@Lycan I’m still somewhat confused.
So the truck is rear wheel drive, correct?
But according to the VIN, it should be a 4x4, correct?
I don’t mean to be rude, but isn’t a 2x4 a piece of wood?
Have you found those maintenance records yet?
“I’ve always used ARCO in California. The “A” means Alaska (at least I think it does)”
Nope!
I can’t claim to know the source of the crude oil that ARCO uses, but the name is a contraction for Atlantic-Richfield Oil Company. If you go back to the '60s, Atlantic was a second-tier gas station operator in the Mid-Atlantic region, and Richfield was another second-tier operator. Then, they merged to form the Atlantic-Richfield Oil Company, and “ARCO” is the resulting brand name. Nothing to do with the state of Alaska in that name.
“I think the V in Valero means the gas comes from Venezula instead of Alaska, but that’s just another unproved theory of mine.”
Ummm…no.
Valero is now the largest refiner of crude oil in the US, as, over the past decade or so, it has bought refineries from most of the major brands, such as Exxon, Phillips, etc. There are Valero-branded gas stations, but this part of their business pales by comparison with their refinery operations, which are truly massive. Valero-produced gasoline is used by almost all of the gas stations that you see on the highway, no matter what the brand might be.
Valero uses crude oil from many sources, and Venezuela has nothing specific to do with Valero’s business model.
If you are seeking Venezuelan-sourced products (and I don’t know why you would), then you should seek out Citgo stations, as that US brand is wholly owned by a Venezuelan company. Personally, I avoid Citgo stations–as well as Lukoil stations, which are owned by a Russian conglomerate with reputed mob affiliations. I don’t want to send any money to the Communist regime in Venezuela, nor do I want to give money to the Russian mob.
You have some interesting theories, but–unfortunately–they are not based in reality.
;-))
Oh and at this point it just looks like i need to replace rear axle lub. The rest is up to date
ty
Lycan
@Lycan your rear axle hub is actually the entire rear axleshaft, if I’m not mistaken.
You are right sir. Ummm…so far it looks like i just need to replace Hub grease and Maintenance trany…flush and replace screen and fluid. Those are the majors. hopefully for a long time 
The brand name may not actually make that big of a difference
but
the station…the actual real estate…can be the deciding factor.
There are stations in this town I refuse to buy from…I’ll push my truck a mile rather than buy their crap gas.
So you may find…in your town…that there is a difference between stations.
But don’t hold that as a brand difference accross the board. It may just be THAT station.
Atlantic was one of the several dozen regional petroleum companies created by the breakup of the Standard Oil trust. IIRC, Atlantic was based in Philadelphia. Richfield was a California company not descended from Standard. It’s interesting to look at the roots of gasoline companies. Almost all the large ones descended from one or another of the Standard Oil companies. In some cases the names make the relationship obvious, but not all the resulting companies were given rights to the Standard brand.
I use top tier stations only, and then decide on what I use by how my truck likes it.
I used to use Shell exclusively, then within a month, all 3 of my vehicles (Chevy van, Ford van, and GMC Truck,) all starter to run worse with it. So I switched to QT gas, and haven’t had an issue. My old truck (1992 Chevy,) loved the Shell, but hated the Chevron. The truck before that (81 Chevy,) hated anything but the Chevron.
I do stay away from the cheapy no-name stations. From what I understand, they buy leftover fuel from everyone else, and just mix it together. So you are getting everyone’s unique blends of detergents and such- all mixed together- and never the same blend twice. No thanks.
(To be fair, I don’t actually no if it is true or not, but it makes enough sense to keep me from getting skimpy. I’d rather pay the $.05 per gallon or so and get the top tier fuel.)
Or a 4X2 spelled backwards…
In all the fuel injected vehicles I have owned including a 1985 Ford Tempo, 1988 Ford Taurus with the 3.8 liter engine, 1989 Mercury Sable with the 3.0 liter engine, 1990 Ford Aerostar 4.0 liter engine, 2000 Ford Windstar, 2003 Toyota 4Runner V6, 2006 Chevrolet Uplander and 2011 Toyota Sienna V-6 it hasn’t made one iota of difference what brand of fuel I put in the gas tank. I’ve used Admiral, Shell, BP, Speedway, Marathon, Valero, Flying J, GasAmerica, Sunoco and who knows what else. The engines have all run well on all these gasolines and the mileage has been about the same.
The only problem I had that I traced to gasoline was my 1978 Oldsmobile Cutlass when the 10% ethanol came along. Sometimes when the engine was hot, it would take quite of bit of cranking with the starter to fire up the engine. When I bought gasoline without ethanol, the problem disappeared. However, as more and more stations sold 10% ethanol in our area, either the gasoline formulation changed or the car got used to it because the problem cleared itself up.
I remember back in the 1960s and 1970s I bought gasoline from stations that pumped a high volume of gasoline. I thought this was particularly important in the winter. In all my cars, I used the lowest (i.e. cheapest) octane gasoline with no problems.
And yes 2x4 spelled backwards is 4x2 LOL
So far ive been using ARCO for the last 30 days and there really is no noticeable differance between Chevron and ARCO…Gas mailage is still 14.25 MPG city. Not Sure on highway yet…I still would like to find a safe way to increse gas milage. What about using a Hydrogen canister…Im not to sure the proper name for it. All i know my buddy of old build one from scratch from a internet finding for his S10 pickup. he clamed MPG went for something like 12 MPG to 20MPG.