OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Restoring, Customising and Modifying Tech Talk 2 Stroke Synthetic Oils

Hi Gadge yes the factory built the diesel Taurus, good going downhill but a bit slow on the uphill side. Heaps of others have been modified over the years to take a variety of diesel engines, but they all suffer from vibration damage. I worked on one some years ago that a bloke was riding around the world, he was about half way when he was in Aus. They are cheap to run but so slow

I often mix 40 mil of oil into a 1 litre former metho bottle for easier top up. My two stroke oil bottle has a precision chamber with a scale you squeeze the oil into through a built in tube.
That 200 mil bottle idea is a good one, as long as you use 25:1 equipment.

G'day folks,
Not so. While it does use the same mineral base stock oil, the additive package is completely different.

The 2-smoke synthetics aren't generally much better than mineral base, as far as good mixing and antiwear properties go, but generate less smoke and engine deposits, which is somewhat due to their leaner mix ratios.

Just as an aside, about the best oil to use in very high performance 2-stroke engines on the market is Castrol A747, which is castor oil based. Can only be used as a premix in the fuel, though; it's too viscous for oil injection systems.

Not at all cheap, but it saves having to do top end rebuilds more than once in a 'Forgotten Era' classic race bike comp season. That pays off big time now; these bits are getting scarce and exy, particularly barrel sets for TZ series Yamahas.

Vegetable cooking oils are not in any way suitable as engine lube oils, as they will form gums quite quickly. Castor oil isn't a cooking oil BTW!

Nowt wrong wi' that; it'll work just as well.

Germany produced some very high-tech 2-strokes, even unto a supercharged 2-stroke DKW race bike in the 1930's.

Dunno about push mower engines, but the ILO 2-stroke engine saw use on at least one Oz-assembled 1960's ride-on.
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/27325/
Edit: There were substantial tariff barriers to importation of small engines up until the mid 1970's, with the UK as the only favoured source in terms of concessions.
So I'd think it unlikely that any Euro engine imports for push mowers would have been an economically attractive proposition.
'Rudimentary' is being a bit kind to those cars! It was said that the reason they had a heated rear window, was so that your hands wouldn't freeze as you were pushing it... They now have collectable status, weirdly enough.

Saab also made a few early 1960's car models with 2-stroke engines; there was an immaculately restored 600cc one around Sale, Vic that I saw regularly when I worked there, about 10 years back.

There was actually also an Australian car that used a 2-stroke Villiers twin engine, the Lightburn Zeta....

I forget which one it was either the BSA Bantam or the Enfield Flying Flea was a direct copy of a German bike, only the thread size/pitch were changed to imperial sizes

Suzuki brought out small vans and 4WDs with Suzuki 2 stroke engines in the 1970s. The Japanese loved them in their home market, until emissions came into play. I rode in a Suzuki Carry van with this motor back in the 80s. it had so much torque up hills and sounded very sporty.
Here is one of a 4WD example.

Hi Guys,

Since we are discussing 2 stroke fuels I have to ask why isn't there an industry standard for the colour as I've seen Red, Green and Blue which I must admit for the uneducated can be quite confusing.

I was lucky enough to pick up a Kerbside Victa yesterday 30 seconds after it had just been put out complete with catcher and a half full fuel can which has red fuel in it, so from that I can safely say that this mower has not been straight fuelled at all and has probably just been parted with due to tenants moving out of a rental and into an apartment etc. that has no grass to mow.

So I have to once again ask why 3 different colours and not one standardised colour for two stroke oil ?

Cheers,
BB.

BB obviously there is no requirement for oil companies to comply to so they each do their own thing, the fact you have only seen 3 colours means there is probably only 3 of the bigger companies making 2 stroke oil

Go 1/2 blue and 1/2 red to make up a purple cocktail. Then you can intrigue your neighbours or girls passing on the street with your new hue showing through your weed wacker tank!

Or you may be able to just use food dye if you really wanted - I remember reading somewhere that many food dyes are somewhat petroleum based.

Although that could just be 'fake news' put together by some overprotective mothers group haha.

G'day folks,
True as far as it goes, but there are water-soluble and oil-soluble versions of the food dyes, and I've only ever encountered the water-soluble versions on retail sale.

That water solubility property can be used for an easy spot check for the presence of ethanol in a fuel sample, though.

A few drops into a say 20-50mL sample in a glass jar; if the colour settles in a droplet to the bottom - ethanol-free. If the colour disperses through the bulk liquid, it contains ethanol for sure.

I want a petrol with that bright fluorescent pink colour of the latest coolants you see. I'd dig that.