Bar Oil Shortage?

$10-12/qt isn’t a bad buy for oil. Guessing the stuff you used is Amsoil Saber. I mix it all at 32:1. Oddly enough, the piston and cylinder would survive the 100:1 ratio. It’s the bearings that suffer after a couple hundred hours.

Guy on OPE is testing oils running lean ratios in strimmers. So far, Amsoil dominator has the lead, then Red Armor, Schaffer’s 7000, Blue Marble, Amsoil Saber...
Those actually survived in excess of 4 hours at 300:1. But they only turn about 5k rpm loaded, where a saw turns between 8-12k loaded.

Those oils mentioned above have detergents in them that don’t promote carbon buildup. If anything, they actually clean existing carbon out after running them for awhile.

In my own experience, 50:1 with most oil leaves almost no oil residue inside the bottom of the case. With 32:1 there is ample.

 

So do you need to retune the saws for the lean condition switching from 50 to 40 ratio? I imagine the auto tunes can do it themselves?

 

Yes I grabbed a quart to try out when I was picking up some other things. I haven't ran the new mix in the saw(s), only the lawnboy and weed whacker.
I'll start mixing it at 32:1 going forward with this knowledge at hand. Lawnboy still seems to smoke as usual with the 80:1 I mixed up so it's probably going to survive the remaining fuel mix.
I usually use husqvarna xp+ synth blend.

 

Interesting...I would have bet good money that it would be the P/C that suffers first!

No, you should be fine.

Probably still burning out the oily residue/carbon in the muffler from before...slobbery old 2 strokes like the Lawnboys will continue to smoke for a long time after switching to a clean burning oil...many of the old "autolube" oil injection systems that were common on bikes in the 70's and 80's were famous for using plenty of oil...partially due to the fact the these systems were setup for using the manufacturers brand of dino juice...anybody that remembers seeing a 2 stroke street bike will remember the blue cloud that tended to linger behind them...most of them were autolube oilers. Anyways, some of the smaller engines like that (mopeds) were famous for the exhaust plugging up to the point of barely having the power to move. We used to take the exhaust systems off, take them out in the back parking lot and get the black goo burning with a oxy/acetylene torch stuffed into the inlet...once it started to burn it made a huge cloud of smoke the whole time (10-15 minutes was common) and what was really interesting was that you could see the progression of the burn through the exhaust system as it would glow red and progress from front to rear...sometimes you could get it to whistle like a steam whistle by playing with the placement of the torch (you had to continue feeding pure oxygen after the initial combustion was started) it always attracted a small crowd when it was being done.
Would usually run like new afterward! We called it the torch tuneup.

 

Because the manufacturers have to conform to EPA regulations.

 

Yep I run 31-1 synthetic oil in everything from saws to weed eaters. It does not affect the plug, spark arrestor, or piston. If a saw is not tuned correctly by running it to rich then that will cause some problems. But other wise no.

 

What I have found works for me is using the small bottles of Stihl oil that are to be mixed with 2 and a half gallons of gas but I only mix it with 2 gallons of gas. It is just a little bit extra oil with the gas.

 

Yep Stihl is full synthetic oil.

 

Yes to both.
Not so much from 50 to 40. But if a fella was running 80:1 and it was tuned on the edge, and then switched to 32:1 without retuning, there could be issues

 

I run Stihl 40:1 in all my Stihl's. Dealer recommended it even though 50:1 specified.

 

2017 562xp. Belongs to a tree service friend. Estimated 300 hours. Run on ope oil at 50:1 from new. Piston and cylinder were clean

 

when i used 50:1 oil i did the same. Again dealer recommended.

 

what saw mfr? Kevin?

 

Husky 562xp

 

I figured!

 

Lets try the same test with your new Steal...

 

I find it hard to believe also.
A few weeks ago I got on my oil suppliers website to order a few barrels. Selection was very limited and prices were up from last year at this time.they even had some new brand oil at $1900 barrel . WTF ,,, Shell Rotella is around $600 ,,,, must be good for 100000 mile oil changes.
Only reason I can think of for shortages is packaging facilities being shut down from “the Bug.” I would think it would be considered essential.

 

Wow, yeah pretty roached...slug n jug was still ok, huh?
How about the rod bearings?

 

Picked up my 6 gallons today. $51 and change after tax

 

Showed signs of wear but still usable. I bought a new loaded short block and transferred everything over