1 Topic by RThodal (edited by RThodal 2013-04-10 11:00 AM)

  • Registered: 2010-02-08
  • Posts: 85

Topic: Bad 93 octane fuel from the Mobil station at MMC

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up about issues with the fuel from the Mobil nearest to the track at MMC. If you bought 93 octane there I strongly suggest you inspect your fuel system / replace fuel filters before the next race.

We bought around 50 gallons of 93 from them Friday morning when the tanker truck was filling. We had an odd intermittent power cut that started during Friday practice and then got severe toward the end of Saturday. When we came in to the pits at the end of the first race day the fuel pump was screaming.

We pulled off the feed to the fuel rail and ran the pump to drain the tank and only got a trickle... After dropping the tank we looked at the pickup sock and it was completely clogged. This is what it look like after we cleaned it as best we could.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9CS_r5D7Ga8/UWWidL4FjZI/AAAAAAAAAQM/mwWSrxYnC-Y/s800/Photo%25202013-04-10%252001.31.49%2520PM.jpg

At that point about half our fuel jugs were filled from Stewart's and half from Mobil. We started running each through coffee filters. The Stewart's fuel was squeaky clean but the Mobil looked like this:

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-FnDParUXG5A/UWWidH2XIEI/AAAAAAAAAQM/OKHU76YpeiA/s800/Photo%25202013-04-10%252001.31.45%2520PM.jpg

I heard from people who had no problems with 87 purchased there. We may have only had problems with the 93 because we filled while the tanker was there churning up all the crud on the bottom.

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  • From: Westfield Ma
  • Registered: 2012-10-29
  • Posts: 1,148

Re: Bad 93 octane fuel from the Mobil station at MMC

We got our fuel from Stewart's and luckily had no issue's.  Thank you for the heads up.

3 Reply by RogueLeader (edited by RogueLeader 2013-04-10 12:08 PM)

  • From: Merrick, NY
  • Registered: 2009-05-13
  • Posts: 2,155

Re: Bad 93 octane fuel from the Mobil station at MMC

Hmm I never got to use the 93 that we bought there Fri Night, but the team we gave it to didn't mention any issues I know of....

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  • erich
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  • From: Vancouver BC
  • Registered: 2011-12-09
  • Posts: 91

Re: Bad 93 octane fuel from the Mobil station at MMC

You never want to geet fuel when the tanks are being filled, or for at least a half hour afterwards.
Most gas station owners are too cheap to get the crud cleaned out of their tanks regulary which leads to all the silt floating around when the tanks are filled.  There's supposed to be good filters in the pumps but you know how that goes.

  • From: Pittsburgh, PA 15147
  • Registered: 2012-01-05
  • Posts: 226

Re: Bad 93 octane fuel from the Mobil station at MMC

That's probably still better than the watered down 91 we get here.

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  • From: NH
  • Registered: 2010-01-20
  • Posts: 3,299

Re: Bad 93 octane fuel from the Mobil station at MMC

we saw you guys filtering all the fuel, but misheard and thought it was the stewarts fuel that was bad. Scared us a little bit since we bought from stewarts.

Glad it didn't impact you enough to stop you from taking the win.

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  • Registered: 2009-10-24
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Re: Bad 93 octane fuel from the Mobil station at MMC

Stewarts has very tasty ice cream, hence we only bought gas there

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  • From: Rockville, MD
  • Registered: 2010-12-15
  • Posts: 1,155

Re: Bad 93 octane fuel from the Mobil station at MMC

Uh-oh. Guess what the K-car was using. We ran 93 in both cars (for compatibility), and at least some of the fuel was from that Mobil 1. Maybe the fuel pump ate too much crap and blew up, or maybe the pump still works but the filter is clogged?...

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9 Reply by psychoboy (edited by psychoboy 2013-04-11 08:18 AM)

  • From: oklahoma city
  • Registered: 2009-10-08
  • Posts: 1,586

Re: Bad 93 octane fuel from the Mobil station at MMC

i know it can't be helped some times, but in my experience, it's better to run the lowest octane fuel your motor will survive on.

the higher the octane, the harder it is to ignite...and some of these cars have no interest in lighting fuel (compression, spark, Lucas).

my fiancee's Scion tC hated colder humid startups on 91, doesn't give two craps about starting on 87. it's designed to run on 87 and she figured (newish sporty car and whatnot) that 91 was better for it.

her tC can't take advantage of the higher octane, the mileage and power are unchanged regardless of what is used....i doubt the K (or many of the rest of our non-german crap cans) is better suited for the good stuff.

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  • From: NH
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Re: Bad 93 octane fuel from the Mobil station at MMC

The K should be ok. The engine is 95% the same as mine, and mine is designed for 93. The only real difference between my car and the K is the K car is NA, so the spark plug gap might be a little different.

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  • From: oklahoma city
  • Registered: 2009-10-08
  • Posts: 1,586

Re: Bad 93 octane fuel from the Mobil station at MMC

TheEngineer wrote:

The K should be ok. The engine is 95% the same as mine, and mine is designed for 93. The only real difference between my car and the K is the K car is NA, so the spark plug gap might be a little different.

what are the differences?

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Re: Bad 93 octane fuel from the Mobil station at MMC

psychoboy wrote:
TheEngineer wrote:

The K should be ok. The engine is 95% the same as mine, and mine is designed for 93. The only real difference between my car and the K is the K car is NA, so the spark plug gap might be a little different.

what are the differences?

My car has a turbo...
The K will have a different cal on the computer, maybe a different spark plug gap, and a different exhaust manifold. I'm not sure what intake the K has because i'm not sure the year, but it might be TBI instead of my multi-point injection. Otherwise the engine is just about the same. I want to say that coils are interchangeable between the two.

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  • From: Alvin, TX
  • Registered: 2010-02-22
  • Posts: 2,143

Re: Bad 93 octane fuel from the Mobil station at MMC

We are positive we were peddled bad gas at TWS last year.  107 Octane MY ASS!!! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFmYIOLqn_0

^^^ detonation under boost, cracking the rear iron, and the resulting fireball

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  • From: oklahoma city
  • Registered: 2009-10-08
  • Posts: 1,586

Re: Bad 93 octane fuel from the Mobil station at MMC

TheEngineer wrote:
psychoboy wrote:
TheEngineer wrote:

The K should be ok. The engine is 95% the same as mine, and mine is designed for 93. The only real difference between my car and the K is the K car is NA, so the spark plug gap might be a little different.

what are the differences?

My car has a turbo...
The K will have a different cal on the computer, maybe a different spark plug gap, and a different exhaust manifold. I'm not sure what intake the K has because i'm not sure the year, but it might be TBI instead of my multi-point injection. Otherwise the engine is just about the same. I want to say that coils are interchangeable between the two.

yeah...the turbo is going to bump instant compression to the point that 93 is probably a good idea (unless your motor has some seriously low static compression...at which point, the turbo is nearly pointless)

the NA version of that drive train isn't high compression (9.5:1 for the 86+ cars it seems) so it shouldn't have any use for the harder-to-burn stuff.

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