Garden Machinery 2 Stroke Fuel.

Discussion in 'Engineers' Talk' started by Brian Mansfield, Jul 19, 2020.

  1. Brian Mansfield

    Brian Mansfield New Member

    To overcome fuel degradation on irregularly used machines, I have been advised to use high octane unleaded and to mix with 2 stroke oil at 25:1. I will be interested to hear other peoples' opinions.
     
  2. rogerk101

    rogerk101 Screwfix Select

    Stihl two stroke oil is diluted at 50:1, and it's decades since I used 25:1 on any of my two-stroke machines.
    The octane rating is not going to affect 'fuel degradation' in the slightest.
    What sort of opinions are you after?
     
  3. Frutbunn

    Frutbunn Active Member

    I run classic cars and you can get additives just for this. Try Frost Auto Restoration, they have most things.
    To be honest I've left fuel in a tank for a year with no problems, although you could put fires out with the 14 year old petrol I drained out of a Morris Minor.
    I also run Lambretta 2 strokes the oil separates out when its stood for any length of time
     
  4. Frutbunn

    Frutbunn Active Member

    My British Seagulls use 1:10
     
  5. FlyByNight

    FlyByNight Screwfix Select

    I have a range of Stihl tool sand they recommend 50:1 if using their oil or 40:1 with other oils. However, when overwintering I have been advised to run down the fuel until empty then add a cup full of ASPEN premix, run the engine for a few minutes to get it through the system completely and put te tool away.

    When brought out months later, you can consider draining out the Aspen for reuse, or just running the machine using that plus normal 50:1 mix.

    The problem is that when the fuel degrades it leaves a sticky mess throughout resulting in clogging of feed pipes &c.
     
  6. rogerk101

    rogerk101 Screwfix Select

    Yes. I had one of them in my youth. Fortunately they're rare now, as they made a disgusting mess of the environment, leaving films of oil on the water surface and generating decibels like a jumbo jet! :eek:
     
  7. Mr Rusty

    Mr Rusty Screwfix Select

  8. Mr Rusty

    Mr Rusty Screwfix Select

    That's a blast from the past. Some 45 years ago I worked at a garage which also had a chandlers and we were sales agents/repairers for seagulls - I went down to the factory in Poole a couple of times. They got taken out for testing 2-3 at a time on the back of a dory, towed by a mk2 landrover with a crane on the back we also used as a wreck recovery vehicle. To my knowledge that landy got stuck in the sand and overtaken by the tide at least 3 times, and survived. Always run on trade plates, it ended up as 3 wheel drive because we broke a half shaft and just welded up the diff. Those were the days!
     
  9. Frutbunn

    Frutbunn Active Member

    Anything but rare, they last forever and very simple and easy to repair so there's loads left, I had 14 at one time, I'm always buying joblots of them and I never ravel more than 30 miles as they are always turning up.
     
  10. Frutbunn

    Frutbunn Active Member

    Typical land rover, half shafts are **** my 800cc Suzuki LJ80 has the same size half shafts and they're 24 splined and has 4 pin diffs, never break and way better off road.
     
  11. Harry Stottle

    Harry Stottle Screwfix Select

    The big problems with modern petrol is the 5% bioethanol that the beloved EU insisted we use. If you have the time and patience get half a can of petrol and fill it up with water, give it a good shake up then leave it for a couple of days, then syphon off the petrol. The water dissolves the bio ethanol, which is the cause of the gunge, and the lower specific gravity of the petrol causes it to float on the water.

    There was a panic in the old vehicle world when it was proposed, again by the Brussels dumb heads, to go from E5 to E10, 10% bioethanol. Fortunately there are lots of additives that are available to neutralise the effect of BE on fuel tanks and fuel lines.

    98 octane has better resistance to vapour locking than 95, it cured the problem on my 52 year old Triumph. 98 octane doesn't seem to have any other advantages over 95, except the engine doesn't konk out now in traffic jams on a hot day.
     
  12. Harry Stottle

    Harry Stottle Screwfix Select

    I've owned four Land Rover from Mk1 to Defender over the years and never had a half shaft break, even though they've been subject to some tough treatment on off road trials.

    I do ;like the specification of the new Ineos Grenadier, I may order one.
     
  13. Frutbunn

    Frutbunn Active Member

    Rover owners club trial or proper challenging non marque trial?
     
  14. Severntrent

    Severntrent Screwfix Select

    Great forum, I now know what a Seagull is, an Ineos Grenadier(although at circa £40000 I'll have to try and keep my 15 year old Ford Focus going for a bit longer) and a bit more about petrol
     
  15. Frutbunn

    Frutbunn Active Member

    I like the new Jimny, one of the few mass produced proper off roaders left, most so called 4x4's are so diluted as to be useless off road. Although My all time favorite car is a soft door Suzuki LJ80, had 12 of them over the last 33 years.
    The Ineos looks good on paper, no hopeless land rover drive train parts to let you down, hopefully has a decent chassis as well rather than the paper thin effort on a land rover
     
  16. Harry Stottle

    Harry Stottle Screwfix Select

    You're right about the modern 4x4s, they are not much good off road, especially with low profile tyres. They are for poseurs and people who can't get into or out of normal cars. The later Defenders were a mass of complicated electronics and valves, nightmares to own if you used them much off road and they certainly continued in the Land Rover tradition of chassis corrosion. My favourite Land Rover was a series two that was a rough, tough tackle anything beast. Mechanically it never let me down, I fitted a galvanised chassis after I had owned it for a year, then it just went on and on and on till I sold it years later.
    Just like a Seagull outboard really, simple, tough, reliable.
     
  17. Frutbunn

    Frutbunn Active Member

    I've had a couple of S2,tough they ain't, the type of trials I did you'd break the standard axles all day long, the 2 1/4 diesel was abysmal. My Lada Niva's were better built.
    I've had 24 Suzuki LJ80, SJ410/413, off road way better and never break and I was the AWDC NE area trials champion. The only SJ's that were not so good were the ones built by Land Rover Santana!
     
  18. Mr Rusty

    Mr Rusty Screwfix Select

    LOL - this is a reminiscing thread. Back in the same era as the previous story, the same garage were on a rota call out from the police to recover crash/wrecks. One wet christmas eve a van went in/over a wall. The first guy on the rota was not the garage I worked for, and used an american jeep with really wide tyres as his tow-vehicle. Apparently he couldn't get the van off the wall - wheels span out. Our Garage man then got the call, said he was not on the rota and had had a drink (not much). The cops said as long as you are OK forget about that, come and have a go at this van. The same old landy went out with it's skinny tyres and did what the flashy jeep couldn't - get a grip on the wet slimy road! As I say, those were the days!
     
  19. People will tell you you can't weld cast iron to aluminium, well if you run your vintage 2 stroke moped at 32:1 rather than 25:1, I've proved you can! Thought I knew better, and hoped synthetic oil tech had moved on better than evidently it had in the past 60years. I've also conducted a couple of other tests - left 2stroke mix in the tank for 3 years, thinking the oil'd keep the metal tank rust free, found the fuel had really gone off (smelt like paint thiners) and yes would probably have put a fire out, needless to say the tank was also rusty! The other test, a bit more scientific, has been to leave some 2 stroke mix in a closed jar, undisturbed for 3 years. I can see NO evidence of separation, I think that bit of the tec. they have got right.
     
  20. MGW

    MGW Screwfix Select

    I have driven and repaired many 4 x 4's started with Landrover series 2, doors never closed proper freezing in the winter, and too light to pull any weight, the Austin Gipsy was heavier did not do much with the solid axle version, the rubber in torsion would go over anything great ground clearance and by selecting front wheel drive great turning circle, forever changing UJ's there were 12 of them, and off road had to keep speed down or would hop around everywhere, the Bedford RL was a beast, only used for ploughing snow so can't really say much except they were warm, the Chev Blazer looked a beast but was useless, always breaking down, the Lada Niva was the first permanent 4 wheel drive I used, and it was good, mainly used in Algeria. Also the Saviem TP3 which was useless about size of Transit. Moving to Falklands Landrover was king, the new at the time 90, 110, and 127, the diff lock would fail if not used regular. This brings me to mid 80's.

    From that point did not really drive any 4 x 4 off road, still have one, an old Kia Sorento but only because wanted the towing capacity, son has a 4 x 4 as where he lived there was a lot of snow, his is a Jaguar XE, we also have the Jaguar XE and if it snows it is simply not used, just the 2 wheel drive version, I see a lot around me in mid Wales going for the electric car as they are 4 x 4 but it is for snow not off road, unless something goes wrong.

    But fuel as always gone off, and seasonal vehicles like the Bedford RL and the old Mack both used for snow ploughing where liked because they started what ever the weather, no waxing of fuel with them, OK ploughing the Mack was down to 2 MPG light around 4 to 5 MPG straight 6 with updraught carb. Only wagon I have seen with an oil viscosity gauge on the dash plus oil pressure. Cab looked more like a signal box. It was clearly ex WD 6 volt electrics with 12 volt start. But it only ran with heavy snow, second fuel tank so carried 100 gallons, 60 bottom 40 top, simple tap so filled bottom from top. It would be test started but that fuel could be in the tanks for 3 years.

    But some of the pumps we had with a Lister D engine yes had to start with easy start but once running they would run on TVO if you wanted. But some times head gasket went and that would put a nasty flavour on the tea, I thought is was thoughtful of Lister to put the tap on side for making tea.

    We had where I first worked two seagull outboards for Saltley ferry before bridge was built, the ferry master scared the hell out of me when I went to service them, he delayed me until the bore was due, then took me out to test them, and seeing a 4 foot wall of water coming for me was not what I wanted, odd but today the bore on the Dee is much smaller, I will guess due to dredging to take out the A380 wings.

    I think tyres have changed the need for all wheel drive, with cross ply tyres the grip was not that good, the 6 wheel drive locos I work on now are very poor for grip, steel on steel is never very good, I love the old stuff, most the locos over 100 years old, nice to see them running again, but one thing I did not realise, it is not only petrol that goes off, so does coal, as soon as it is dug out of the ground the higher bits start to evaporate off, old coal will burn, but not as well as new coal.
     

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