Difference in the fuel

[TherrienH]

Ok something kinda bothered me when I recently went to a gas station to get premium fuel for my snowmobile, and when I was fueling my sled up I noticed that the fuel had kind of a light purple color to it, it was rated 91 octane and just wanted to know whats the difference between this fuel and regular ones at other gas stations?

 

[Bigredmariner]

I'm not sure on the color but I know every once in a while I'll get a tank full that has shitty power and kills my mileage. The tank I ran tonight was like that. Killed my mpg's by almost 2.5.

 

[TherrienH]

Yeah but seems like that gas station always has the purple color to the fuel, its not in regular only in the premium fuel, just wondering if there was any relevance to the color or it was just a dye or something

 

[Bigredmariner]

Some of the distributors will use a dye in the different grades. It's not real uncommon, I haven't really paid much attention to it for years so I can't explain the differences. All raw fuel is kind of clear, after the distributors add their shit it could be just about any color.

 

[Darkanion]

Like Red said, it's probably something the fuel distributor added.. A fuel additive package that's supposed to have cleaners and stuff like that in it..?

 

[OldCracker29]

I was told that the delivery drivers add the stuff to it after they fill the under ground tanks. Maybe ask one of them if you ever see one delivering fuel.

 

[rev353]

I found this.
What gives gasoline color?
Many different things. Some bad, like PNAs (polynuclear aromatics) mentioned by Tracy, some not so bad. A lot of companies add anti-oxidants to keep down gum formation and that also helps color. However, a lot of gas stations are re-filled daily, so storage time isn't a problem. Premium is generally less colored due to how it's made (little or no PNAs, etc). Regular and midgrade are made from many things and generally have some color. I'd be concerned with any gas that was bright yellow or premium that was anything other than white or faintly yellow.

 

[Cowboy Cadillac]

Purple or Red colored gas/diesel here is for off road/oil rigs/or Farm vehicles only. Its dyed so they can dip your tanks and see if your running the cheaper to purchase farm/rig fuel. All the regular fuel is clear to slightly yellow

 

[66nova]

Companies will dye there fuel to distinguish grades. This is very common in Race fuels and diesel, but I can't say that I have seen in regular grade fuels (87-93). I guess it's possible though.

Depending on what distributor we purchase our race fuel from it could be green, pink or purple. Also, if we have a barrel of 104 and 110 from the same company they are usually different colors.

 

[Nick The Great]

Purple or Red colored gas/diesel here is for off road/oil rigs/or Farm vehicles only. Its dyed so they can dip your tanks and see if your running the cheaper to purchase farm/rig fuel. All the regular fuel is clear to slightly yellow

That's the way we are for Diesel, but as far as I know, there's nothing like that for gasoline.