Synthetic runs a bit cooler

[timberwolf]

Did a sinple test on the weekend to check surface head tempratures with Standard Stihl oil and Castrol Sythetic.

Test: warm up than 180 seconds milling on a ~26" cross section red oak (dry) 3 tests with each oil.
Saw: 066 32" bar
Air temp: -2C

Stihl oil 40:1
head temp 165,162,166 C
Muffler temp 225,220,228 C

Synthetic 40:1
head temp 160,158,161 C
Muffler temp 220,216,222 C

So it looks like about 5 C cooler with sythetic. Too bad the oak turned out to be poor quality, stained and cracked. Made an out door bench for a friends camp, and cut the rest into fire wood.

TW

 

[don]

thank you for this

I do not have this type of measurement equipment but cut down some orange trees and the saws ran "cooler" with synthetic.

I am glad you could quantify the comparison. it will be interesting to here why this may not be the result of the change in oil.

Now if I could remember where bwalker's post is depicting why synthetic causes a saw to run cooler.

 

[tundraotto]

pretty impressive in that you have a 5°C difference considering that you are using a semi-synthetic oil (stihl) as a baseline. I wish you had some motul 800T or mobil mx2t to try against some straight mineral 2 stroke oil. Once again, great work timberwolf! It would also be interesting to see what the difference was when the ambient temperature is around 90°F or 30°C.

 

[bwalker]

Which Castrol product was it? Castrol usually uses group3 synthetics so it would be interesting how a group 5 ester like motul would compare.

 

[timberwolf]

It was just off the shelf 2 stroke castrol syntec, unfortunatly I did not have time to source some of the other oils, Autozone just does not exist here, and no Canadain Tire is not the same.

I would imagine that the higher the ambient temprature the greater the impact.

TW

 

[bwalker]

Otto, To the best of my knowledge stihl Orange bottle is a straight mineral oil. Stihl black bottle is a partial synthetic. I got my information from msds files on stihl web page, but I havent checked looked at them in about 6 months.

Tmberwolf, The castrol you used is most likely a group three base as all of the castrol syntech line and mobils mx2t is. I would imagine you would see more gains from running a pao or ester based synthetic like motul or maxima k2.

 

[tundraotto]

I dont know for sure Ben, you are right though, there is 3 kinds for stihl; red, black and white, the black one is ISO-L-EGD/JASO FC certified so its at least semi-synthetic. Which one of the Stihl oils were you using timberwolf?

 

[Fish]

Cutting Orange trees makes any saw run cooler.
Synthetic run cooler cause they are slickier, but may cause a
saw to overspeed due to the decrease in friction, but the wind
chill cause ice to form on the flywheel, both slowing the rpms
and chilling the entire saw body, but I may be wrong.
The shaved ice makes great lime/tequila drinks though.

 

[don]

My saw didn't come with a fan mixer

I never tried to use the saw fan shaved ice makes great lime/tequila drinks though
The orange wood is pretty easy to cut.
I don't cut in many cold places exept in the mountain and even then I sleep with my saw before I cut.

Don

 

[timberwolf]

white bottle

 

[bwalker]

The msds files for orange bottle and white bottle are identical, so I would say they are the same thing. Dino oil with low additive treat levels.