Two stroke oil

[Sp!ke]

A couple of weekends ago I met up with my father and we decided to take his old 1956 sailing boat out on the water for the first run of the year.

On the way, we filled up a couple of jerrycans worth of fuel for the motor and he was asking me whether 50 to 1 sounded about right for the premix for the outboard which was a newish Japanese 2 stroke motor.

It was then that I noticed that he was mixing engine oil in with the petrol instead of two stroke oil.

Rather alarmed by this I said that we should probably start again and use the correct oil. My father on the otherhand decided he didnt want to waste his £15 of fuel and reconed that it'd be alright on engine oil as he'd been using engine oil with the petrol for the past 24 months or so.

Thoughts anyone? Is it only a matter of time before he kills the motor with this concoction?

 

[WOODYTHEWISE]

edit
Sorry,tried to cut and past an item on this...Failed

 

[Ted]

Shouldn't hurt the engine.
IIRC two stroke oil was (is) formulated to reduce the need for decokes, and to stop plugs whiskering.

I would still use two stroke as a matter of course though.


..... or put a four stroke engine in - far less smelly and smokey.


Actually on second thoughts add some Castrol R. It will smell great!

 

[artyman]

More recent two stroke motorcycles have the 2-stroke oil in a separate tank, Im thinking 1970-80's, how modern is the outboard as that may have a similar system.

 

[Sp!ke]

It is a newish engine but oddly it isnt premix. I'm concerned because the two stroke oil is all that lubricates the crank in these engines and i'm not even sure if 4 engine oil even mixes with fuel adequately.

I dont know enough about outboards to know whether this premix is still normal or not.

The inboard engine is a 5hp 4 stroke single cylinder of 1950's vintage so the outboard is more insurance than anything as the inboard motor is somewhat tempermental.

 

[Bellow]

It is a newish engine but oddly it isnt premix.

He is premixing.

50:1 needs a good oil.

The 4 stroke oil will clog it with carbon. Rings will gum, exhaust will choke, then it starts to overheat and the gumming gets worse and turns to carbon etc, etc. It will die in the end but the crank will be fine - the top end will suffer.

If it were mine I'd strip and decoke it then run mix at a ratio appropriate to the quality of the 2-stroke oil.

 

[Beno]

When I was young and skint I ran my fs1e (fizz) on chip pan oil. It went ok but smelt terrible

 

[MJH]

Tell him to stop being a tight ar$e and use two stroke oil. Engine oil will knacker the engine in the end, it'll coke up and gunge up the rings. Not good at all.

I use oregon chainsaw two stroke oil in everything and at 50:1 it's not a lot of oil compared to the cost of the petrol he's using and having to strip the engine down in a few years time won't be cheap ! False economy in the long run.