Hi all. I drove from midwest to west coast and realized that fuel octane over the west coast is lower than midwest. The highest I usully say was 91. I was just wondering why... that's all.... just curious.

 

I would like to know too one time I asked in a Subaru forum and they said it was because of elevation.. sounds weird to me.. lol

 

its the tree huggers fault, they say we kill their tree's, and if we do that they will have nothing to love and might have to get real jobs instead of bumming around and playing guitarrs all day on the side of the street hoping people will throw money at them, but they prolly dont know is the 1975 crap wagon they drive around from the hippie days prolly polutes more than the average car, so infact they are dumbass's becuase they are the ones killling their precious tree's.. and they are homo's...

end of story..

 

I think it's mostly because the tests they have done have proven that the additives cause cancer. They don't want their kids to get cancer from whiffing gas to get high.
The last time I drove there to visit, I had to pour toluene (also causes cancer) into my tank to keep the death rattle to a minimum.

 

But if it's because of the additive, shouldn't midwest and east coast also stop using the additive?

 

don't give them any ideas

 

oooppss... my bad... hehehehe

 

THE CARB which stands for California Air Research Board. They mandate some of the cleanest emissions regulations in the world. When you make 93/94 octane it leaves over a gas that is around 84 octane which is not useable. Therefore for less pollution and less waste from refining they lowered the standard to 91 octane.

Yes it blows, and yes CA cars will make less power than in other states. I am sure soon enough we will all be switching over to a crappier grade of gas because when CARB does something the EPA is a few years behind.

 

That's part of it. The western region has California and a lot of mountains. High elevation reduces the octane requirement. California has very strict evaporative emissions regulations, in particular a low aromatic limit. Aromatics are the cheapest way to get high octane. So it all comes down to economics. Much of the area has low octane requirements and California makes it expensive to achieve high octane. Refiners are in the business to make money and there's enough fragmentation of the market as it is. It has nothing to do with "additives."

Dave

 

Let's hope it doesn't get to the midwest too fast.

 

or worse... they drive a prius that is not so tree friendly with it's real life 45 mile to the gallon gas mileage and is quiet enough to kill unbeknowst children crossing the street. gotta love topgear.