When I was a kid I remember taking the gas can to a staion with the old man. We would fill it with white gas and mix it with 30 weight oil. We would use it in outboards and anything else 2 cycle. The oil threads got me to thinking of that. Does any one remember those days? Did engines last as long and perform well?
Any old timers remember white gas and 30 weight oil?
- Thread starter 4pwr
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skwerl
Will Climb for food
Nope, the mix oils today provide many times the protection and burn much cleaner. 30wt was used for 2 stroke motors because nothing better was available. They had to put in as much oil as possible without clogging up the plug in 2 hours just in order to keep the motor from burning up.
Remember back in the 60's when auto odometers only had 5 digits? Remember it was a major ordeal for a car to 'turn over' 100K miles, and it was pretty much worn out by that point? today's oil protects so well that motors are barely worn at 100K miles.
Remember back in the 60's when auto odometers only had 5 digits? Remember it was a major ordeal for a car to 'turn over' 100K miles, and it was pretty much worn out by that point? today's oil protects so well that motors are barely worn at 100K miles.
I can remember when the old reel lawnmowers like jacobson and the old clinton 2 strokes would smoke you out of the garage. gas 22cent a gallon.
stihlatit
Addicted to ArboristSite
Remember it I still have both LOL.
Arnie
Arnie
poor guy... lol
Paved roads help cars last longer too. My John Deere A had rings put in shortly before Eisenhower enacted the soil bank and it's still going on it. Oils are better now I will admit. More stress is placed on 2cycle engines and car engines now too and they still last quite awhile.
Just heard that Toro had to stop making the com.duty 2 stoke lawn mowers this year . New epa rules.
Toro dealer told us that 2 stroke snowthrowers are here to stay because air quality in winter makes the difference. if that is true 2 stroke saw may have a chance.
rjh245
ArboristSite Operative
460Ted said:I have to wonder how many more years 2 stroke chainsaws have left before the EPA squeezes them out?
I hope that day never comes. I how could a 4 stroke saw ever work? I have heard the 4 stroke weedwackers are not the greatest.
Rob
smokechase II
Addicted to ArboristSite
I don't remember the original 30 weight days but have been told that 10W30 or 10W40 types did not work as mix oils.
new model will read Stihl ms660-4mix run for the hills hope that never happens
I think there's a little more to the two-stroke thing, especially with Toro. Blade tip speed is tightly controlled; ever wonder why you don't see those 32" and 36" single blade riders any more? Those 2-strokes are having a hard time making serious power at 2900 rpm in a 22" pusher, let alone holding up as long as the better 4-strokes...two-strokes just don't like to lug.
I don't remember ever using or even hearing about using "white gas" as a motor fuel, except the fellows that make those little model one-lungers you see at steam shows. When I think of white gas, I think of stove and lantern fuel, and I do remember buying it out of barrel up at the filling station when we went camping. That stuff was pretty much the lower flash point equivalent of #1 heating oil...burns clean, but not useful in an engine because there isn't any antiknock rating...probably around 60, good for a compression ratio of 4:1! I have some original manuals for a few old saws, including a McC 3-25 manual from 1949; they recommend regular gas (and the obligatory 30 weight oil)
Up until the late 1960's most oil companies rebottled and dyed plain-jane dino oils for use in 2-strokes. Castrol, Klotz and a few others began supplying bike racers much earlier, of course, but I think Shell or Sunoco was the probably the first major oil company to offer custom blended products to some of the OEM's. I believe Shell was the first major to offer a synthetic 2-stroke product, which was a boon to the boke racers, and a disaster for the snomo guys...the first stuff was hydroscopic, a real problem in cold weather!
I don't remember ever using or even hearing about using "white gas" as a motor fuel, except the fellows that make those little model one-lungers you see at steam shows. When I think of white gas, I think of stove and lantern fuel, and I do remember buying it out of barrel up at the filling station when we went camping. That stuff was pretty much the lower flash point equivalent of #1 heating oil...burns clean, but not useful in an engine because there isn't any antiknock rating...probably around 60, good for a compression ratio of 4:1! I have some original manuals for a few old saws, including a McC 3-25 manual from 1949; they recommend regular gas (and the obligatory 30 weight oil)
Up until the late 1960's most oil companies rebottled and dyed plain-jane dino oils for use in 2-strokes. Castrol, Klotz and a few others began supplying bike racers much earlier, of course, but I think Shell or Sunoco was the probably the first major oil company to offer custom blended products to some of the OEM's. I believe Shell was the first major to offer a synthetic 2-stroke product, which was a boon to the boke racers, and a disaster for the snomo guys...the first stuff was hydroscopic, a real problem in cold weather!
"White gas" was American Oil Company high test. At the time, it was the only unleaded gasoline available and the lack of color was why it was called "white".
Crofter
Addicted to ArboristSite
In canada as I remeber it we called the fuel for the coleman gas lantern and irons and blow torches, etc. white gas. It was lead free and did not fill the vapor generators with deposits like the car gas quickly would. As Eyolf says it was very low octane and would ping like the devil if you put it in a car. What we used to use in the old wick lanterns was called coal oil here and maybe kerosene in the USA. There was a gasoline called marine white that had no road tax and no dye that commercial outfitters ect used in saws and outboards to save the road tax. Dont know whether it was much diff than pump gas minus the dye. Yep the old 30 weight sure smoked.
