

[Craig Tucker]

Gas on Oahu is about $1.95/gallon, down the street from where I live.

Thats still less than half the price that we have to pay.


1 litre of fuel = £0.75 or $1.20
1 UK Gallon = £3.42 or $5.48
1 USA Gallon = £2.84 or $4.55

[tgpo]

Gas here in my city is $1.27/gallon. I've never seen ANY gas below 87 and I've never seen gas above 93. I've only seen 87, 89, and 93. I filled up my car from empty to full for $9.00

[g_shocker182]

Gas here in my city is $1.27/gallon. I've never seen ANY gas below 87 and I've never seen gas above 93. I've only seen 87, 89, and 93. I filled up my car from empty to full for $9.00

I took a trip out west (from VA) and some gas stations in South Dakota had 85 octane.

[mrtristan]

Yeah, the gas is really expensive in Japan, too. If I had to pay that much for gas, I would bike my family everywhere.

Gas on Oahu is about $1.95/gallon, down the street from where I live.

Thats still less than half the price that we have to pay.


1 litre of fuel = £0.75 or $1.20
1 UK Gallon = £3.42 or $5.48
1 USA Gallon = £2.84 or $4.55

[Craig Tucker]

Gas here in my city is $1.27/gallon. I've never seen ANY gas below 87 and I've never seen gas above 93. I've only seen 87, 89, and 93. I filled up my car from empty to full for $9.00

Costs me about £32 to fill my car. Thats $51.20

And this is no gas guzzler, only a 1.3 Ford Orion.

[tgpo]

51 dollars to fill up your car!!!!!!! Geez man, I'd be on that bike faster than Roseanne on a doughnut.

[flaninacupboard]

Bikes tend not to work in rural England too well

From here to my workplace ~14 miles, on a dual carriageway. I've cycled it before, and it takes me about one hour 15 to get there.

In order to cycle to the nearest cinema, i would have to go 20 miles. so about an hour and 50. And heaven forbid i want to go somewhere to buy some clothes music or games! The nearest town to me with a Virgin megastore, an HMV or a bookshop is about 25 miles!

Poor londoners are getting charged "congestion tax" now as well. i think it's 5 pounds a day within a certain area in London. I really don;t know what our government does with the money! The extra fuel tax is -supposed- to go towards finding alternative ways to power our cars, and help the environment. Well, given how long that tax has been running, we should be driving cars so efficient that we have to stop every 50 miles to dump off another tank of pterol!
What have they done with the money?! ah, fighting wars of no concern to us, and welcoming thousands of people a year to the country, because we don't want to seem mean compared to france and australia.
Seems silly to me when the country is so poor that earlier this year we didn't have a fire service, that we should bring unskilled, poor, and non-english speaking people in.

[binks120]

sorry thoght i had to chip into this one dudes i work in the motor trade have done for 16 years and yes higher octane is better but the question was about optimax v same octame non brand fuel and thay are the same, so yes optimax is a gimmick but im affraid you need the lead to make the engine runn better that is why our high end performace cars should only be run on the higher stuff
eg the higher the octane the better the explosion simple

[Craig Tucker]

My work is about 10 miles from my home, so like flaninacupboard, bit too far to cycle. Also, the hills are up and down like a jockeys bollocks so by the time you get to work you are all sweaty and in no mood to do a days work. I did cycle a few times but it just was not worth the grief, getting up half an hour earlier and taking a change of clothes to work.

[g_shocker182]

I like to see the price tag on a gas fill for a Ford Excursion; with a 40 gallon fuel tank, in England!

[tgpo]

I like to see the price tag on a gas fill for a Ford Excursion; with a 40 gallon fuel tank, in England!

1 Million Dollars


But you get a free hot dog with the first 10 gallons. Or is it quarts?