I am still under the impression that Diesel is Diesel is Dielsel but if you had to choose a brand from an area that only offers #1 and #2; no premiums, bios, or special blends what would it be. My options are Cenex, Arco/BP, Exxonn, Shell, Pacific Pride, and Cheveron.

 

well the first 2 look the same but the 3rd one dosnt look like the first 2

i prefer hess because its usually the most reasonably priced and they sell alot of diesel so its always fresh

 

Cenex when possible, Exxon never
Cenex is the only brand in the NW that is actually a different base stock, it comes though Cenex's own pipelines.

 

Are oil comes via pipeline. So basically its the same stuff. When the truck tanker is getting loaded. Its then the additives are mixed into the fuels. Each company like BP,Cenex,Conoco,Holiday has its own additive package dumped into the tanker. Thats when it becomes what brand you buy.
Its probably different where you live?

 

Why never Exxon? Exxon is big around here. I'm not taking up for them just wondering if there's something I need to know...LCH

 

I've consistently gotten less mpgs with Exxon fuel.

 

i used to work for oil company and what jeff said is right on a lot of time your going to shell and they got onother brand in there for example the best place to go is were they sell the most that way your diesel is always fresh or just ask from wat refinery there diesel is coming from and go from there

 

Well I have been buying Murphy from Wally-World for about 20,000 miles now. I use and additive(PS&MMO) to help the diesel quality. Their diesel is always the cheapest(10-20 cents cheaper than others a gallon) and they are closest to me. They only have one diesel tank and those two pumps are always in use 24hrs a day.

 

If you have Hess brand available. It is better, at least in the Northeast. In NY and New England, almost all D2 comes from Cibro Petroleum. One of their petro engineers told me that only Hess, who has its own diesel production in New Jersey, makes its own stuff. All of the other brands come from Cibro. Each Petroleum supplier gets it from them and adds its own additive package and/or dye depending on whether it is for on or off road use.

A friend of mine, who pulled a big 5th wheel race car trailer with his Chevy dually, topped off with Hess diesel in the Albany area. He called to ask what brand that was? Hess was not in Buffalo area at the time. He got 1 mile per gallon better on that tankful than anything else he had tried!!

Like gasoline, diesel is composed of many hydro carbons. And no 2 loads of crude are the same, and as a result, no 2 batches of diesel are the same. Cetane is only one of many components and is used (like Octane is for gasoline) for a benchmark for performance. I am not sure how the Cetane number is calculated. For gasoline, each batch is run in variable compression ratio engine. The C.R. is increased until it knocks and an Octane rating assigned. It actually has very little to do with actual Octane content. Lead for example, will "artifically'" raise the Octane rating of gasoline. And the additive Amoco used to use did the same. It just was not lead.

The fresh diesel thing is important too. In the stationary engines (stand by power generation) we had plenty of problems with slime growth, instability, etc. from stagnent fuel. My solution was easy, burn it up faster. Do longer routine engine runs, more often. We would end up putting some very toxic additives in the tanks to improve shelf life. And then change fuel filters often to get rid of the crap that grew in the underground tanks.

 

Cenex first and nearly always. Cenex comes from their own refinery in Laurel, MT and has it's own separate pipeline. It doesn't share with anyone. On the road, I'll buy Conoco/Phillips, down southeast it's Hess or Sunoco.