What 2 Cycle Oil Should I use?

I just use Echo's oil. I'm impressed with the modern oils. 3 Summers ago my son ran a full tank of straight gas through my hedge clippers. I thought for sure that it was toasted but it appears to have done no harm whatsoever. Never even got stuck.

 

We had a Homelite XL that got straight gassed and run then a 32:1 mix was poured in and it started right up and ran better than ever go figure.

 

I pay no mind to what 2-cycle engine oil I buy or use; its usually the least expensive/on sale that ends up in my saw.

But then, my saw isn't modified at all.

But, then again, it was bought in 84 or 85. Pretty good run for all you believers in name brand oil, no?

And las long as the can of worms has been opened, I have only paid for bar oil about half of those years. Yup, used drain oil (off and on) here!!

 

I am using Poulan synthetic at 40:1 plus a quarter oz. of lube control LC-20 works for me.

 

Pennzoil for air cooled engines. Used it when I flew a couple hundred hours a year with a Rotax or Hirth powering a CGS Hawk. Greensky Adventures was always impressed with internals during the scheduled tear downs of the engines.

I always ran ethanol free (tested with the olive jar trick) or avgas in ultralights. Rotax had issues with carb boots being chewed up with ethanol. We had a Rotax 582 seize in flight at Sun-n-Fun while being flown by a reporter, with only 30 hrs on both engine and air frame. This was due to a cracked carb boot sucking air. Farmer let us keep the plane in his field until Lockwood Aviation could rebuild the motor, which they did over night at the show. The fact the reporter had the seizure and Lockwood was a large U.S. distributor for Rotax was a major reason Rotax upgraded the boots as quick as they did.

I literally trusted my life with that stuff and it served myself and others well. I figure it's good enough for my saws and I use an old Stihl 028 Super AV as a primary.

 

Olive jar trick??? Care to explain, never heard of it

 

https://generalaviationnews.com/2012/12/05/ethanol-testing-made-easy/




Some people have found a food coloring that mixes well with water. Some brands of FC only form a blob on the bottom. I always just used a fine Sharpie.

 

my cutting buddy runs it close to 100:1 in his stihl magnum 460, he goes a tad richer, but not much, like 90:1. He's not had an issue in like 5+ years. I'm not willing to risk it that close.

 

keep in mind that any even semi modern saw is designed to run on e10, which is 10% ethanol. Ive been running e10 for over 20 years in all sorts of 2 stroke engine. not one issue.

Yes, rotax had issues with carb boots cracking and allowing air in and running lean. they realized that thye had issues with tir boots, and fixed that. this was for sleds to pwc to ultralight engines. I personally would never use any pennzoil product if given the choice.

 

The part in bold, why?

 

A lot of people worry about what is the best oil! My mechanic told me, people should spend less time worrying about the best oil and a lot more time thinking .. did you remember to mix oil in the gas!!

 

Exactly !! I know people who will argue over oil but leave the gas cans open in the rain.

 

I'm glad someone opened it ... I use the same stuff, unless I find something cheaper.

I mix it with the cheapest e-free I can find, which is unfortunately premium. Because I have some older equipment that I don't want ethanol in, and I don't want to stock multiple fuels in the garage, all my saws and other equipment gets the same. It costs a little more, but saves some hassle.

Otherwise, cheap gets the job done for me.

 

Hey farmer steve I am located glenmoore chester county pa

 

I use stihl mix. I have a few of my dads saws that he bought when I was a kid. They haven’t ran for years but I checked compression a couple years ago and they all were in spec. I wish these saws had hour meters cause the have been around the block. He always used stihl mix and I will continue to.

 

Because they have cheaped out and used sub par base oils in the past. I've personally seen enough sludge deposits in valve covers and oil pans from Pennzoil that I won't use it unless that's the only choice.

It's like how I won't use fram oil filters. Except that is even more extreme when those fail, especially on a motorcycle, and they rupture, dropping oil onto your rear tire. Btdt, no thanks ever again.

 

Ever cut a Fram open ? I'm not using those to protect my investment !!

 

Yes, I have. Not much there.

 

Found much better deal's on ebay with free ship
Than what my local shops sell them for.