Fuel Color

[Wood Doctor]

Blue, Pink/Red, and Green dyes seem to be the most common fuel mix colors these days. Straight gas still seems not to work very well in 2-cycle engines:


Rings seem to disappear rapidly. After that, the top end of the engine is toast.

 

[damifino]

Sam, I think this is a masterful way of starting a new oil thread. Great job...I love it...lets talk oil.

 

[Sam R]

Hey I was just curious. This out pouring of answers is solid-fricking-gold awesome for me. This trimmer had the rose wine gas, anothet saw I did recently had a dark green (looked that way in tank anyway) gas...

I'm guessing it kind of boils down to so you know it's got 2 stroke oil in it.
Weird that some I seen are much darker. I guess that's a richer mixture.

Seems like Motomix is fairly clear though. That's what I put in any (modern) Stihl tool before I invoice it.

 

[Travis Kinney]

Yes redmax and mogul are both red

 

[Canyon Angler]

Mobil 1 Racing 2T is red (or at least mine is -- I've heard it also was made in blue) and makes the mix pinkish-orangish, too.

 

[Artemis]

Amsoil dominator at 32:1 is all I use in my big saws. It turns the fuel a rich red color, although it's hard to tell in a red jerry can. I use Amsoil Interceptor at 40:1 for my small saws and it works great. Really hard to tell if the fuel is mixed with that stuff though. I also use Lucas oil fuel stabilizer and that adds a blueish tint to the fuel.

 

[Little Al]

The blenders we get our mix oil from sent us a Christmas card that was like a paint colour chart showing what colour we could have our 2Smoke mix oil Our boss entered into the spirit & asked why an odd colour wasn't listed when the next supply arrived lo & behold it was the odd colour a sort of Orange

 

[awful knawful]

Red oil. That is all.

 

[Country bumpkin]

Red armor & Homelite are red also. Like everyone says different color for different brands. From smurf blue Sabre to green John Deere mix. Just a dye.

 

[Pine Marten]

I bought a gas can at a yard sale for $2. It was full of red gas and marked "good mix" with a marking pen. I didn't trust unknown gas-mix so I used it up in 4-stroke mowers etc. at about 1 quart per gallon (somewhere around 200-1 ratio). I thought it might have been off-road diesel in there!

edit for typo

 

[clemsonfor]

I bought a gas can at a yard sale for $2. It was full of red gas and marked "good mix" with a marking pen. I didn't trust unknown gas-mix so I used it up in 4-stroke mowers etc. at about 1 quart per gallon (somewhere around 200-1 ratio). I thought it might have been off-road diesel in there!

edit for typo

This is how I get rid of old two stroke fuel. Either use it in a mower, just straight out of the can or I will just dump it in my 1980 k10 Chevrolet.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[Pine Marten]

If it won't foul a plug at 32/1, it sure won't at 200/1.....

 

[damifino]

Das right...uh-hu....uh-hu.... we got a oil thread go'in.
Anybody using VP 2 cycle oil?

 

[Pine Marten]

I often use VP @ cycle oil. Usually I use VP or Stihl oil at 40/1 ratio from the little bottles, and then add some Valvolene 2 cycle oil to bring it up to a 32/1 ratio. I use a Ratio Rite container to get the mix correct. I also rinse out the little bottle as well as the Ratio Rite pitcher to get all the oil into the gas.

 

[Sam R]

I cracked open a bottle of premix this week that was 40:1 - the bottle was orange and so was the premix inside.

 

[Wood Doctor]

You guys may find this one interesting. Fuel mix oil is often dyed blue around here but not bar oil. A guy brought in a Stihl 028 saw with the sprocket/clutch needle bearing burned out and blue oil was being thrown around, pooped everywhere. It was rather obvious that he or someone else had filled the bar oil tank with 2-cycle engine oil. He said that it ran hotter than a $2 pistol and it also burned off the retainer e-clip and washer, so the saw shut down.

I dumped out the remaining "bar" oil, all blue, and kept it in a jar. I imagine I could use it for a light lube on occasion, but I would judge it to be about the same weight as tranny fluid -- 10% bar oil and 90% 2-cycle oil. I hesitate to use it as fuel mix, but if I throw it in with 2 gallons of gas, my log splitter's engine might gobble it up. However, a few purists might not like that idea. Opinions welcome.

 

[clemsonfor]

You guys may find this one interesting. Fuel mix oil is often dyed blue around here but not bar oil. A guy brought in a Stihl 028 saw with the sprocket/clutch needle bearing burned out and blue oil was being thrown around, pooped everywhere. It was rather obvious that he or someone else had filled the bar oil tank with 2-cycle engine oil. He said that it ran hotter than a $2 pistol and it also burned off the retainer e-clip and washer, so the saw shut down.

I dumped out the remaining "bar" oil, all blue, and kept it in a jar. I imagine I could use it for a light lube on occasion, but I would judge it to be about the same weight as tranny fluid -- 10% bar oil and 90% fuel mix. I hesitate to use it as fuel mix, but if I throw it in with 2 gallons of gas, my log splitter's engine might gobble it up. However, a few purists might not like that idea. Opinions welcome.

You talking mixed fuel in the bar oil or pure 2 stroke oil?

If he dumped mix oil in and it's the ratio you said 90% mix fuel and 10% bar oil, as long as it's clean I'd dump it in there. If there is trash and saw dust in it then no!

If that concoction was clean I would dump it in my old k10 chevy all day long and not think a second thought. With trash and saw dust I would either take it to the recycle center when I gave old oil or that much will just evaporate or put it on a fire in the yard.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[Wood Doctor]

Correction made to my post above -- 2-stroke oil mixed with residual bar oil in the bar oil tank. Looks like very little trash in what I dumped out -- just really thin oil mix. Since its rather fresh, I just may save it in an oil can for occasional lube work. Luckily, the bar oil pump seems to still work fine. I've actually heard of guys doing something like this in really cold weather to thin out the bar oil, but imagine doing this today at 100 F. You should see what's left of that needle bearing after the E-clip retainer and washer vanished.

 

[clemsonfor]

If that's what it is I would just dump it in my tractor fuel tank, again not thinking a second thought. I have a very fine and I mean fine mesh strainer that would catch trash. And the filter and bowl would catch what that didnt.

Or still the old k10 or mower.

Correction made to my post above -- 2-stroke oil mixed with residual bar oil in the bar oil tank. Looks like very little trash in what I dumped out -- just really thin oil mix. Since its rather fresh, I just may save it in an oil can for occasional lube work. Luckily, the bar oil pump seems to still work fine. I've actually heard of guys doing something like this in really cold weather to thin out the bar oil, but imagine doing this today at 100 F. You should see what's left of that needle bearing after the E-clip retainer and washer vanished.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

[Wood Doctor]

I have in the past on occasion burned mixed fuel in my lawn mower engine. It never had a problem with that. I doubt that engine would burp with this little mixture added to two gallons of gasoline. This is anything but waste oil.

Anyway, I think chainsaw owners should think twice about adding blue oil to their saw's bar oil tank, even if they cannot read the label on the bottle. That usually happens after they've knocked down a dozen beers.