To spark arrest or not?

[WhyMe]

I have been fixing and cleaning a few of the 2 cycle stuff i have. Been mainly doing the spark arresters via the torch method. they seem to run a lot better after that.

Some vids and people on the net reccomend that the spark arresters be removed to improve performance and less maintainance.

So what says you guys here. Take them out, or leave them in?

 

[getnpsi]

My location dictates to respect what they are for. that being said, if you have to take apart your muffler anyway for packing service or rust you might be able to implement best of both worlds, create a more servicable configuration that still keeps it safe/legal, and when a park rangers shoves a stick in, he still hits one.

 

[123Saab]

While a lot of 2 stroke gear can benefit from it, I would be careful.

For instance, if you only use a chainsaw right next to your house on the lawn cutting firewood, It should be ok.

However if you are taking down trees in heavy and dry brush It really could cause some major issues.

I have a few Husqvarna Chainsaws that are screamers in stock form so I left the Arrestors in.

 

[Mr_Joe]

I have some loggers in my extended family. The spark arrestor comes out in a new chainsaw. Yes, it would depend on where you are cutting. At the least they should be cleaned once in a while. They will sap performance over time, once plugged up.

 

[SOHCman]

You could use a high quality syn 2 stroke oil and likely never have to worry about it. It's the cheap oils that leave deposits in your engine and on the screen. Kill two birds with one stone and use ethanol free fuel with the oil already in it like stihls moto-mix.

 

[tdi-rick]

I've removed the spark arrestors on everything.

I'm bloody careful in the bush, our bark and leaves go up so [censored] quickly it isn't funny and it is a risk, but...

Calculate the actual open area of your gauze, it's atrocious.
Removing it is like doing a muffler mod, and most all saws respond to that very well as it is.

If you need to run the gauze to be legal, either try and find some with a more open weave, eg from a camp toaster (a trick an old logger told me about) or somehow try and mod a new piece of gauze so that you can increase, ideally at least double, the actual area of it.

Running JASO FC/FD oil is a good suggestion too.
I definitely reduces carbon deposits.

 

[UNC038]

Originally Posted By: SOHCman
You could use a high quality syn 2 stroke oil and likely never have to worry about it. It's the cheap oils that leave deposits in your engine and on the screen. Kill two birds with one stone and use ethanol free fuel with the oil already in it like stihls moto-mix.


This is the correct answer, although it's my opinion that the E10 makes no difference as long as the mixture is adjusted properly.

 

[wag123]

Originally Posted By: SOHCman
You could use a high quality syn 2 stroke oil and likely never have to worry about it. It's the cheap oils that leave deposits in your engine and on the screen. Kill two birds with one stone and use ethanol free fuel with the oil already in it like stihls moto-mix.

While using the best possible fuel mix certainly helps, in the long run it doesn't really matter what kind of gas or oil you use, the spark arrestor will eventually carbon-up anyway.
A spark arrestor is required by federal law to be used in any engine operated on, or adjacent to, federal land. Some states have also adopted this law for state land.
These laws were put in place at a time (MANY, MANY years ago) when the oil itself was not as clean burning and the engines were very crude, requiring MUCH more oil in the mix to stay alive (16:1 was the norm). In the old days, engines were not nearly as sophisticated and efficient as they are now.
There is VERY LITTLE RISK in removing the spark arrestor for normal use situations with modern engines. If you think that I am kidding, run your machine (without the spark arrestor) in the darkest area possible and see just how many (few) sparks actually come out.