Shawn, Eric noticed a bunch of gummy carbon on my 346 upon teardown. I told him it'd been sipping R50 for a while @ 40/1. On another saw forum there's been a discussion about echo red armor and how well it cleans deposits. I plan to run a tank or so of it every once in a while to help. Here's a pic showing my 394 which has been doing a lot of milling w/ husky xp oil @ 32/1. Hate the smell of it though. I need a respirator.
I have seen simular gunk from stihl ultra myself. When I got my Dolmar I got some Dolmar synthetic 50:1 with it. It burns very clean and leaves a nice film on the exhaust side of the piston. (I haven't done a full tear down just to inspect the oil) Every oil has a Different flash point the lower the flash point the more your oil will burn. At least my very limited understanding. Viscosity also plays a role. As far as oil ratios I think you really have to be working a saw like milling, or stumping for 32:1 50:1 is just fine for the average guy 40:1 is more insurance and still burns clean. I use a 42.5 : 1 this way I have a little more room for error on my part. I like the Dolmar synthetic it burns clean and lubes well. But it is local and cheap compared to stihl oils and I think a better oil. I have also tried echo red armor and in my limited use it like it but is more expensive. As far as klotz oil I have heard a lot of good feed back. But I am betting in between its fish point, and viscosity, the tune has to be spot on and not even a touch rich and the saw has to run hard and limited idle time. These are just my very limited understanding opinions.
Also results will probably very some drop saw to saw based on strato engine or none, catalytic converter or open exhaust, high compression or low, timpani of the plug being used. And so on.
A pic of the piston out of my '98 350 with God only knows how many hours on it. It had a layer of carbon, but just a thin layer. That piston went back into my rebuild and is still running great. Husky & Echo brand mix with maybe a little Stihl in there also. 50:1. There was very little if any buildup in the muffler.
It is not just the piston and rings that need lubrication. There have been some guys that feel there were early failures of the crank bearings on some of their saws because of not enough oil.
When I bought my Jonsered from the dealer he advised to go 45:1 instead of the 50:1 recommended. Been following his advice and so far so good. I just feel a little better giving it more oil than called for and it doesn't really smoke.
Most of Shawn's saws have a little something extra under the covers. His firewooding saws are likely not stock so a little more oil in the mix is good for the bottom end. 32:1 was the standard recommendation by all the manufacturers right until the EPA decided it was no longer legal to recommend such an oil rich mixture, not kidding on this. This kind of info is a lot more meaningful than just the typical "which oil is bestest" thread. I have been running the BeNOL in my ported saws and while they will not get that amount of fuel through them in my lifetime, I certainly appreciate real firsthand knowledge of the results over time. I think I understand that Klotz techniplate is the same as Klotz original. I will likely switch to that in the saws from the builders who recommend Klotz. Good info here Shawn, thanks
we run the Stihl ultra (silver) at 50:1ish in the cheap 2 cycle stuff the BR600s and KM90/130s that we realize will get rode hard and replaced at least every two years unless it gets stolen on a jobsite, we buy that oil in gallon jugs and use the mixrite cup for stock saws we step up to 40:1 stihl ultra in a can that is labeled differently for stock saws only and only foremen are allowed to fuel saws, no exceptions Only me/myself/I and my saw maniac buddies run the ported saws and they get either BelRay H1R or the BeNOL at 32:1, mostly these run for short periods at high revs these days, the extra oil is protection for all the fast moving parts and cooling for the engine, at least as I understand it. If I am gonna pay real money for a saw and then more real money to have a pro make it go fast, I am going to follow their advise on care and feeding
my 066 milling saw had even more carbon build up than that 350. It still ran fine but I didn't care for the carbon... I ran a full gallon of my regular 40:1 non ethanol with echo oil...I added seafoam to that gallon of fuel. after that gallon of fuel the carbon was nearly gone and the saw still ran great. the exhaust smells nasty with the seafoam. I'm not sure that seafoam is recommended for 2 stroke fuel, but it didn't seem to hurt anything but it did do its job. I run the echo synthetic all the time at 40:1 and no issues.
X2. They build 2 strokes and i think they all double your warranty for buying their oil when buying a new saw, they wouldn't do that to make an extra 40 cents, they do it because they've tested it and know what there doing. That's my thinking. And that being the case I'll spend the extra $20 in my lifetime on professional saw oil to insure i don't have to replace a$400+saw. Same goes with ethanol gas
I use pro-mix, bought at Lowe's, mixed per the bottle's instructions. I have no idea what the ratio really is. So far so good. Of course I run inexpensive saws, YMMV.