Do you use starton or seafoam?

[chevyforlife21]

Curious most oil mixes have stabilizer these days built in but I've always used one or the other startron seems to be geared more fore gas with ethanol.

Last few days I've been trying to figure this out got a new poulan pro hedger I had one for 3 years that liked more then the echo and stihl I also had never a problem with it my exact same model 3 years ago had the longer epa engine 125 hour the new one had 50 hour. And THIS IS MY FIRST SEIZED MOTOR EVER close to 30 2 cycles but here goes

New poulan pro hedger let it sort of break in for 1/ 4 tank the day before use heat cycled it a few times ran it quater throttle and idle mostly. It was a little boggy at first richened up the low 1/8 1/4 turn a little smoky but figured since it was a new engine it's problem good for now. High jet I left it seemed perfect.

Next day 2 hours of constant use trimming half throttle probably mostly (forsythia bushes) excessive spooge out the exhaust. It died mid bush. Went to pull it over 10 times nothing before this it would start 1st pull noticed it felt a little odd pulled the plug pretty fouled with oil no plug in pulling it over it was 3x harder to pull then usual when you take out a plug and pull over a 2 cycle. OR Did the GEAR BOX SEIZED and it was somehow still engaged to the motor not letting it start?
I'm still trying to understand what happened.

50:1 husqvarna LS
91 e free has
Knock off seafoam
Possibly octane booster only raises it a point or so
Possibly marvel mystery oil
I know I finished up the last 2 in something and wasn't my usual routine.
Mix was a week old.
Pulled the muffler off my echo sr 225 ( 2 years old) maybe 10 15 hours tops. It had a slight scoring on the piston.

I've been running echo oil 50:1
93 octane 10 percent ethanol
Seafoam for last 10 years never a problem
My first time using this husky oil it seems like it may have done this or one of the other factors bit my great running echo which has always started 1 pull even cold even has a little scoring on the side of the Piston

Any ideas? Is there anyway you can get a motor seized way rich? I don't think it was hydro locked.
In the end I justreturned it rather then investigate any further since I only had the darn thing for less then 24 hours.


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[Andyshine77]

I'm not sure where to start.

First the carbs are made in such a way they only function properly at full throttle. If you run them at part throttle the mixture will be too lean or too rich, so always run them at full throttle. Also there is no need to really break in these engines, just run them.
Tuning the High speed is more important than the low when it comes to damaging the engine, and is hard to set properly on engines with really low rev limiters like hedge trimmer. A tachometer is a good tool to have, but honestly these trimmers turn such low rpm's most will last forever with factory tuning.

Without having properly inspecting the engine, it's impossible to say what happened, but it sounds like with the rich tuning, and running at quarter throttle it likely had excessive oil and fuel in the combustion chamber.

If you use non ethanol fuel, additives are not really needed, if you must the appropriate amount of Startron won't hurt anything. Seafoam is for the most part a useless product.

 

[alexcagle]

+1 @Andyshine77.
Sometimes they just take a poop. Could be a flaw in something simple internally.
Take it back for warranty.

 

[chevyforlife21]

I'm not sure where to start.

First the carbs are made in such a way they only function properly at full throttle. If you run them at part throttle the mixture will be too lean or too rich, so always run them at full throttle. Also there is no need to really break in these engines, just run them.
Tuning the High speed is more important than the low when it comes to damaging the engine, and is hard to set properly on engines with really low rev limiters like hedge trimmer. A tachometer is a good tool to have, but honestly these trimmers turn such low rpm's most will last forever with factory tuning.

Without having properly inspecting the engine, it's impossible to say what happened, but it sounds like with the rich tuning, and running at quarter throttle it likely had excessive oil and fuel in the combustion chamber.

If you use non ethanol fuel, additives are not really needed, if you must the appropriate amount of Startron won't hurt anything. Seafoam is for the most part a useless product.

Thing is about full throttle it says right in the manual always use the very least throttle you can while still cutting and also says never do full throttle for more then 30 seconds.

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[StihlKicking]

I use the synthetic Stihl oil with ethanol treatment in all my 2 stroke stuff. I use Lucus ethanol treatment in my 4 stroke small engines. Both with good results.


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[Chris-PA]

First the carbs are made in such a way they only function properly at full throttle. If you run them at part throttle the mixture will be too lean or too rich, so always run them at full throttle.

LOL, I'd say they don't really function properly at any throttle position except idle! The problem is that in a normal carb the fuel/air mixture from a given fuel outlet/circuit stays relatively constant as air flow varies, but not with these. So in addition to mixture variations as the throttle plate changes position, at any position the mixture will also vary with load/rpm. They are very poorly controlled.

However, they all have idle transfer fuel outlet ports behind the idle outlet intended to provide fuel at part throttle, but there are various different strategies for how those are fed depending on carb model. Some of these are fed from downstream of the L screw (jet), so the mixture varies with the L. Some are fed separately from the main fuel well and are independent of the L and H needles. The size and location of the idle transfer outlets also vary. Most trimmers that use these fixed jet carbs use a small Walbro or Zama, which feed the transfer ports off the L needle.

Anyway, looking at these carbs I think they could be set up such that they don't run lean at part throttle. Given that a trimmer probably does not get bogged down in rpm as much as a saw, the variations of mixture with rpm should not be as big a problem, so I expect it's probably OK to run them part throttle although I would not do that with a saw under load.

 

[CR888]

The OP has a really BAD idea of break in & is almost doing the exact opposite of what is required. Read Andyshines post and then read it again. Just don't ever do what you did to that poulan to a new two stroke please, reading that post hurt my brain.

 

[Andyshine77]

I use the synthetic Stihl oil with ethanol treatment in all my 2 stroke stuff. I use Lucus ethanol treatment in my 4 stroke small engines. Both with good results.


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Been a while, but I believe Lucus ethanol treatment is alcohol based. The only two ethanol treatments I know that aren't alcohol based are Startron and stabil.

 

[GrassGuerilla]

Again, why on earth are you idling and quarter throttling new 2-strokes to "sort of break them in"? I remember you saying you did this with dirt bike rebuilds... But these ain't dirt bikes. Fwiw I can't think of a single knowledgable source recommending such a break in for new 2-stroke O P E. None. Zero. idling in particular being the worst possible way to run them for any length of time.

In the case of th PP trimmer, I'd wager the "use the least throttle you can" is to be gentle to the cutting attachment, not the engine. (Pure speculation).

Point is, break em in exactly like you are using it. Even better, just USE IT. Can't tell you how many times I've read about someone idling a new chainsaw to break it in, only to scorch the clutch or chain brake etc. some even catching on fire. JUST USE THEM! Babying them through break in makes no sense at all and may actually be worse then piss revving the bejesus out of them.

 

[mountainlake]

I've been running my Solo weed whacker at 1/3 to 1/2 throttle for 15 years with no problems, too much snort at full throttle. Steve