Joined: 02 Nov 2004 Posts: 34535 Location: Hereford
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 07 2:32 pm Post subject: 50:1, 40:1, 30:1. How important is it?
I've now got a wide range of petrol tools for ignoring the garden with. Each one of them needs 2 stroke oil & petrol mix, but because people are buggers, there doesn't seem to be a standard mix for them. I've manuals suggesting 30, 40 and 50:1 petrol to oil mixes.
Must I use the right one for the engine, or is it a bit rough? I am using the right ones, but it means I have more petrol stored than Shell some times.
judith
Joined: 16 Dec 2004 Posts: 22789 Location: Montgomeryshire
Posted: Fri Jun 01, 07 2:54 pm Post subject:
I've been using girly hand-waving sorts of ratios in my brushcutter for years. Try to get it in the ball park, but you know how it is...
Depends on the quality of the engine- cheap ones won't stand up to the wrong mixes as much as better ones, but it's worse to put 50:1 in a 40:1 engine than vice versa. The wrong mix tends to make it run like a bag of spanners short term & wear out long term.
There are also different grades of two-stroke oil. The more modern synthetic oils are generally used at 50:1, but bargain-basement oils aren't as good and should be used at 25:1 or 30:1. Most modern Japanese engines are rated for synthetic oils, so even if it says 50:1 on the filler cap, use 30:1 if the oil you've got is cheap crap.
At least that's what the bloke who services our stuff says.
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