Originally Posted by jeepman3071
Yes, 50:1 is perfectly fine, when a good oil is used. Running a different oil ratio like 40:1 or 32:1 won't make cheaper built equipment last any longer.
Yes it will, you're essentially negating the benefits of the "good" oil by running it leaner. There is no question that it will last longer, even the cheapest built equipment will, and probably benefit a lot more than commercial engines if we want to try to generalize that much.
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Lately I've been noticing that customers running richer oil mixes have had issues with spark arrestors clogging and causing no starts. Newer equipment especially with cat convertors are very sensitive to using the correct oil mix ratio.
This is true. Richer oil does clog the exhaust path more, but this can be cleaned out and you still have less wear internally so the equipment is worth cleaning out. The fact is, the leaner oil mix was only implemented to save on emissions at the expense of engine life.
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Don't over think it, use a quality 2-stroke oil mixed at the manufacturer's recommended ratio and go on with life.
Or don't overthink it and use the proven 32:1 cheap oil or 40:1 HQ synthetic mix ratio and go on with life and your equipment goes on with life longer too.
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I've actually never seen a 2-stroke machine that was worn out from not using enough oil, only from no oil at all, a mechanical issue (looking at you Stihl and your Chinese junk bearings), or from factors outside the engine itself (trimmer head sloppy and loose, etc).
That's very strange because they all wear out eventually, wear caused by lubrication issues. The bearings wear out, introduce wobble, and the flywheel starts rubbing the ignition coil. If you catch it early, coil just fails from overheating. Put new coil on, can't get gap right because of the wobble either making contact one half of a revolution and/or gap too large on the other side, then you notice the wobble.