Any difference in 2 stroke oil for lawn equipment?

[hardcore302]

I would be buying the small containers to mix into 1 gallon fuel cells. I saw Peak, Pennzoil, Lucas, and a no name brand on the shelf at Advance. I went with the Pennzoil for price and name brandage (is that a word, lol).

Am I over thinking this? Are they all pretty much the same, or is this type of oil as complicated as 4 stroke car oil?

 

[Chris142]

You most likely want a ELGD oil. The cheaper oils will gum up the muffler, exhaust port etc. The Craftsman oil in the red bottles really smokes!

 

[Phishin]

Depends on how you use the equipment, how often you use it, how well you want to protect it, etc. etc.

But for the most part.....you have it right. I'd simply make sure it meets the proper spec and is a major name brand oil company...like pennzoil.

If you want to baby your 2-smoke engines....its almost impossible to get any better than Maxima, Redline, or Motul. But those are overkill....but they won't hurt anything. They provide better lubrication, so you can run them leaner if you want (better performance) and they burn cleaner (less smoke).

 

[hardcore302]

Yeah, I would be lucky to use them twice a month.

I guess I will stick with whatever name brand I can find. Thanks!

 

[nwjones18]

I buy the quarts of Pennzoil at Walmart for less than $5 and use it in my boat and all of my 2 stroke lawn equipment. No smoke and No problems. If you want you can just refill your small containers so you have the proper amount pre-measured.

 

[Donald]

Get premix if you are the avg homeowner that will only use a few QTs a year in weed whacker or blower.

 

[cb_13]

I don't know who makes it for them but the stihl branded oil has fuel stabilizer in it as well. My uncle and cousin swear by it and they put quite a few hours on their saws. I use it in my saw and my weed eater.

 

[mrsilv04]

If I'm ever worried that the gas that I've mixed with 2 cycle oil has become a little too old/stale, I simply dump it into the pickup, and mix a fresh batch.

For oil, for the past several years, I've used Quaker State 2 cycle oil that I get a the local home improvement store.

 

[tomcat27]

its hard to go wrong with the echo or stihl oil. now, in my outboard, I use Pennzoil - but we burn through 10-20 gallons of gas per day in that.

 

[FowVay]

hardcore302, Lucas sells a 2-cycle oil at Advance the claims to meet JASO FD and it is sold in quarts. It's relatively cheap at $8 and would probably last you a year. This stuff is most likely the cheapest and easy to find.

I personally always use Sta-Bil in my OPE fuels for peace of mind and lately I've been using Kawasaki K-Tech oils. They're a bit smelly but I thought I'd give them a try.

 

[Phishin]

A very common problem that leads to 2-stroke failure is carbon build up.

But on a weed eater that gets run at WOT fairly regularly, it's not a huge concern.

But all my outboards (3 of them), I decarbonize them every year or two, depending on use. I use a Seafoam treatment and then treat the next few gallons with Regane.

One easy way to decarb all your 2-smokes at once is to mix up a gallon of gas (with appropriate oil added) and then mix in an entire pint of Seafoam. Let the engine run at mid-trottle for 15 minutes. Shut it off for 15 minutes, and then re-start and run the snot out of it. It's a proven technique. Works very well on my 2-stroke scooters and on my outboards.

 

[Hokiefyd]

I've gone to using TruFuel for my 2-cycle OPE. Interestingly, I first tried some as part of the O'Reillys treasure chest thing a few months back, and I've been hooked since. It's far more expensive than mix-your-own gas, but I find the performance to be better, it looks much cleaner, and it doesn't stain the equipment like blue/black mix-your-own does after it's burned.

I've also found it to smoke less and soot less than mix-your-own blends do, especially when run at part throttle. My equipment is all Echo, with lots of power, and I rarely run them at full throttle because it's just a waste to me. TruFuel seems to burn much cleaner at part throttle in my Echo engines. TruFuel is fully compliant with the latest 2-cycle lubricant specifications.

 

[hardcore302]

Thanks!

 

[WMSmotorhead]

The Mower shop across the street from me has a Full Syn 2 stroke oil called Opti2 It's his preferred oil for 2 strokes. He sells Echo's, Kawasaki's, Husq, and LawnBoy's oil too. For commercial users, during warranty periods, he suggests they use the specific brand oil to avoid issue in the event there is a warranty issue. Everyone else is told to get Opti2. I am quite pleased with it. No visible smoke, motors run great.


http://opti2-4.com/

Considering that I ran SureGuard (smitty's), Texaco, Homelite, or whatever the heck else before... I'd say there's plenty of OK 2 stroke oils.

I WILL say that the Synthetic 2-strokes smoke and stink much less. This Opti2 is 4$ to treat 2.5 gallons of fuel.. I have always found this mower shop to have solid advice.