Oil mixtures and thoughts

I think way too much thinking goes into the mix oil topic, especially for firewood use saws.
I’ve been in the tree work industry most of my life where saws are used daily on 50:1 with crap gas and chips/dust constantly falling in both reservoirs when filled. They are ran with less than optimal chain sharpness. Saws and filters are rarely cleaned, sometimes never and the saws last. Surely the manufacturers build pro saws for the abuse. I’d say the #1 saw killer for tree workers is the occasional cabbage that straight gasses, drops from the tree, or bucket, or backs a truck over it. As long as I can remember we have used Stihl platinum 50:1 at work in all the 2cycle ope. Other stuff gets broken or worn out before the engine fails.
I’d say an occasional use pro saw mixed at 50:1 and with an owner that regularly cleans and replaces filters should last a lifetime. Maybe 40 and 32:1 gets a couple lifetimes and beyond?
I take better care of my personal saws and expect saws that I purchased new to outlive me.
I have used several kinds of mix, currently Stihl Platinum at 44:1 or around there. I will use other mix at the same ratio and never worry about it, because I’ll clean the saw and air filter, keep the chain sharp, and brush debris away from the fuel cap sometimes.
40:1 Dominator mix in my XS saw, because that’s what Kevin recommended.
My friend Jeff has been doing tree work a lot longer than me and has never had a saw blow up. Waiting for an answer on his mix ratio.
Is the mix conversation more important for modified saws since they are operating outside of manufacturers r&d?

 

Not a surprise that they now say "a quality two stroke oil" and took away the "if you don't use Stihl oil run it at 25:1"

I knew they would say to run it at 50:1.

 

I was watching Bucking Billy and he recently did a video on oils. He said years he ran Castrol. And was saying it was the Stihl oil I believe...I think that's the one he said. I can't remember now but thinking I remember that right. He said it looks and smells the exact same then even shows you the back of the bottle of the name brand that says bottled by Castrol. He said he uses Castrol. I forget what ratio he said if he even said. He runs lots of vintage stuff...even ported vintage.

 

I will echo what he said. I am a Forester and my main duty is timber sales. While not many saws are used these days, they still use them to trim trucks and sometimes for poles or storm damage is the heavy use that I see these days. But when I started out just a little over 15 years ago there was still lots of ground guys working and even some guys that bucked everything by saw, one even felled everything for a few years I was around with saws. They do beat their saws, they hardly get filters cleaned run hard for hours a day at 100F in the summers here. Ride around in a truck in the rain, and yes those guys get more dirt into the reservoirs than you could believe.

Now I have seen them scratch pistons etc I don't hear about them blowing them up often. Some use Stihl oil they buy by the case, some use whatever they get at the gas station, others use whatever they bought by the case cheap.

 

Not trying to make you feel old or anything.. that’s the year I was born!

 

Not trying to make you feel old but that's 10 years before I was born!

 

Doh! I bought a Teeter inversion table a couple weeks ago. Enjoy “it” while you can. I didn’t have much care at 40 and not exactly sure where it started going south, but it did.

 

Definitely true. Lol. Myself included.

Really, the major reason I'm running 25:1 is I'm trying to have one mix for all and I have a high performance 1/5 scale rc car that requires 25:1 according to the engine manufacturer, which is Zenoah / Husqvarna. An engine that can turn 20,000 rpm needs all the oil it can get. So far, running that mix in my saws has had no bad tuning effects or power issues so everything gets it. Even my hand held leaf blower, which by the way, picked up 100 rpm on top at WOT, after retuning, over the same fuel and oil at 40:1.

The second reason is left over residue for long periods between usage. I have 13 saws and don't burn wood except back yard fires. 25:1 leaves lots of oil behind and it makes me feel more gooder despite having never had issues at 40:1 during storage with any oil. Lol

 

I watched that vid. From what I remember he said the Stihl oil in Canada is made by Castrol or was. Then he used a castrol branded ope type oil till they stopped making it. After that he switched to Castrol Go full mineral bike oil, which is one of the 4 oils to make it through all my lean oil tests without engine damage. It good oil. I use it for break-in before switching to Dominator. Only downside I've seen is my smallest saws have tuning / running issues with it at the only ratio I've tried it at outside my testing, 32:1. I'd probably have to run 40-50:1 I think to alleviate the tuning issues.

 

Something to ponder....

In another life, on another forum, there were guys from other countries that showed pictures of the manual from new saws sold there. Same models as here. Warranty VOID if using less oil than 40:1. I believe it was Australia but don't quote me. This was in the last 3 years. Their post mentioned they don't have an EPA type bureaucracy in their country. What does that tell you when the same manufacturer has the same model of saw in two different parts of the world and they recommended ratios are 50:1 here and 40:1 there....

 

Do you know if Castrol Go is renamed for overseas markets. I cannot find it in the UK. We have three flavours of Castrol Power1.

 

Yeah, i have issues. This is down from 30 ish saws in my possession simultaneously. Ive had 50+ in the last 3-4 years.