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posted on June 29th, 2005 at 11:56 AM
Not entirely true.
The use of premium is probably unnecessary. Some swear optimax gives better economy, but I think that is more a case of a group of people parroting
what the first guy said. I never saw any increases using optimax in either my kombi or lancer. I've pulled down engines that ran on pure optimax and
they are very clean inside, it seems to clean injectors pretty good as well. A few times my lancer has ran a bit rough of a morning so we feed it
optimax for a couple of tanks and it clears up. Might be good value if you look at it along those lines.
The use of additives is most of the time unnecessary. However its a well known fact that type 4 heads generally suck in the areas of valve seats, some
more than others. I have a particularly soft head on the LH side of my engine. Without using additives I cant get 3 months without doing a valve
adjustment. They close up. I used valve master for some time, because I was told it is best. I still had the recession problem. Perhaps the same
people promoting optimax promote valve master due to Shell loyalty???? One day when I ran out, there was none available at local Shell's so I bought
flashlube instead. Talk about enlightenment. VSR has all but vanished. I've gone from all valves riding at 2 months to doing 1 or 2 thou adjustments
at 3 months. The only thing against flashlube is you cant get a measured does out of a bottle so have to carry a measuring device. :cussing
Flashlube is a miracle, valvemaster is... not much good for anything. This isnt a short term test, I'm almsot up to 2 years now.
Whats the deal with woolworths fuel? Woolies servos used to have cheap crap fuel from malaysia or somewhere. Then they jumped in the sack with Caltex
to compete with shell/coles. However, Woolworths fuel doesnt come from a caltex truck. In Wollongong at least it comes out of a Toll truck. I dont
think you are buying caltex fuel at all.
Chris.... kombi pilot, oval dreamer... finisher #26971 2005 city to surf
Doug Sweetman
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posted on June 29th, 2005 at 02:59 PM
OKies, before I wade in to this discussion (for the third or fourth time, all in different threads I think...), I am a Mech Engineer, I work for BP at
the Kwinana Refinery and I have a reasonable knowledge of the retail fuel situation in Australia as it stands. I'm happy to clear up a couple of
misconceptions, so.....
1). Misconception - "You only get BP fuel in W.A / QLD as the other companies sell it rebadged". Not exactly true anymore, although it was correct
up until a couple of years ago. The system was called REFEX, or Refinery Exchange. The refineries around australia had an agreement to supply each
others fuel requirements directly in the states where they did not have a refinery presence. As a result, if you cruised in to a Shell in WA you were
guaranteed to be getting BP fuel out of the pump.
This has all changed now, as Kwinana opted out of the REFEX program, and it is now defunct. Australia runs a proper BUY / SELL contract arrangement
now, where the refineries are free to use whatever supplies they have access to (ie indiginous refined, imported or bought from other refineries in
OZ) so long as the product complies with the fuel specs. So the fuel companies in W.A enter Quarterly agreements with each other to purchase whatever
fuel they require.
This is important - as fuel specs are not the same over Australia, W.A has the strictest of all. Basically in REFEX we were supplying W.A spec fuel to
the other companies for their W.A market, in return for lower spec fuel in the eastern states - we were getting shafted every time with a quality
giveaway.
So now it is most likely if you buy at the major oil companies servos that you will still buy Australian refined fuel. It might have been purchased
from another Refiner, but it will have been made to your local specs. You also have a chance that it has been imported from India, Malaysia,
Singapore, China, Pakistan or whoever can make fuel to meet your local specs. I know in W.A that we supply about 80% of Perths fuel, Gull imports,
Caltex imports, and we import to meet the north west areas demand in certain products.
It should all comply with the respective states fuel specs though !
2). Misconception "Ultimate and Optimax are the same".
Definetely not true, as Ultimate has several differences, mainly in Sulfur and Benzene levels, as well as a few other more technical spec differences.
BP will only ever sell BP refined product as Ultimate - this is why you cant get it in some states (like Melbourne I think), as we only have two
refineries in OZ, in PErth and Brizzy, hence we cant meet the supply. So you get Optimax from Shell in Melbourne, and no Ultimate. And we cant get
Optimax in Perth, vice versa.
BP is very strong in terms of brand values, and would never let another company sell its trademark, flagship fuel under their label.
3). Whats up with Woolies Fuel ?
Woolies lobbied the Australian and W.A governments to alter the fuel specs to allow increases in the levels of oxygenates like MTBE in fuels. Addiing
oxygenates to fuels is sort of a cheating way to get a cleaner burn - it increases the environmental risk of the fuel, as well as a few cancer issues
too I believe. They were unsuccessful, but you should be aware that that is their attitude to fuel - they are only in the fuels business to sell
groceries, so they want the cheapest stuff they can get. They import alot of their fuel.
Actually the whole Woolies / Coles thing is really hurting the fuels retailers - they sell the fuel at break even prices because they arent interested
in making $ from fuel. What irks me is that everyone pays for it in their groceries - not just the people who use the dockets.
So I hope that clears a couple of things up. Let me know if you want to discuss further, I'm only too happy to talk as far as my experience goes, and
there are other people around I can ask questions of too..