What’s your poison?

For some time now, I have been using Total fuels; before that, I was using Shell Racing Nitro. The Shell Racing Nitro was good for my engine as it was running only on four cylinders. My engine is a 6-cylinder (1Gfe). The No. 1 injector is not working. The No. 2 injector works but has no combustion. The spark plugs are all good. So that meant there was a possibility that there was a compression leak in cylinder No. 2. The engine runs fine but a bit low on power, so going up a ramp is a bit of a challenge. I tried Petron Blaze and XCS also. I stopped using Blaze because the engine was performing the same as when using the Shell Racing Nitro. I couldn’t reap the benefits on Blaze. The XCS was okay… slight difference compared to Shell Racing.

Last April, I got a chance to try the new Denso TT spark plug. But a few weeks later, the plugs started to falter. I was able to trace the problem to the batch of fuel that I last loaded. No, I am not saying that Shell fuels are bad. The fuel is good, but the tank where it is stored may have some sediments already. Even the tanker used for delivery maybe the culprit. It happens. I switched to Total because the gas station selling that brand was closer to my home. The downside, however, is the octane rating was lower. Since I switched fuel brands, the No. 2 cylinder started to show signs of life. Before, if you disconnected the high-tension cable, there would be no difference while the engine was running. Now, there is a difference. The engine pulls better, idling is better and gas consumption is better. Is this a fluke? I’m not sure. But I think the everyday highway run did some good. Before it was a struggle to hit 100 kph; now 130 to 140 kph is possible.