I've always been the same - I prefer heavier grades of oil in my vehicles and equipment and have traditionally ran at least the OE recommended ratios in my 2s stuff as well, if not more, but I want to try something different and see if I can cut some or all of the smell out. If it's not detrimental in my use case then yay me and if it blows up or wears out then it'll get replaced and I wont do it again. As for electric, honestly if I just maintained my 1/2 acre lot then I would strongly consider one, but recently the county dug ditches in everyone's yards on my road and now I can't mow all of it and neither can my next door neighbor so I do all the sides for mine and hers. I also maintain and trim parts of the other neighbor's yard too, so I don't think a battery powered trimmer would work? Or at least it's too much money to spend on a gamble.
Carb is tuned well and the plug is light tan.
I think the whole "re-tune your carb for the mix ratio" thing is a bit blown out of proportion. Other than a slight tweak from the factory setting, my Stihl FS56 ran fine on the recommended 50:1 mix and with no other changes ran fine at 32:1. Then I mixed up both Opti and Sabre at ~96:1 (Sabre got the nod first) and with no changes to the needles, it ran fine on that too.
Motul 800 at 32:1, but I can also smell Stihl Ultra at 50:1
There will nearly always be the "tuning police" who don't ask if you have the carb adjustment correct. They, in fact, tell you that you don't.... and they are hip shooting at best. I have run many oils and ratios as part of a long term test. Yes, sometimes there is a need for a slight adjustment. With today's iffy gasoline quality a good oil can run very dirty. I had that happen with Red Armor. Good gas corrected that issue. I don't mind smelling all 2 stroke exhaust, just some. I had some really stinky and dirty Stihl Ultra and that's why I started testing various oils. Stihl Ultra is one of the coolest running oils. Later testing with Ultra was better smelling, but was dirty. Good alternative oils are, imo, K2 @50:1, Saber @ 64:1, Motorex Crosspower 2t @ 40:1, Red Armor @ 50:1, and Motul 710 @ 40:1. Your results may vary. They all have a light smell that is pleasing to my nose and they run clean. I had very dirty results in my br800 with Motul 800 Off-road, Maxima Super M, and Stihl Ultra. The cleanest oil, by far, was Maxima Super M Injector @ 50:1. Unfortunately the br800 engine had a catastrophic failure while running that oil. Not sure of the root cause. I visited the dealer and all I could see was a dropped pushrod that destroyed a lot of the cam area. Valves were within spec before seizure. Stihl replaced under warranty. Personally, after testing a dozen oils... temperature, rpm, carbon, (edit-- oil film on rocker arms), and runability I would not go leaner on oil with the above listed oils than what I have listed. To do so on my br800 causes higher temperature. I will never own battery equipment. I like internal combustion feel, sound, and smell. Any and all "experts" have at it. Nothing like keyboard commandos.
I like the challenge of seeing how various oils run and smell. It's sort of a hobby. I am retired with various new and old Stihl equipment. Since some of my equipment is Stihl 4-mix I prefer to use an oil that is widely acclaimed to run clean, without hiccup, and smell good. Why? It's fun.
Battery is certainly getting better, and like mentioned they are great for small yards. They aren't cheap though. I would say most of my small engine customers haven't really noticed a savings. Initial purchase price is higher, and if they need an additional battery or replacement batteries they are quite expensive. This is all for small homeowner lawns who might only use 2 gallons of pre-mix a season.
Hey Jeepman... Over the past 7 months or so I have run various oils back to back to back to measure temperature under the same conditions. As a result I have developed a nose for different oils. Smell makes a difference to me, and that is a mark against VP, Red Armor, Dominator, Stihl Ultra, and Motul 800 Off-Road. Not that those oils smell awful, but all things being equal I'll choose something else. It's a personal preference thing. I like Saber, Crosspower 2t, K2, Honda HP2, and Motul 710. There are many oils that I have not whiffed. I can tell within seconds which oil I'm running just by the smell... and I have a weak sense of smell.
I haven't use the Opti-2 oil but I looked the other day (before I wrote my initial post, on the prev. page) at the oil's SDS and it shows:
Many, if not all of Stihl 4-mix engines do not use needle bearings on the wrist pin. There have been seizures especially when air filters are not properly cleaned/installed. On those engines typical 50:1 mix seems to be sufficient under normal conditions.
I see, interesting.
Forgot to mention that by default bushing wrist pin bearings require at least 25:1 oil ratio. I don't have an idea why those are spec'd to 50:1. And no, modern synthetic oils cannot compensate for the leaner ratio.
Since it doesn't give a KV40 or Viscosity Index it's pretty hard to say what I'm experiencing, but I guarantee that it is noticeably thinner than Sabre when poured into the same measuring glass.
Opti-2 KV40 is there, just right after KV100:
