Vintage saw oil mix

[stonykill]

I have always run my newer model stihls and huskys at 40 to 1. Now that I started collecting vintage saws, I am not sure what to run. My old macs and pioneers call for 16 to 1. It has always been my understanding that the overly rich oil mix was due to the poor quality of oils available at the time. For instance my 62 mcculloch 1-53 owners manual says to use nd 30 weight engine oil! I always run good stihl or husky synthetic oil, and have been running my old saws breifly with the 40 to 1 mix. I'm getting ready to attack a large oak, and will need to use the 1-53 for extended periods, so I want to make sure the oil mix is right.
Guess that was a long winded way of asking what you guys do for oil mix in vintage saws. thanks>>>>>

 

[bobbyb13]

32 to 1

Most of my old Remingtons call for 16 to 1, due to the great advances in the quality of today's oil I run 32 to 1 just to err on the safe side. I have a minimum of 30 hours on my old Remington Logger with 0 problems. Nothing sounds sweeter than one of these old things under a load.

 

[Big feller]

I run all my 2 stroke engines (new and old) on modern Stihl oil at 40:1. My take on it is that it is the oil that dictates the ratio, not the machine.

 

[Scooterbum]

I run all my 2 stroke engines (new and old) on modern Stihl oil at 40:1. My take on it is that it is the oil that dictates the ratio, not the machine.

Ditto

 

[Bluehill logger]

40:1 is just fine for both your newer saws and older saws. you could even run 50:1 with no problems, but a little more oil in the mix doesn't hurt. I personally run 50:1 in everything

 

[thomas72]

A lot of people just say use 40 to 1 or 50 to 1 in everything, but I use what the manufacture calls for. My reasoning is that the engine was designed to run on the ratio it called for, do to the tolerances in the engine. Of course in a new saw or a old one if you have too much oil it will loose power, oil build up on plug, and over heat. Hope this helps, I have been running my vintage saws like this and have not had a filed plug, or a seizure.

 

[stonykill]

Most of my old Remingtons call for 16 to 1, due to the great advances in the quality of today's oil I run 32 to 1 just to err on the safe side. I have a minimum of 30 hours on my old Remington Logger with 0 problems. Nothing sounds sweeter than one of these old things under a load.

thanks everyone for the fast input. I'll stick with 40 to 1. Any one of my saws can have a csm attatched to it at any given time, so I like to run a tad rich. I agree with the sound. When my 1-53 is deep in a big tree, nothing like the bark of the old mcculloch. :rockn:

 

[tumbleweed]

ive got a 1963 440 mac i run on husky synth.at 50-1 for a year and it runs fine!as they say oil today is much better esp.synth.

 

[powelllake]

What Big Feller said. I use the same mix 40:1 Stihl oil on near everything and have not had any problems.
Mark