A few tips on filling your tank.

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Jeremy Beadle
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With the way price of petrol is going up here this might be worth noting. From a contact across the pond.


I don't know if this is true and I didn't check it out with the smoking gun do I don't want any e-mails telling me it's not true. But I thought I would share cause it sounds like it makes sense and every penny counts these days!!!!!! So read on...

TIPS ON PUMPING GAS (Good information) I don't know what you guys are paying for gasoline.... but here in California we are also paying higher, up to $3.50 per gallon. But my line of work is in petroleum for about 31 years now, so here are some tricks to get more of your money's worth for every gallon..

Here at the Kinder Morgan Pipeline where I work in San Jose , CA we deliver about 4 million gallons in a 24-hour period thru the pipeline. One day is diesel the next day is jet fuel, and gasoline, regular and premium grades.We have 34-storage tanks here with a total capacity of 16,800,000 gallons.

Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening....your gallon is not exactly a gallon. In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and other petroleum products plays an important role. A 1-degree rise in temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations do not have temperature compensation at the pumps.

When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode. If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.

One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL or HALF EMPTY. The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount.

Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up--most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.

Hope this will help you get the most value for your money.

SHARE THESE TIPS WITH OTHERS!
 
buying at a rate of 10 gallons at a time I recon that the actual difference that any of that will make is around about the square root of bugger all. ;)
 
Complete twaddle in my opinion.

You will probably find ground temperature to hardly change from night and day. So what if some vapour escapes from the tank if you fill it up fast. That vapour would probably only only power one turn of the engine. Petrol tanks are also sealed, so don't worry about it evaporating either.
 
Wow, impressively unbelievable...

Petrol pumps are callibrated, if the display shows 1 ltr has been pumped, 1ltr HAS been pumped.

It doesn't take a genius...
 
I'd take that with a pinch of salt !
I don't believe a word of it !!
 
Ever regretted posting something:coat:
 
the bit about fluid expansion is quite correct, and filling during the coldest hours of the day has been published as advice by both the RAC and the AA in recent times. Fuel delivery pumps are calibrated, but it assumes a standard temperature..... From memory I think it was somewhere around 20 degrees.


Afaik emission legislation for fuel delivery premises in the EU aren't as strict as parts of the US and vapour collection isn't used.
 
They mentioned the filling up in the morning on Top Gear once.
 
Something to think about if we get a hot summer though.
 
I guess it could be true, but are you going to save that much really, probably a couple of pence :shrug:
 
They mentioned the filling up in the morning on Top Gear once.

I'm quite in to my cars. As a general rule of thumb anything top gear says needs to be taken with a pinch of salt too ;)

I guess it could be true, but are you going to save that much really, probably a couple of pence :shrug:

Yeah it's minimal. Temperature underground doesn't vary anywhere near as much as it does on the surface.

If you want to improve your fuel consumption simply don't load the engine up as high. So be careful accelerating and drive slower. Pretty common sense really. Oh and don't speed :nono:
 
whilst some of it is 'technically' correct its gonna make virtually no difference, you'd be better off driving like 30psi suggests to save money.

your gas tank isnt actually sealed, it should be vented via a one way valve (often in the cap) to allow air in to compensate for the use of fuel within. saying that any vapour collected in the tank will escape when you open the filler cap to replenish your tank so really will you be saving anything?





id suggest driving more carefully and consistently will net you more rewards than filling up at 3am on a winters morning every morning!
 
Mmmmm not looking so bad for me know:)
 
would they really pump different fuel types down the same pipeline each day though? seems to me like that would cause masses of contamination (or waste if they flush the line every day) between fuel stocks which isnt exactly ideal?????
 
your gas tank isnt actually sealed, it should be vented via a one way valve (often in the cap) to allow air in to compensate for the use of fuel within. saying that any vapour collected in the tank will escape when you open the filler cap to replenish your tank so really will you be saving anything?

You of all people should know that isn't 100% correct on a petrol fueled engine. The fuel system on petrol injection vehicles is a sealed system in normal use, the noise you hear as you release the cap is pressure escaping rather than air rushing in. The vapours given off as the fuel load deminishes are stored in an activated carbon canister and vented into the inlet manifold in a controlled manner by the engine control unit when conditions are right. This was a result of EEC legislation regarding the emissions from motor vehicles that are vented to the outside air. Another change in a similar vein was the reburning of crank case gasses. No longer can you have a pipe hanging down off the engine chugging oily gasses out.

Still, your right about saving bugger all....drive like miss daisy and starve Gordon of his blood money.

If I'm careful with the right foot and spend more time watching the fuel computer I can get my focii showing 99.9 mpg :D
 
Nah, 6th gear.......1000 rpm at approx 37mph :D

Flooring it negates any saving as you'll get the mpg down to single figures during phases of wide open throttle. on overun the fueling is ramped down anyway.
 
ok then smart arse...a nice long downward slope :p (that you dont have to come up again!)
 
Have you a downward slope of such magnitude in mind?


I'm pretty crap with a camera......but not bad at all with internal combustion :D
 
You of all people should know that isn't 100% correct on a petrol fueled engine. The fuel system on petrol injection vehicles is a sealed system in normal use, the noise you hear as you release the cap is pressure escaping rather than air rushing in. The vapours given off as the fuel load deminishes are stored in an activated carbon canister and vented into the inlet manifold in a controlled manner by the engine control unit when conditions are right. This was a result of EEC legislation regarding the emissions from motor vehicles that are vented to the outside air. Another change in a similar vein was the reburning of crank case gasses. No longer can you have a pipe hanging down off the engine chugging oily gasses out.

cheers for clearing that up for me DF!

i know all engine breathers are fed back into the inlet system on road engines however i didnt know about the storage of vapour into a charcoal cannister,that seems to be the bit missing on race engines which are vented into a catch tank, and the fuel tank is (like old road cars) vented to atmosphere (via a rollover valve in race cars to prevent lots of fuel going everywhere in event of an accident!)
 
roll over protection is still employed on the filler neck, but it doesn't generally do much unless the car is on it's side or roof.

things were much simpler when I were a lad :D
 
my old mini clubman estate used to pressurise its fuel tank due to temperature change expanding the air at the far side of the tank (design fault i think!) this pushed the fuel out of the filler cap, was a bit of a shock when i discovered it and got soaked in fuel!


much prefer working on things that are either too old to be too complicated or excempt from all these EU and world guidlines! :) road cars suck though :)



i read an interesting article in motorsport mag where gordon murray explained when the brabham team first employed refueling into f1 races, makes for interesting reading, they pumped fuel into the car at 4bar, so they had to ensure the breather was connected into the tank before they pumped in the ful or they'd probably have blown half the f1 pit lane to oblivion, made for quite interesting reading :LOL:
 
:LOL:
I don't believe someone took the time to write all that, and by an American who pays virtually nothing for a gallon of fuel in the first place.
So the grand total he saved is, a small percentage of....errr...virtually nothing.
 
much prefer working on things that are either too old to be too complicated or excempt from all these EU and world guidlines! :) road cars suck

I know what you mean, the hours of fun I used to have with twin carb set ups and other bits of metal you could pull apart on the kitchen table.


Now things like the powershift transmissions and common rail diesel systems need to be spotless and built to tolerances you couldn't have even imagined 30 years ago.
 
I guess it could be true, but are you going to save that much really, probably a couple of pence :shrug:

I dont want to sound pedantic....however you shrug your shoulders at saving a few pence here and there, but I bet you moan a lot when the government increases fuel duty by 2p!

I know the governement are thieving...well...you get the idea...but a penny saved is a penny gained!
 
I know what you mean, the hours of fun I used to have with twin carb set ups and other bits of metal you could pull apart on the kitchen table.


Now things like the powershift transmissions and common rail diesel systems need to be spotless and built to tolerances you couldn't have even imagined 30 years ago.


i find it absolutely hilarious that i build an engine in a spotless workshop ensuring absolutely no dirt etc gets into anything i build and within about 3km its caked in ****e, same with gearboxes and clutches (they get rebuilt on a bench at the back of the truck!)

i miss having a garage, i wish i could tinker, i really should rebuild the carb on my p6 and get it running again, but being 170 miles from my garage is a bit of a pain in the arse!


talking about the powershift gearboxes, bet you cant change the ratios in one of them in 15mins like you could with the old hewland FF gearboxes!!!
 
the powershift in new focus would just about be drained of oil in 15 mins :D
 
I had an Audi A8 4.2 Quattro for a while, 300bhp, it was hard to keep your foot off the loud pedal, when you did boot it the fuel computer read 6.6mpg:eek:

My wife changed jobs and got one about a mile from where we live, she refused to walk in the winter so took the car.

over a month I recorded an average of 8mpg

she stayed, the car went, sometimes I wish I'd kept the car :shake:
 
I had an Audi A8 4.2 Quattro for a while, 300bhp, it was hard to keep your foot off the loud pedal, when you did boot it the fuel computer read 6.6mpg:eek:

thats when id scroll to a page on the onboard computer that didnt show such arse clenchingly scary statistics, maybe the odometer would be less scary....
 
Is there any truth in the story that deisel engines don't really hit their peak mpg until about 2000/3000 miles?
 
in the olden days you used to have to run in a car for its first 500 or so miles before changing the oil and filter, these days no one bothers and engines are often pre run in prior to being fitted to the car, although there must be some truth in it as engines and other components will often free up with use so you might expect to see a rise in fuel economy after the car has run for a while.


whether there is anything specific about deisel engines i dont know
 
As manufacturing process have become tighter, the engines are usually in better shape than they used to be. This means that running in isn't generally bothered with now, current advice is to just avoid laboring the engine.

As the engine beds in and free's up they do return better fuel economy, I'd usually say 1.5k miles would be the minimum mileage before I'd even begin to investigate a complaint of poor fuel consumption.
 
I'm never in a hurry to get to work so 59mph @ 2300rpm shows 42.3 mpg average on my trip computer. Give my Octavia VRS the beans (usually coming home from work) and it is barely above double figures.
 
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