bwalker, it's obvious to me that you've been spending too much time over at the dirt rider forum with Rich Rorich and Eric Gorr. Your statement about corrosion issues with Redline oil is BS. A while back, I saw that a few people were posting that the brass in their carbs was corroding changing the jetting on the bike due to the oil on the dirt rider forum - I just laughed. I've personally used Redline oil in all of my two stroke motors (Lawn Boy mowers, line trimmer, blowers, chain saws and dirt bikes) for about 8 years now and I've never had a single occurance of corrosion in the carb with it - I feel it's one of the best 2 cycle oils available - perhaps THE best. I mix it with either Michigan pump gas or VP C-12 racing fuel. When I take my carbs apart the brass is like new with absolutely no signs of corrosion (and I put them away wet - even over the winter months). When I disassemble the motors, the pistons and exhaust ports are clean, the clean-up is very easy, and the wear rate is less than with any other oil that I have used. Perhaps you know something that Tom Morgan (Tom Morgan Racing and ex-Kawasaki Factory mechanic and development engineer for Jeff Ward, Mike LaRocco and Jeff Jacobs) and Bruce Kahlhammer (President of PSI Racing - a top notch snowmobile performance shop), two of the most knowledgeable two cycle engine tuners / engineers in America, don't know - they both highly recommend Redline 2 cycle racing oil and call it 'the best 2 stroke oil on the market'. Have you ever used Redline oil or are you simply parroting what a few misguided dirt bikers posted on the dirt rider forum (which I believe is the case)? I personally talked to Tom Morgan about this issue, and he told me what I already suspected - that it's the oxygenates (ethanol, methanol and mtbe's) that can, and do, cause corrosion. The new line of VP race fuels - the MR series - achieve their higher energy content via the use of oxygenates - and it causes the brass in the carbs to corrode black. I saw that you have stated that mtbe's are the 'prefered' oxygenate - have you ever used octane boosters (which use mtbe's as the primary compoment) in your bikes? I have and they cause the brass jets to corrode black - so you better not use VP MR fuels or any fuel containing mtbe's if you don't want the brass in you carb to corrode. As an engineer myself, I have one simple operating principle: SPEAK WITH DATA. If you don't have any data to support your statements, then you don't have any business making the statement 'as fact' in the first place. Parroting BS from the dirt rider forum just adds credibility to the fact that much that is posted on the internet is useless garbage and makes it difficult for people who are looking for good useful information to separate fact from fiction. In this case, it boils down to who are you going to believe - two of the top 2 stroke men in America who have premix running through their veins and have spent thousands of hours testing and tearing apart 2 stroke motors and who put their business reputation on the line by endorsing Redline oil, or a guy who leaves a post on an internet forum - um, let me think about that for about a nanosecond. By the way, I left a post on recommended 2 stroke oils on this forum about 10 months ago and at that time I recommended Redline 2 Stroke Racing Oil, Maxima 927 (although I did note that it does burn a little dirt / sticky), Motul 800 2T, and Mobil 1 MX2T all at 32:1 (30:1 to 40:1 being the 'safe' operating window).
Steve
