Over here it comes from the COOP refinery. At least that is what the guy dumping the fuel told me. I just fueled at 89 cents a liter here...COOP down the street was .919 a liter.

346.00 to fill the tanks. Got 19.00 plus back for the store.

 

I ran Co-op fuel exclusively when I lived in Lacombe. Great fuel..
Now I have been burning the Flying J stuff in both trucks and I don't know if its the fuel quality thats off or what but the 97 doesn't really like it. Lots of soot and not much to show for it in the power dept.

Gonna try the Co-op stuff again here and see if it improves. I don't have much for Superstores in RD that are easy to get to for fuel.

 

Not all diesel is created equal.

I used to fill up mostly at the Fas Gas in Cochrane but 2 years ago a Co-op and then later a Shell station opened on my route to and from work.

I found that I get at least 1mpg more out of the the CO-OP/SHell fuel over the Fas Gas fuel. Using the Shell Max fuel picks me up another 1 mpg.

Never had any issues with filters plugging or anything with the FasGas fuel, just not as good mileage as the other stuff.

 

I have run superstore ( no frills) diesel for at least 6-7 years in Olds and never had any trouble, The 01 seemed to make decent power with it as well...

plus the wife likes the no frills bucks when getting groceries and we all know we should keep wifey happy

j

 

ditto that one.

 

I just filled up my truck yesterday for the first time at my local fly J, my fuel pressure dropped off almost instantly to nothing. Must have got some trash in the fuel. I had to nurse 700km trip on almost no fuel pressure. Funny how you can run forever on the filters with clean fuel, but on a tank of trash, they plug up almost instantly. I have to start carrying spare filters again. Usually its my fass filter that plug up first, then my engine fuel filter.

 

thank goodness for fuel pressure gauges! just imagine the guys that dont have one!, only takes one tank of bad fuel to plug up a filter. I've been lucky I guess, been buying flying J fuel for the past 3 yrs, a tank every 2 days, no issues todate

 

I wonder if they had just filled the tanks before you got there....

 

I've gotten trash from other vendor pumps as well, so nobody perfect. Usually I carry spare filter, of course yesterday was one of the days that I didn't. I remember one time I got some water in my seperator and it was -35 deg's outside and one of those nice windy days. The truck stalled and my fass water seperator was frozen solid. That was from a Petropass card lock. I was stuck off hiway in now where land about 2hours northwest of Grand Praire.

 

I was told awhile ago by the local Dodge dealer that Alberta has the worst fuel quality standards of any province. So bad in fact that we've become a dumping ground for bad fuel that couldn't be sold elsewhere. Apparently they see lots of trucks towed in from bad fuel.

 

There is basically 3 gas crackers in Alberta, Esso Strathcona (Edmonton), PetroCan (Edmonton) & Shell Scottford (Fort Sask). Turbo Balzac is gone, Bowden is mothballed still and everything else are just pre-refiners. If the diesel is brownish/dark straw colored- PetroCan, light straw- shell and greenish tinge -Esso. The name on the station or delivery truck may or may not be the original producer of the fuel. Fuel is made to a spec as per customer/ gov regs and additives are customer specific. Example is Mohawk gas they are and Esso account but any delivery terminal has the Ethanol additive "Mohawk" selection on the loading rack. Diesel is diesel and is weather seasonal temperature rated with winter fuel in the extreme North rated at a lower pour point during the winter months. Suncor also produces "diesel" but is usually only locally available (Ft. McMurray) and is normally a base stock for refineries. If a refinery goes into shutdown or repair mode and home brand fuel supply depleted allocations from other local refineries is purchased to supply their customers. Dirty fuel is more likely a vendor issue with dirty tanks, filters or bypassed water separators. Every fuel pump is required to have a delivery filter before the hose nozzle but not always there. Fuel tanks are to be tested for water content when dipped by applying a water sensitive paste on the bottom of the stick occasionally. Water in tanks will never go away completely due to condensation in storage facilities. However people parking vehicles in nice warm garages coming from cold to extreme cold climates generate as much or more detrimental water into their fuel systems. As far as Alberta being a dumping ground for bad fuel the question would be where did it come from as we pretty much supply ourselves. More fuel leaves here than is imported aka Flying J in Montana, Eastern BC stations, & Sask when COOP Regina cant keep up. Farmers who store fuel and deliver from gravity tanks are prone to water problems as filters are seldom changed or don't exist on bulk tanks subject to multiple temperature changes. Summer fuel P20/25 always gives more power than extreme cold weather fuel P40 or P50 Arctic aka stove oil. So with this many variables in diesel marketing and delivery I would like to know how one can accurately predict who will have the best fuel constantly. Point of note Mohawk & UFA are Esso accounts and so is the origin of there lube oils.

 

wow thank you for the insightful post, very good straightforward information!

 

From what I recall, the quality of the fuel in North America is one of the worst compared to the rest of the globe. Don't quote me on this but several manufacturers of diesel vehicles in other countries have encountered this issue and therefore do not have their brand of diesel engines here. Something about how we get to the ULSD compared to Europe, Africa etc.

Mr. Kennedy might know what I am getting at. How are ya?!

Scotty

 

Scotty is right and it is due to the volume and process we use to distill (crack) fuels here. Alberta has one of the better quality of fuels but the cleanest refinery ever was Turbo Balzac which was closed, dismantled and shipped over seas. In the end the last fuel coming out of there resembled jet fuel and was almost as clear as water. Hey Scotty, livin the dream in Fort Mac........11 years in July 2010. I will crash a get to together one of these days this year I promise.

 

I just put new filters into my ride a few days back. My fuel pressure is back to 18psi. I want to clearify that my filters had lots of miles on the filters, so I can't say it wasn't from one tank of fuel that they plugged up. I run three filters, I own one of the original fass 150's systems and run the stock fuel filter. I run approximately run mine 50k between changing my fass filters. My stock filter was clean still.