Thread: Gas Price Pa

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Smart man!. I was in shock when I filled up on the way home last night. Its up to 3.83 for regular and was 4.03 for super!

Originally Posted by stovens

Smart man!. I was in shock when I filled up on the way home last night. Its up to 3.83 for regular and was 4.03 for super!

Yeah,forgot to mention,diesel is NZ$1.40 a litre,so that aint so hot either.
Most of us kiwi rodders seem to be able to get out on the road regularly,so it cant be hurting us too bad yet.

It's $3.17 here today.

Pat

340 right now

3.56+/- (Hess & unbranded) 3.689/4.099 (Exxon or Mobil, of course)

Diesel is 4.29 - 4.69 (sure makes me happy that I wasn't convinced that diesel was a "better way" then my Guzzle V10 F350)

Originally Posted by IC2

3.56+/- (Hess & unbranded) 3.689/4.099 (Exxon or Mobil, of course)

Diesel is 4.29 - 4.69 (sure makes me happy that I wasn't convinced that diesel was a "better way" then my Guzzle V10 F350)

Maybe not. Assume your V10 gets about 10mpg. At $3.56 you are paying about $0.35 per mile. The turbo diesel with chip I have seen get 18 mpg. At $4.50 this is $0.25 per mile. Diesel still more cost effective in general due to mileage advantage.

Kitz

Sad thing is diesel is a by product of gas production. Used to be cheaper. I feel for the independant truckers who have those huge tanks to fill up!

Originally Posted by kitz

Maybe not. Assume your V10 gets about 10mpg. At $3.56 you are paying about $0.35 per mile. The turbo diesel with chip I have seen get 18 mpg. At $4.50 this is $0.25 per mile. Diesel still more cost effective in general due to mileage advantage.

Kitz

That's correct - that is until you start adding in the maintainance factors along with a few other items, the diesel listed first i.e. (and these prices are for Fords, I assume Dodge and Chebbie are similar):

This is every 5K miles, or $220 vs $50

15 quarts of lube oil vs 7 ($75 vs $35 - Mobil 1)
$60 fuel filter vs a $10(same brand)
$20 Oil filter vs a $5 (same brand)
$65 fuel/water filter vs 0


An air filter yearly, $60 vs $15

Then a JIC of a load of crap fuel or gas
$300 each fuel injector vs $300 set

The gasser, spark plugs every 100K, or ~$60, and maybe a a COP at $40

Now, the big killer to add to that, an $8800 base price premium for the diesel. Even a 2 year old used truck - 4-5000 more.

Then add in the payback period for a $400 to $700 chip. I can't even consider that for my truck as the last time that I looked within the past 2 months, no one offered a reliable chip for the 3 valve V10 engines, regardless of any advertising hype. I can install a Banks cat back exhaust - that's it for reliable mods. So to put it on an even keel, no mods, factory stock, the dual turbo '08 and later 6.4 Ford turbos = 10 -12 mpg. Maybe. Same as my open road mileage.

I just heard Rep. Kucinich recite how the gas companies are gouging consumers. It is simply amazing to me how folks can believe this when the price of $119/bbl is on the international market. Three things are causing this:

1. Global supply and demand when demand is increasing from India and China.

2. The failure to allow oil exploration in ANWAR.

3. The devaluation of the U.S. $

Note that I have suppressed a rant about the situation regarding oil from Venezuela and a looming problem growing there.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientis/teen rodder

The price of 87 octane regular was $3.47/gallon here yesterday.

Perhaps the only thing a non-political rodder can do is to start to look at lightweight vehicles if this political gridlock continues. The cultural switch to three-wheelers with HD engines will at least have a traditional base in the long history of motorcycles. Even then I checked out the big HDs at the agency at the end of my street and found they only get about 38 mpg. Well pardon my frustration, but with all the coal in North America and recently documented oil deposits in Colorado/ND and oil sands in western Canada, it looks to me that the problem is more environmental-political than geological!

My Congressman answers my e-mail messages so maybe maybe NSRA and even SEMA folks should keep the messages flowing asking for common sense development of U.S. oil and coal deposits; let your congressman know how you feel about caribou versus oil in ANWAR. Considering the increase in food prices relative to oil maybe there should be caribou-burgers, but then there would need to be some transportation costs to bring the burgers to population centers. That just shows how important oil is to food as well as heat and transportation.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Don last month our gas bill was 400.00
I told my wife that we could get a brand new Toyota Yaris as a comuter car for about 250.00 a month car payment. We'd save at least 100.00 a month in gas economy as it gets around 35-36 stated gas milage on the hiway. A friend has one and says he gets around 40mpg. We actually test drove one, and it was comfortable and peppy for a little beater base model commuter.It also fits into those relined tight car spaces at work! I feel guilty that both cars we have only get between 20 and 22 mpg. We each commute to work. My wife goes 15 miles each way, me 25miles each way. I already car pool with a coworker, which helps. I'd love a cleaner burning hybrid, but theres that huge sticker shock and the problem with what environmental impack all those batteries have. The Yaris is just a cheap 11k new Toyota with great fuel economy. We figure if we bought one it would be like having a new car for about a hundred fifty a month plus insurance!

Our illustrious House Leadership has a plan!!!

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/...008-04-22.html

87 Octane is $1.25 per liter in B.C. or $4.72 per U.S. gal.

Well the cam in my SBC 350 is basically the stock Z28 cam with 1.6 rockers so the only thing left is to put 1.5 rockers on the intake side. The rear tires are already as big as the fenders allow and I already have a 700 R4, but now I am glad I have a spare set of 1.5 ratio roller rockers. I will still leave the 1.6 rockers on the exhaust valves for a slight increase in torque. A simple ratio of my 3.55 rear gear compared to the stock Z28 and the OD gear scales the 17 mpg (highway) of a '76 Z28 to about 24 mpg in the lighter A roadster. After that the only further thing would be to install a vacuum gauge to monitor fuel usage so as others have said occasional cruising will be the limit until they can get that new oil out of Colorado/ND. Hey maybe those 882 heads from the '76 Vette are just right now?! If the price of gas ever goes down (?) I can put the 1.6 rockers back on the intake valves for a little more lift.

Confession Time Relief: A year ago when I installed the 1.6 roller rockers I "lost" two of the little rubber wedges that go under the valve cover hold downs. They popped off because I did not know they were there and although I made replacements out of inner tube rubber I was biting my nails wondering if one or both fell down an oil return hole into the block where they could plug an oil passage. This week I cleaned out the garage workshop pretty good and amazingly in the sweep-up dust there were BOTH rubber wedges on the floor! Whew! The opposite to Murphy's Law is that you can't be wrong all the time!

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder