Shell V Power Diesel / BP equiv - any benefit?

I was told something that interested me recently. My local garage man said when I told him that I didnt get any improvement in consumption on my Yaris T sport when using vpower (48.3 mpg at the mo) was that because as Vpower only increases the torque/power output the only benefit I would get would be a bit more get up and go. As I drive as economically as it is possible (changing up at 2-3000) and staying in top (20mph per thousand) even around round-a-bouts, yes the yaris is very happy to oblidge (goes everywhere in top) apparently you cannot improve on its best effort and will only find improvement if you dont already drive in the manner discribed. He did say that running a couple of tanks through every few thousand is beneficial to the fuel system, but otherwise I would just be boosting shells profits. I must say I didnt notice any improvement to the smoothness or lack of in the slightly rough yaris. (Still miss the A2 '1.4 petrols' refinement) I know Im talking petrol here but suspect the same applies to derv. Hope this helps to those who have not got the improvment you hoped for when changing to Vpower, the good news is you are driving to the best of your cars ability. Cheers Colin
 
There seems to be conflicting advice on 2 stroke oil in terms of semi-synthetic or not! I am sure the tread started on here a few months ago referred to use of semi synth. What i do clearly recall are some very impressive lab photos showing the benefits. I tend to use Vpower if I know i will be going on a long hard drive to help with the italian tune up effect ;)
 
Petrol v-power is different. The Octane rating is different and the ignition timing can be adjusted, and it does affect the engine. The only thing no one has done a test is long term effectiveness of the detergent of the different brand's additives. And that test is just totally impractical for independent labs to do. But since diesel doesn't do sparkplugs, I don't know if the Cetane rating makes a difference.

As for 2 stroke oils, that trick is even used in petrol engine! Albeit on the rotary engines where the rotar tips and seals are a little more sensitive to wear than the parts in piston engines!
 
Pretty much every drop of fuel in Scotland comes from Ineos's refinery in Grangemouth. I dare say buying more expensive "branded" fuels is a waste of hard earned.
 
Yes, But that is just the RAW fuel! Please read this thread and look at the comments that I have made regarding Brand distinctiveness. If you purchase, say, Shell fuel, you will be buying a Brand with the very latest, cutting-edge additive package! Their massive Research commitment will ensure that, say, the detergent aspect of the fuel is "state-of-the-art! A car engine stripped-down after, say, 50,000 miles will be significantly and obviously, cleaner! Engine suppliers have to have a built-in tolerance to compensate for the build-up of carbon in the engine, which will affect the octane requirement as the engine ages. Without that build-up (or a build-up of a reduced rate), then the engine will develop more power and run more economically! If you want to keep your car for a long time, then I can certainly recommend choosing a quality fuel that you know will be looking after your engine! Surely that is worth one or two pence more, per litre?

David
 
David is correct fuel is a fungible commodity,But there are certain detergent packages, added at the end, that make it brand specific.
 
At Last! Well said! So SOMEONE has understood what I have been saying? Phew! "fungible"? .... I don't know that word? Too long for "Scrabble"! LOL!

David
 
Don't get me wrong, I understand that cleaning additives etc. can be added by oil companies, what I'm saying is that unlike in certain parts of continental Europe and elsewhere in the world, the base quality of fuel is a lot better than the lowest tolerance our engines are designed for. Sure, I could buy v-power or I can pop in a can of cleaning additive to the occasional tank.

I don't honestly believe that "super" diesel is anywhere near as beneficial as super unleaded. I run the Volvo T5 on super unleaded because Volvo specify 97+ RON fuel for that engine and, as a result, I'm guessing their tolerances for fuel quality are lower by definition of the tune etc. If my A2 TDi was remapped I might think slightly differently as the tolerances may well be compromised but with UK spec fuel and an unmapped TDi I'd be surprised if I was doing my engine a great deal of harm. It's done 131k with very few engine related issues and certainly none that, so far, are raleted to the quality of fuel used.

A tank or two just for the cleaning agent doesn't seem unreasonable but I'd need a much better reason than that for the extra price commanded per tank to use it all the time.

To each their own though ;-) And sorry, I wasn't trying to get under anyone's skin.

Iain
 
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I tend to agree about Vpower etc although when I ran my highly tuned diesel Astra that is all i used but your comment suggested any branded fuel isn't worth the extra cost. All i can say is after 25 years and in excess of 750k miles of dieseling I beg to differ, for me its Shell (preferred)/BP/Esso all the time.
 
In my part of the world Vpower and other high octane fuels are 10p per litre more, not just a couple of pence. I tend to put in an system cleaner once a year, about £9 at halfords. Cheaper than an extra £4 a tank for the V. Cheers Colin
 
Yes, but you are missing the main thrust of my input to this thread .... Vpower is, quite simply, a higher octane fuel! You will therefore benefit from the increased power that the fuel produces in performance gains, or in economy if you drive carefully. That is what you have paid for at the pumps! Incidentally, "Which" magazine have concluded that these high octane fuels are not economically viable ... you are better off, money-wise, using the regular grades! No, ANY product bearing the "Shell" brand name (i.e. the regular 95 octane fuel), will still give you the benefit of that (not inconsiderable) Company's massive Research effort! This will be true, but to a lesser extent, for the other oil Majors ......

David
 
Pretty much every drop of fuel in Scotland comes from Ineos's refinery in Grangemouth. I dare say buying more expensive "branded" fuels is a waste of hard earned.

almost correct,Conoco Immingham appears have its share in the central belt too.
Lots of product flow to there and from there from Scotland when Ineos aint playing ball.
 
As I said in my first post, I cannot get anymore to the gallon on vpower no matter how I try. And the view of an 'expert' is that I am getting the best possible result for my particular engine, now up to 48.4 mpg after a particularly gentle 60 mile jog today and heading west to avoid the very steep Haldon hill which plays havoc with consumption. It is up by 1.7mpg since changing from 5-30 to 0-30 castrol edge which I decided to try as unlike my old A2 it dosnt use any oil between 10k changes. Cheers Colin.
 
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So, that's about 150 Km on a gallon, and that's about 93 MPG! WOW, impressive! You have met the original spec. of the car .... "3 litre" ... i.e. 100 km per 3 litres of fuel! ... EXACTLY!

David
 
I tend to run old bangers, they are always running better when i sell them on, no probs with emissions.I use Shell whenever i can and saw a clear difference last summer when we travelled down to Torquay with a tankful of the good stuff but had to use supermarket brand on the journey back.Debateable whether the power difference is noticed on anything but a highly tuned motor but i can GUARANTEE that Shell fuel will clean up deposits on valve seats,piston crowns and injector tips.
Agree totally with David....I know Shell Research well, having worked there for 18 yrs building and running engine test rigs and chassis dynamometers.Just a pity that Shell in there wisdom have decided to close the place at the end of this year!
 
Just as a footnote to my original post, just returned from a long mainly motorway, with A road, then B road, and some town work trip to the south .Then a return home on the motorway.I used shell v power diesel, which I have been using pretty much all the time since I got the car.Was pretty impressed, as I still have fuel left in the tank, no fillups . It's average on the computer is 2.4l/100km - 117 imp mpg.
 
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I am always a bit wary of the figures for fuel consumption given by the on-board computer. Have you not done a brim-to-brim measurement and worked out the fuel consumption from that? Never-the-less, those figures are highly impressive! When I was much younger, even a 50cc Moped didn't achieve that! I suppose the LHD is a minor negative, too. I go abroad quite a lot, so it would help there ... I would miss the OSS one hell of a lot, though! I think it just makes this car! Retro-fitting IS possible, I believe.

David
 
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