Itās amazing how many accusations are voiced without any back-story or evidence. I buy 4-mix machines from municipalities all the time to fix and sell. I canāt really say out of dozens and dozens of FS90Rs, BR600s, and FS130s, or 131Rs that Iāve ever had an engine come in that was damaged or failed because of something other than a lack of maintenance.
I got MANY, almost all machines in for lack of maintenance, or perhaps lack of proper training and understanding of how the 4-mix system is just as easy as any other engine to maintain. In fact, aside from some connecting rod to wrist pin issues on early FS91R trimmers (which are actually the exact same part number as an FS90R crank, so that tells me itās a bad wrist pin design and why it was superseded), Iāve never seen anything aside from being bounced out of a truck on the road, or ran over or run without a guard that damaged these.
Most āmechanicsā without gloves and hearing protection are using āif it aināt broke, donāt fix itā from a bygone era where things were made to last, before companies realized, much like the Maytag commercials, they couldnāt sell more units if the old ones didnāt break. Thatās not to say theyāre built poorly or with flawed designs, but they make these machines run so well on very specific conditions, much like race cars or planes, so that when theyāre NOT maintained, they fail. Lighter materials, more plastic, ways to keep generating more and more profit without having to focus on quality or longevity, makes them profit while still putting out a quality-performing product. But, mechanics will still use carburetor cleaner and a brush to clean plugs when a replacement is just common sense. They still use shop air to blow out pleated-paper air filters as if theyāre made of the same materials from 30+ years ago. They run trimmers without guards, they make the wrong mix so that there is too much oil figuring that more is safer or better, so that the mixture is too oil-laden, too heavy, doesnāt atomize with the fuel, and basically pools at the bottom of the filter housing, while the raw fuel separates and runs the machine lean. They spill fuel all around the engines and donāt bother to clean them, so it collects debris that gets into moving parts and acts like lapping compound to wear them out. They donāt clean around engine seals, so those go bad, ingesting debris to ruin bearings. The donāt clean off the build up of crap all around the engines, which builds and builds, effectively acting as insulation around an air-cooled engine, causing them to cook. They donāt do a simple valve adjustment, even as little as once a YEAR, and wonder why the valves burn up or drop or wear out the plastic can wheel DESIGNED TO BE PLASTIC, so it sacrifices itself rather than your expensive engine, (theyāre wearable items, just like brake pads).
Companies hire mechanics, but donāt hire good ones. They donāt train them, they donāt send them to manufacturer update schools, repair service schools, nothing. They often donāt provide specialized tools, and the mechanics donāt want to lose their jobs, so they have to blame the machine when they are not educated as to how theyāre properly repaired or maintained, Iāve seen it countless times.
There is nothing communist about wanting cleaner air, less triple-digit temperatures, less floods, calmer winters, I donāt feel WEāRE the ones who need to not drive larger trucks or run less 2-stroke equipment, turn off the water when weāre doing our by-weekly toothbrushing, but there is nothing wrong with doing it because itās not a bad thing to do and is just lazy not doing it.
Btw, if anyone was wondering, Iām a STIHL Gold level technician, I have worked at almost a dozen shops from 2003, ran two, owned a mobile repair business and got a news interview about my service which is posted on YouTube, and personally own extremely expensive commercial mower hydraulic system testing tools, as well as fuel injection repair tech for STIHL, Husqvarna, and KOHLER. Plus Iām a great lover and a pretty decent cook. So I might know what Iām talking about, but hey, everyone is entitled to their opinions, nobody is forced to follow someone elseās advice, regardless of their training or experience, because afterall, this is america...