Gas Pinging

I filled up my '91 Miata less than a week ago and used Mobil regular, as
usual. I have rarely had a pinging problem with regular low octane gas. Now
I have it. I will not know if this is an anomoly or if it will repeat.

QUESTION:

Is it possible that since hurricane Katrina, and the US relaxing its rules
on oil refineries, I have gotten a mixture that lacks the additives to stop
the pinging. Now I know that sounds ass backwards because we all know that
higher octane (eg. Premium, Plus) fuels are what helps stop pings. But a
friend has convinced me that regular fuel is probably not that much
different from premium and maybe we are seeing less additives across the
board.

Any thoughts about this?

On Wed, 14 Sep 2005 02:24:22 GMT, "Gary" >
wrote:

>I filled up my '91 Miata less than a week ago and used Mobil regular, as
>usual. I have rarely had a pinging problem with regular low octane gas. Now
>I have it. I will not know if this is an anomoly or if it will repeat.

There is no such thing as Mobil regular anymore. Its Exxon-Mobil.
Exxon regular coming out of the Texas refineries knocks in my pickup.
That's why I stoped using Exxon.
>
>QUESTION:
>
>Is it possible that since hurricane Katrina, and the US relaxing its rules
>on oil refineries, I have gotten a mixture that lacks the additives to stop

No. You probably got a bad load of gas. It happens.

The relaxationa allows the burning of regular unleaded in places where
the EPA was forcing to buy boutique blends of gasoline (Houston, LA,
San Francisco, Chicago, the NE all have different gasolines and it was
illegal to sell anything other than the local blend in those
locations) That is why the midwest was you had to pay more for gas in
those cities - lack of suppy of the product.

>the pinging. Now I know that sounds ass backwards because we all know that
>higher octane (eg. Premium, Plus) fuels are what helps stop pings. But a
>friend has convinced me that regular fuel is probably not that much
>different from premium and maybe we are seeing less additives across the
>board.
>
>Any thoughts about this?
>

In article <qRLVe.10511$c27.9780@trndny01>,
"Gary" > wrote:

> Is it possible that since hurricane Katrina, and the US relaxing its rules
> on oil refineries, I have gotten a mixture that lacks the additives to stop
> the pinging.

Unlikely, IMHO. Factors that promote pinging: octane rating too low,
timing advanced too far, mixture too lean, hot weather, carbon deposits
in combustion chambers. Focus on the last two; not much you can do about
the weather, but a can of top end cleaner (Techron) might help with
carbon buildup. Follow the instructions, and change the oil afterward.

---
Lanny Chambers
'94C, St. Louis
http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html

Lanny, I do use Techron but I haven't recently. I switched to Shell and
filled up with Premium. No problems so far. Will revert back to regular.


"Lanny Chambers" > wrote in message
...
> In article <qRLVe.10511$c27.9780@trndny01>,
> "Gary" > wrote:
>
> > Is it possible that since hurricane Katrina, and the US relaxing its
rules
> > on oil refineries, I have gotten a mixture that lacks the additives to
stop
> > the pinging.
>
> Unlikely, IMHO. Factors that promote pinging: octane rating too low,
> timing advanced too far, mixture too lean, hot weather, carbon deposits
> in combustion chambers. Focus on the last two; not much you can do about
> the weather, but a can of top end cleaner (Techron) might help with
> carbon buildup. Follow the instructions, and change the oil afterward.
>
> ---
> Lanny Chambers
> '94C, St. Louis
> http://www.hummingbirds.net/alignment.html