I am posting as a comment on fuel because I've had great success with keeping all my two stroke motors easy starting and clean carbs for the past two years. In the past always had some kind of fouling, gummed carb or fouled plug issues every 3 or 4 months. I am speaking of saws, trimmers, blowers, hedger and a 150HP outboard. Gasoline is 87 non-ethanol mixed with 2-16 oz cans of Sea Foam per 15 gallon dispensing tank. Oil is Royal Purple mixed in at proper ratio per motor. Quicksilver 2-stroke in the outboard which has injection. Hope I didn't shoot myself in the foot and jinx it but maybe this combo could help somebody else.
Don't quote me on this but pretty sure that saws recommend a higher octane fuel , great it is non ethanol ( not any around here ) I run VP small engine fuel without oil and mix accordingly to suit my needs. Yes it is pricey but to me worth it since I started using it I have had no carburetor issues of any kind since.
Saws don’t need high octane. Compression ratio on them isn’t high. I run 87 pump gas in all my ope which includes a bunch highly modified with excellent results. Get a good oil and it’ll more than likely have stabilizers all ready in so no need for additional additives.
Pretty sure the non ethanol is key for me. Local gas station has only 1 pump and I always have to wait for at least one guy.
Stihl recommends 89 mid grade in their saws , Not that I disagree with you one bit about compression ratio and 87 octane being just fine. Unfortunately there is no where around here that we can even get 87 octane non ethanol otherwise I would have no problem with it.
Lots of folks use Seafoam, but you could probably get by with half or less of the amount you’re using.
I use 89 - Mobil, Shell or Sunoco only - with Ethanol Shield per recommendation of my Husky dealer/friend with the appropriate mix of oil. For all power equipment I run the 89/Ethanol Shield combo that I mix for storage.
Why would you want 87 instead of 89-91? I use the highest octane non ethanol at the pump, usually 91 premium.
Well I can tell you that this is true. I was into kart racing and an engine builder by trade and the stock Honda and Honda clone motors did indeed make more power on 87 octane than other fuels. Hard to believe but it is true. A lot of dyno testing proved this. All related to the compression ratio and burn rate of the fuel.
To my understanding, the higher the grade of fuel (higher octane), the more additives like detergents to help clean engines. These additives are not fuel and don't burn like fuel so it makes sense to me that the higher grade (higher octane) would not produce as much HP. Less fuel/per volume. Around me, only certain high grade premium fuels are E-free. To me, the E-free and cleaner engine outweigh the minimal HP gain.
Octane inhibits the burn for use in high compression ratio engines, it has nothing to do with additives. These saw engines (ported) are only in the 8-8.5:1 compression range. Octane keeps pre-ignition (pinging) from happening, and she ain't going to do any with those ratios.
Never dealt with any fuel issues on my saws, splitter, mower, snowblower etc and I just run whatever non ethanol fuel is available, regardless of octane. Personally I think having non ethanol is far more important than running something like Sea Foam regularly.
I need to travel out of state, minimum 3hr round trip to get E-free gasoline. Fortunately, I'm able to make the trip with multiple goals/stops.
After years of those gummed up fuel lines and fouled plugs in my lawn care items, i switched to using Shindaiwa RedArmor with real gas and i have noticed my old problems with gummed fuel lines and fouled plugs are gone, also starting is a lot simpler now. Am using in everything including my new Stihl CM211 and CM261 C-M.
Yep all I use is 87 non ethanol fuel too. And like the Wood Wolverine I have some saws with bumped up compression and have no problems. +1
