It only happened a few months ago with BP and Caltex (I don't use any others) servos starting to offering 91, 95, and 98 all at the same pump. I figure that its a marketing exercise to cover all market segments, the 95 is for those who have to use premium but don't want to pay the extra for 98, the 98 is there for those prepared to pay the premium and to lure them away from Shell Optimax.

Watto, to answer your question way back, Sydney is supplied by Caltex refinery at Kurnell and the Shell refinery at Clyde.

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One should never skimp on the zip ties.

I enter this conversation with some trepidation, given who I am employed by I guess I have a bias!

I work in BP's IT dept, not Marketing or Engineering or Pricing.... So this is only what I understand of the process. I am no expert.

Wattio is correct, MOST (not all) raw fuel in a given state does come from a particular refinery. eg: in Vic Shell Geelong and Mobil Altona. The difference is the different oil companies add different combinations of additives to their fuel at their own terminals. While BP and Mobil both sell 95 Octane (premium) the chemical composition is slightly different according to the preference of that company.

With the 98 octane fuels, all BP's Ultimate comes from Kwinana, Caltex's equivalent comes from Kurnell etc. I don't understand the technical part of it, but there is an extra process involved in producing the 98 octane fuels, something that cannot be done at the terminal, only at the refinery. Again each oil company has their own process and specification. So BP can only supply so much Ultimate, Shell so much Optimax etc as they have to truck it around the country. My understanding is only the higher volume or higher profile sites have the Ultimate fuel (at least at this stage).

Often there is a price differential between 95 and 98 octane when they are available at the same site. So the customer then has more choice at some sites which one they want to buy.

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Brett Nicholson
Greendale (near Ballan) VIC.
1971 Morris Mini Moke
1966 Austin Mini
1965 Morris Mini Traveller
1973 LR Series 3 88
2007 LR Freelander 2

I run plain unleaded in my standard 1100 and I have done for 4 years.
I do not run any additives at all. When I get valve seat problems I will spend the money that I have saved by buying cheaper fuel on valve seats.

If you have a head that has not been touched (never had the valves or seats recut) you should be able to run without an additive as long as you do not drive it hard and keep off the freeways. If you drive around town it should be fine. (mine is)

Just a little reminder..... When the Mini was new there were two petrols, Super and Standard. Super was about 96 octane and Standard was about 88. The Mini was able to run on Standard if you retarded the timing a little (that is what the thumb wheel on the dizzy was for.) You lost a little power but saved a little money.
The Cooper S was designed to run on 100 octane (avgas) but you could tune it to run on Super.

I usually use BP ultimate 98, the heads been converted to unleaded.. But would I be best to add a bit of flashlube every now and then?

It will at least lubricate the valve guides...
Unleaded has lots of solvents in, and no lube properties to speak of.

OTOH Mini valve stem seals are crap anyway- when they go hard (quick) then you'll have OIL lubrication!

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DrMini- 1970 wasaMatic 1360, Mk1S crank, 86.6HP (ATW) =~125 @ crank, 45 Dellorto (38 chokes), RE282 sprint cam, 1.5 rockers, 11.0:1 C/R.

I only ever use BP ultimate and flash lube, then if thats not available
only mobile or caltex. i would prefer to run out of petrol then put optimax in
from all that i have heared about it

i didnt read all posts but
Yeah i said it a few times in the last few weeks
Cause i only just knew for sure just now.
i read an article in the paper.

And no
Tassie does not get teh 98 fuel.
Because
'people'
whoever they are
Reckon that their isnt a big enough market for it on the island
EVEN though
Tassies car fleet is the oldest in the Country

makes sense doesnt it

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Sir Namibian CAMEL of MONGOLIA !!!
Vrilen Snyson Racing: Finding us all a Vrilen
Asparagus: Experience the versatility

yep
i agree with most of this stuff..
i like to put in 98...when its around..
but u gotta admit 95 is cheaper
dont put anything worse in! cant...our poor lil cars n bikes hate it
ends up cheaper in the long run coz i do alot of hwy drivin, so the 95/98 stuff gets more mileage out of it...
hehe rememba runnin old car on 2 stroke coz some1 4got to refuel..thats a big bunch of smoke!
oh and, south turramurra BP recently, had to be abt a year or so ago.. had a lil 'upgrade' where they changed the leaded tanks to that premium 98 stuff (optimax?) and yeh, that was aaages ago!
but yeh. i reckon that they have to advertise how much bloody premium (95 and 98 ) coz then u can actually choose..tho its generally 10c more than 91 'normal' stuff
at least thats how i class these petrol things
cheers
KAZ

btw if u do go to south tuzza, they have good old fashioned service, they fill up for ya:wink:
hehe gotta love the local servos!

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kaz
hey mate, looks like your cars only running on three cylinders!
haha..funny that..

'89 toyota cressida
'71 morris mini k
66 morris van

i use ultimate with flashlube, but
where do i get avgas from?

OG Speedshop.

Motorlab on duthy street, just off greenhill road
they fill it for you, and check your oil and stuff
they used to race minis back in the day too, so its always good to go around there with my mini.. he reckons i need a webber lol..

Will they supply avgas without a CAMS licence shown?

If your interested in some further analysis but not so drastic, check out
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/7203633?rnd=1113439994015&has-player=true

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One should never skimp on the zip ties.

BTW tradeoff deals are common between the competing oil companies - this saves them the said trucking of petrol all around the country, so if say shell has a refinery and spare capacity in Sydney but none or no capacity in Melbourne, it might trade petrol with say Caltex which has spare capacity in Melb (for eg.) but none in Sydney. So often the petrol you fill in at one company's station is from its competitors refinery.