How long can you leave 2-cycle oil laying around before it goes bad?
I have some old Poulan 2 cycle oil that has to be 20+ years old. It is in the small cans that, when mixed with 1 gallon of gas, makes a 16:1 2-cycle fuel. The tops are the cans are covered with a fine coating of dust and rust but the bottoms look fine. I have 2 4-packs with their original plastic strapping and a handful of loose cans.
I opened a can of this stuff and it looks perfectly fine. Thick, a deep green color and crystal clear - not hazy, foggy or otherwise murky.
I also have some old TC-W Quicksilver outboard lube (7 tall cans) and a 2/3 of a gallon of Kawasaki TC-W marine engine oil for a jet ski we had several years ago but have since sold. This is in addition to a dozen cans of newer John Deere TC-W2 2-cycle oil and some brand new bottles of Stihl.
Our current 2-cycle oil needs require about 1 gallon of fuel per year. In other words, with a few gallons of oil combined, we are drastically over-loaded with this stuff!
I hate to waste
anything so I'm thinking of running some of this mixed with gasoline in a roughly 200:1 (or leaner) ratio in other, 4-stroke power equipment we have ... just to use it up. Only in stuff with carburetors, nothing with fuel injection. I'm figuring this will provide a little benign top-cylinder lubrication in addition to getting rid of all that excess oil. Any potential problems with doing this?
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Bror Jace