Chainsaw oil/gas mix question

I just picked up a Homelight Super 2 chainsaw. Reading through the instructions, they ask for a 16:1 mixture on a saw that was produced many years ago. I have 50:1 ( stihl grey bottle)already mixed up for my Stihl leaf blower and chain saws. With the newly formulated oils that are made today. How important is it to use the 16:1 vs what I already have?

 

That saw is decades old and I don't know the answer. I am surprised by 16:1, wow!

 

Use the same fuel mix you use in everything else...oil technology has improved by leaps and bounds since they built that saw!

 

I run 40/1 in the Pioneer, it's a 1959 model that also called for 16/1. Oil tech has come a long way. I'd personally go a little more than 50 but that's my personal preference.

 

Same here...in everything.

 

If I was to guess that saw is probably in the 40 couple years old. It looks like new, so it wasn't used much.

 

What everybody else said. Use what you got, that 16:1 ration was for non detergent straight 30 weight oil from back in the day.

 

16-1 is a mosquito chaser...lol like everyone else, 40-1 Stihl small bottles. Good oil.

 

Speaking of 16:1 being a smoke show...I think I may have told this story before here, but my brother was contacted by a local church that wanted to take down a bunch of large pine trees to expand their cemetery and wanted someone to take the wood...they heard he had a "forest eater" (OWB) so he got the call. The day of the big event he had to work for a while so I took his equipment over to get started on things until he could get there. The two old duffers that were overseeing this operation brought their old Homeys to "help"...they pizzed around with them for quit a while until they were ready to go...lots and lots of smoke...both from the mufflers and from their chains...I was ready for a refuel and had already cut a few trees up before they made one full bucking cut. They finally settled on limbing while I bucked logs...that was a good decision because watching them try to cut logs was painful...I dunno what was wrong with their chains, but I'm sure all the exhaust smoke was from running somewhere in the range of 16:1 motor oil...but hey, its what the manual says to run, right?!

 

I like me some vintage saws but 99% I'm reaching for modern just because of the fiddling around you often need to do. In fact I've sold all vintage saws but my Remington Mighty Mite saws and a fully restored Mini Mac that I'm trying to sell lol.

As to the old fellas probably running 16:1... I'm sure they were. My dad was the same way with his old John Deere B tractor. Manual called for non detergent oil and that's all he would run. No matter what anyone said.

 

I had. Super 2 and several other homelite saws over the years. 40 or 50:1 is fine with new oils. Homelite sold 16:1, 32:1 and 50:1 oils that could be used or sold with warranty on any saw they made. It was an oil quality thing not a saw thing, lots of old guys would buy the 16:1 or maybe 32:1 oil because all the old saws ran lots of oil and they weren’t changing the way things were done. My uncle who was a homelite dealer in the 70’s and 80’s told me this.

 

I agree with everyone else on this.
40:1 with one of today's oils and let it rip.

Technology has come a long way with oil.

 

My old weed eater called for 16:1. Been using 40:1 for 25 years, still runs fine.