16:1 32:1 40:1 50:1 fuel mix

[adkranger]

Paranoia hmm....... That must have been the slug of water laced fuel at the bottom of my fuel can last fall.

Sealed container, premium fuel with quality, name branded (C.S.) 2 smoke oil WITH said stablizers. Fuel was stored approximately two, three months at a remote camp........won't be doing that anymore. Fuel was good when put away, so it wasn't bad from the pump. As stated, ethanol is hydroscopic and no stabilizers that I've tried stop this water absorbtion and subsequent separation from happening. I have also started putting my saws away dry, even during the cutting season due to escalation of carb kit purchases in the last few years. Unless the saw will be used within a weeks time. Some may call it paranoia, I like to think I learn from experience. YMMV.

 

[promac850]

I run 32:1 in the saws... Macs and older vintage ones will run that. Newer saws will get 50:1.

50:1 in the Ryobi trimmer and whatever other trimmers I have that I get running again.

Actually, my mix is not exact... it's guesstimated to be around that range... so far, so good. Do have to tweak the two smokers for every can I mix up...

I gotta get a JustRite 1 gallon safety can, and a Ratio Rite mix measuring cup... then all would be real nice and good in terms of not having to approximate and re-tune.

Also, I might start doing that "pour a couple of teaspoons of water into the gas to cause the phase separation and siphon the gas off of the top into an empty can. and throw the ethanol away, light a huge bonfire, or start making moonshine with it... whatever floats you boat." trick... I know I definitely will employ that trick if one word of 15% gas shows up at the pumps... that #### will wreak havoc on anything older than 2007, and anything that is a lawn mower, chain saw, etc.

I sometimes think about how cool it'd be to buy a big huge 10,000 gallon underground fuel tank and have a truck from Canada come in and fill it up with fresh and real gas that would last for years before going bad... that would be nice... and very convenient, as it would be right here at home.

 

[Johny Utah]

I run 32:1 in the saws... Macs and older vintage ones will run that. Newer saws will get 50:1.

50:1 in the Ryobi trimmer and whatever other trimmers I have that I get running again.

Actually, my mix is not exact... it's guesstimated to be around that range... so far, so good. Do have to tweak the two smokers for every can I mix up...

I gotta get a JustRite 1 gallon safety can, and a Ratio Rite mix measuring cup... then all would be real nice and good in terms of not having to approximate and re-tune.

Also, I might start doing that "pour a couple of teaspoons of water into the gas to cause the phase separation and siphon the gas off of the top into an empty can. and throw the ethanol away, light a huge bonfire, or start making moonshine with it... whatever floats you boat." trick... I know I definitely will employ that trick if one word of 15% gas shows up at the pumps... that #### will wreak havoc on anything older than 2007, and anything that is a lawn mower, chain saw, etc.

I sometimes think about how cool it'd be to buy a big huge 10,000 gallon underground fuel tank and have a truck from Canada come in and fill it up with fresh and real gas that would last for years before going bad... that would be nice... and very convenient, as it would be right here at home.

So far as long as you buy premium gas there is no ethanol added. Regular unleaded has up to 10% ethanol. Hopefully they don't change that or it will have to be av gas for me.

 

[Johny Utah]

I read all the time about ethanol killing fuel system components. Is this only if you leave the fuel in the system? I mean, I drain my fuel tanks and then run the carbs dry before I put them away (I don't get to cut as much as I'd like). When they have been drained, run dry, and put away, is the ethanol residue still eating the parts? Or is the danger only there if you store the saw with fuel in it?

I believe it would be only in the fuel itself. If you drain the fuel the ethanol will evaporate leaving nothing harmful, I think.:msp_mellow:

 

[paccity]

I dumped the fuel in all the saws and mixed up fresh with premium E10 (at least as far as I know it's E10) and Husqvarna XP oil. I pulled the plugs too and cleaned them where needed. The 3 saws I ran today ran great. I doubt I'll stick with the Husqvarna oil long term, but for this batch it works well.

nothin wrong with the husky oil. i've ben getting good deals on cases for years, run it in everything no problems at all.

 

[promac850]

So far as long as you buy premium gas there is no ethanol added. Regular unleaded has up to 10% ethanol. Hopefully they don't change that or it will have to be av gas for me.

If that is true for Michigan's gas... then it would explain why I've never seen phase separation in any of the cans of gas, even after they sit for months... it'll get stale after a year in the cans...

hmm... maybe the premium is ethanol free.

I will perform a little experiment today if I have time... I'll take a small amount of the 93 octane premium out of one of the cans, and put a little tiny bit of water in it... if it separates, well that tells us it's definitely got ethanol in it... if it doesn't, I'll let it sit for a couple more days and check again...

All I know is I did ask the attendants if any gas they sold ethanol free, and they didn't know if any was or wasn't.

 

[Chris-PA]

if it separates, well that tells us it's definitely got ethanol in it... if it doesn't, I'll let it sit for a couple more days and check again...

Wait - if there's ethanol in it the water should be absorbed. Ethanol is hygroscopic.

As far as I understood premium fuels have ethanol in them, as it's part of how they raise the octane these days.

 

[rmihalek]

I will perform a little experiment today if I have time... I'll take a small amount of the 93 octane premium out of one of the cans, and put a little tiny bit of water in it... if it separates, well that tells us it's definitely got ethanol in it... if it doesn't, I'll let it sit for a couple more days and check again...

What you need to do is to super-saturate the gasoline with water and the water will pull the ethanol out of solution (if there is ethanol in there).

So, if you take 50mL of gasoline and 50mL of water and mix them together, you'll have 100 mL. Now, let the mixture sit for a while so the phases can separate. If you end up with 50 mL in each phase, then the gasoline had no ethanol in it. If you end up with 55mL in the water phase and 45mL in the gasoline phase, then the gasoline had 10% (5mL) of ethanol.

 

[Naked Arborist]

TC-W3 run in air cooled engines

I'm running Pennzoil Premium Plus Marine Synthetic and E10 pump gas. I use 40:1 for the Poulan, Sears and MAC, and 50:1 for the Husky and Stihl. I was running 32:1 on the Mac, but my third can cracked and I hate these new cans and their stupid spouts, and I refuse to buy another so it will have to get by on 40:1!

I went down that road of using my boat gas in air cooled engines a long time ago...
BAD idea! The constant build up of carbon will eventually clog everything involved in the burn cycle and the exhaust screens. I have even worked on small engines (air cooled) that need to be torn down because of ring to piston seizure from the rings sticking to the ring lands in the pistons. Once the piston cools and shrinks the compression goes down the drain. It leaves you with no ring to cylinder wall contact. Worst part is all the cleaning involved,time wasted (good soak in B-12 Chem-tool) clears it right up. The best part is nothing ever seems to sustain any real damage and the engines were reassemble with a fresh set of rings and performed as good as new! :smile2:

In a very bad worst case you could get (hard carbon) buildup behind the rings during a long hard run. If this happens the chance is there to have the rings over expand on the next run and they will tear the heck out of the cylinder wall because of the the piston expansion with carbon jammed behind them. This would be very bad for the cylinder and may just tear it up !

 

[mama]

When I was a Amsoil dealer I use to run 100 to 1 in both my 1980 partners for about 10 years straight and Still has 150 lbs compression.I use Sthil ultra now.So I've never had any problems with 100to 1, but you never know.

 

[Naked Arborist]

oil visicosity ?

When I was a Amsoil dealer I use to run 100 to 1 in both my 1980 partners for about 10 years straight and Still has 150 lbs compression.I use Sthil ultra now.So I've never had any problems with 100to 1, but you never know.

Is that a full synthetic or a blended oil? My concern would be re adjusting all the saws and would that 100 to 1 be OK in scorching hot humid weather as we have had here the past month or so ? ...

 

[Chris-PA]

I went down that road of using my boat gas in air cooled engines a long time ago...
BAD idea! The constant build up of carbon will eventually clog everything involved in the burn cycle and the exhaust screens. I have even worked on small engines (air cooled) that need to be torn down because of ring to piston seizure from the rings sticking to the ring lands in the pistons. Once the piston cools and shrinks the compression goes down the drain. It leaves you with no ring to cylinder wall contact. Worst part is all the cleaning involved,time wasted (good soak in B-12 Chem-tool) clears it right up. The best part is nothing ever seems to sustain any real damage and the engines were reassemble with a fresh set of rings and performed as good as new! :smile2:

In a very bad worst case you could get (hard carbon) buildup behind the rings during a long hard run. If this happens the chance is there to have the rings over expand on the next run and they will tear the heck out of the cylinder wall because of the the piston expansion with carbon jammed behind them. This would be very bad for the cylinder and may just tear it up !

Once it was pointed out I got it. Easy to see why oil optimized for lower temps would be a problem. I dumped it all. I did not run it for long.

Here's a decent write up from the boat world that explains things pretty well: http://www.sea-doo.net/techarticles/oil/oil.htm

 

[Naked Arborist]

Good info woodheatworrier. That should clear it up for a lot of misinformed people.

 

[MacLaren]

I was in ACE yesterday and I saw that Stihl is selling their own now. It was a 92 octane I believe and had the Stihl Ultra mixed in it.

 

[mama]

The Amsoil I used was 100% in all kinds of weather including 100 degree weather. Those partner saws are tough old saws.

 

[2dogs]

You run the 100:1 Opti 2even with older 32: or 25:1 2-strokes without any problems or issues? Just wondering as to how that works, is all.

I didn't see this post till just now. Sorry.

The only old saw I have is a concrete vibrator with a bar and chain. It is called a Stihl 090 and I run it at the same ratio as all my other saws and tools, at 100:1. I briefly switched to Stihl Ultra but I went back to Opti 2 after a few months.

 

[GASoline71]

2 strokes have a lubrication requirement. Not an "amount of oil" requirement. So if the newer synthetic oils can get the job done with less oil... they are far superior to the old stuff.

50:1 with full synthetic oil. That's for ANY saw I run. 4 months old to 40 years old. Works like a charm. There is no need to run all the old crazy oil mix ratios with any 2 stroke nowadays with the oils we have available to us now.

Most of this will fall on deaf ears...

Gary