you can use twc3 oil in most lawn equiptment . i have been using it in my lawn biz for over 30 yrs with zero oil related failures. i would not use it in a chain saw or other hard worked engine but its fine for most use.
2 Cycle Oil Questions
- Thread starter donjuan4690
- Start date
i won't use outboard oil in a string trimmer.
Been using the walmart black max branded oil and it performs great.
So you are saying that a trimmer or blower is fine for tcw-3 oil, but a chainsaw is harder working. Sometimes a trimmer can be working hard also. Here is my take on this, if you have a trimmer or blower and you want to use a tcw3 oil you might want to run it at 40 to 1 instead of maybe 50 to 1
Now you can get away with running a tcw3 oil in a chainsaw, but if you are going to run it hard, you might want to run it at maybe 32 to 1
When a 2 stroke chainsaw, trimmer, or blower is run at idle after it has been warmed up may cause deposits with cheaper oils as opposed to better synthetic oils.
I go through a lot of 2-stroke oil for various machines from trimmers, multiple chainsaws, blowers, snow throwers and some power heads that take attachments. I also have owned several 2-stroke ATVs and dirt bikes over the years. In addition to that I service many pieces of equipment for my business. I've always run Opti-2, Amsoil Dominator, or Echo Red Armor at 50:1 (40:1 in atvs/bikes or vintage equipment), usually whichever of those brands I happen to find the cheapest/easiest. I've pulled the muffler on several machines to check for carbon and they are always clean. Whenever I have a customer machine that the exhaust port is full of carbon they are running some odd mix like 30:1, 20:1, regular motor oil, etc. It really isn't worth the couple bucks you might save trying to run some other oil for certain equipment or using more oil because you think it is better. Some machines obviously run fine with more oil, some run leaner/hotter, which can have other effects.
The only thing I have always done with 2-strokes is run them very easily for the first minute or so to warm up, and then wide open throttle, since they are designed to run that way.
The only thing I have always done with 2-strokes is run them very easily for the first minute or so to warm up, and then wide open throttle, since they are designed to run that way.
The best oil I have found for my air cooled stuff is Torco GP7. It's my go to when I can get it . The Lucas 2 stroke oil has good specs too.
FWIW I didn’t know you weren’t supposed to use outboard oil in air cooled OPE until just a few years ago. I always kept TC-W oils around because I have a couple of two stroke outboards. None of those engines ever failed due to oil issues, but I wasn’t using them constantly all day either.
Here is what TCW3 does to a Echo SRM-225 that specifies a JASO FD oil. The ring is partially stuck and the exhaust port is nasty i got this trimmer from a LCO in my area that ran quicksilver outboard oil in everything.
That looks like more than just the wrong type of oil to me.
My guess would be incorrect oil but also way too rich of an oil mix.
I'll never run 50:1. Yes the exhaust port gets clogged about 20% faster (except some oils burn cleaner than others), but I have no problem with that, just want lower wear.
Granted I only have one piece of 2 cycle equipment left, a Redmax trimmer, and it's still running like a scalded dog on Royal Purple 40:1 for the last decade or so. It's around 20 years old but doesn't get a lot of hours per year. Heh, it runs so well that it takes less time to get things done! I keep contemplating replacing it with cordless electric but then every time I fire it up in spring, I'm like **** no!
Plus I like having an oil-gas mix on hand. It's great for getting off sticker/etc residue, way cheaper than Goo-Gone and every bit as fast. I just step outside to use it so the gas fumes aren't an issue. It's better than straight gas because you want that little bit of oil to keep the sticker/etc goo in suspension. 50/50 mix of gas and diesel works about as well, but I have no multi-purpose use for such a mixture while I do have a little bit of 40:1 2 cycle left over when drained out of the trimmer at end of season so it's essentially free goo-gone functionality. It's also great for parts cleaning, until it gets so old that it starts to stink like varnish.
I mean that I have a lot of uses for (especially) food containers, get that label and goo off, and great/free storage whether for food or something else.
Granted I only have one piece of 2 cycle equipment left, a Redmax trimmer, and it's still running like a scalded dog on Royal Purple 40:1 for the last decade or so. It's around 20 years old but doesn't get a lot of hours per year. Heh, it runs so well that it takes less time to get things done! I keep contemplating replacing it with cordless electric but then every time I fire it up in spring, I'm like **** no!
Plus I like having an oil-gas mix on hand. It's great for getting off sticker/etc residue, way cheaper than Goo-Gone and every bit as fast. I just step outside to use it so the gas fumes aren't an issue. It's better than straight gas because you want that little bit of oil to keep the sticker/etc goo in suspension. 50/50 mix of gas and diesel works about as well, but I have no multi-purpose use for such a mixture while I do have a little bit of 40:1 2 cycle left over when drained out of the trimmer at end of season so it's essentially free goo-gone functionality. It's also great for parts cleaning, until it gets so old that it starts to stink like varnish.
I mean that I have a lot of uses for (especially) food containers, get that label and goo off, and great/free storage whether for food or something else.
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I settled on 40-1 decades ago. Has served me well. The 2 stroke stuff at work gets 50-1 with Stihl oil and they last and last so maybe 50-1 is ok.
My fancy Yamaha outboard has variable rate injection. I think it probably runs close to 100:1 when idling and I doubt it gets higher than 60:1 at WOT. I know it burns a lot less oil per gallon than my Evinrude that gets 50:1 premix.
he ran quicksilver tcw3 oil in it.
He ran quicksilver tcw3 in it.
jake wells, thank you 4 your post, you have shown us via pics that cheap oil leaves more deposits and causes issues.
I just discovered from this thread that I should have been running TCW3 in my Lawn Boy. I‘ve been using the same Lucas semi-synthetic TC that I use in my trimmer.
Guess I need two gas cans now.
Guess I need two gas cans now.
It will be fine.
I run TC-W3 at 32:1 in all my Lawn Boys(and I'm well stocked on LB-brand oil so I'll be using that for the forseeable future).
With that said, they've been proven to be pretty tough engines as a whole and I suspect a lot of different oils have been used in the unofficially. Back in the days of the A/B/C series engines they said SAE 30 motor oil mixed at 16:1. In fact I've even seen an OMC/Lawn Boy service bulletin from the early 60s that specifically said to ONLY use SAE 30 and not "outboard motor oil"(don't remember if it gave a spec) as the air cooled engines ran too hot.
By the time the needle bearing D400 engines at 32:1 came along, there were good dedicated 2 stroke oils on the market and I'm pretty sure by then OMC/Lawn Boy said to use them. Probably tomorrow or Wedensday I'm going to do my first mow of the season with a 7262, a D600-engined 1973 production push mower. It's going to probably get Valvoline TC-W3 as that's what I have mixed in 32:1 now. I mixed that up over the winter for tinkering with a few mowers, and it's actually the same gallon of gas I used when I was repairing/fixing up this particular mower.
With that said, I'd not get too stressed out over not using a TC-W3 as long as it's a decent 2 stoke. I'd still mix it 32:1, though. Heck, growing up with a V-series and Duraforce LB, we normally just used I think Poulon brand in one of the handy dispenser bottles that I think did 2.6 oz for 50:1 in a gallon. The Duraforce was sold running great. My parents had the V series up until a couple of years ago when it quit and my uncle diagnosed a bad coil and claimed it unrepairable then grabbed it to cart off before I could say to save it.
