Which oil, which mix for an 041?

[PatrickIreland]

I've been playing with my new Stihl 041AV, and I'm sure this has been discussed a billion times before - but I'd like to hear opinions particular to MY situation. (Self-obsessed? Me? Surely not!)

The last fella I bought a chainsaw from (cheap chinese plastic one) Just said "25:1. 50:1 if you use synthetic oil". That was all.
Given that is a much older chainsaw, should I stick to 25:1 regardless of the oil - and would that do any harm? It will be used very lightly, maybe 30 hours a year max.
My dad once bought a 2-stroke lawnmower, which wanted 50:1 mix. He was a lawyer (we love to hate them!) for Castrol, so rang up their oil man and asked why everything was bow going from 25, to 50:1.
The answer - "It's just to do with the oil, not the engines. Better oil means you can run a slimmer mix"
Now the cost of oil isn't going to be a concern, given the limited use the saw will see - will 25:1 be fine, and will synthetic give me any benefit? Or should I run 50:1 synthetic for the good of the saw, or should I use 25:1 dino oil as it was presumably meant to take when made? Or 25:1 synthetic?

Cheers,

Patrick

 

[Dapper Dan]

Gary will be along shortly to answer all your questions....he loves these threads.

Seriously.......50:1 Stihl white bottle. (No ethanol)

 

[GASoline71]

50:1 Stihl Ultra is what I use in all my saws. Even the ones that are over 30 years old.

No problems...

Modern mix oils are far supe... oh heck... do a search. There are prolly a thousand threads on the subject.



Gary

 

[PatrickIreland]

That would be great - I like to have a good range of opinions from the men who know their stuff before I go with anything - just hoping they are all similiar opinions!
I can swap out a VW Golf engine in 90 minutes from drive in to drive out, and I have very strong opinions on what oil to use in THOSE, but this is an unknown quantity for me!

Gary will be along shortly to answer all your questions....he loves these threads.

Seriously.......50:1 Stihl white bottle.

 

[PatrickIreland]

50:1 white bottle then, I take it? hehe! I could probably spend weeks looking at posts regarding oil mixes...

50:1 Stihl Ultra is what I use in all my saws. Even the ones that are over 30 years old.

No problems...

Modern mix oils are far supe... oh heck... do a search. There are prolly a thousand threads on the subject.



Gary

 

[Rookie1]

Go to your dealer and buy Stihl oil that he has on his shelf and mix it as the bottle says.If your anal run synthetic and high octane. If your easygoing and want to pinch a few pennies go for the orange "dino" oil and reg gas. Stihl would tell you to mix differently for older saws if they thought it would be a problem.

 

[GASoline71]

I've never gone by the bottle "color"... I actually read the label...

Gary

 

[Metals406]

I've never gone by the bottle "color"... I actually read the label...

Gary

 

[Rookie1]

I've never gone by the bottle "color"... I actually read the label...

Gary

Maybe some people cant read.

 

[2dogs]

I've never gone by the bottle "color"... I actually read the label...

Gary

You can read? Phtttt!

 

[PatrickIreland]

Go to your dealer and buy Stihl oil that he has on his shelf and mix it as the bottle says.If your anal run synthetic and high octane. If your easygoing and want to pinch a few pennies go for the orange "dino" oil and reg gas. Stihl would tell you to mix differently for older saws if they thought it would be a problem.

I always run high octane anyway - my car needs it and I fill the 5 gallon cans at the same time before I add any oil. So, It's the blue bottle I'm after, labelled in Arabic, and 10:1 mix, then?

Hehe, just kidding. I'll go with a Stihl synth for all the extra it'll cost given that the saw won't see daily use.

Thanks, all - to read through all the oil threads here would take me longer and confuse me more than drinking a bottle of Bourbon in one go... I might just start into that bottle now, actually.

 

[Rookie1]

Your not gonna hurt that saw as long as you use fresh good quality mix and adjust carb properly,but thats a whole nother thread!:greenchainsaw:

 

[PatrickIreland]

I always use either fresh, high octane mix or stabilised fuel, and when I took the saw in for a new AV damper the dealer took about 30 minutes out the back setting it up "Just perfect" - I heard him cutting with it! He knows his old saws.
Apologies for asking a question that's probably been answered before a million times - I really like this saw, and would hate to damage it with the wrong mix, so I thought I should ask - thanks all for being patient with a newbie!

 

[bowtechmadman]

Since it's a Stihl...try the MTD or Poulan oil...works great in the Wild Thingies I hear.

 

[pioneerguy600]

I always use either fresh, high octane mix or stabilised fuel, and when I took the saw in for a new AV damper the dealer took about 30 minutes out the back setting it up "Just perfect" - I heard him cutting with it! He knows his old saws.
Apologies for asking a question that's probably been answered before a million times - I really like this saw, and would hate to damage it with the wrong mix, so I thought I should ask - thanks all for being patient with a newbie!

You are doing great for a newbie, be patient and you are correct in that the oil questions have been asked on here probably more times than any other question. These guys like to have a little fun with newbies but they are a great bunch of slightly crusty fellows with a lot of knowledge concerning engines. It is a good practice to wait for several replies and then read between the lines and weigh the results against common sense, then you should be good to go.Ask all the questions you want and as far as I myself am concerned there really is no questions that should not be asked. If you are not sure about something then ask away, the ribbing will not cost as much as not asking and doing something not correct.
Pioneerguy600

 

[Brushwacker]

I use 25 to 1 in everything. When I buy oil for my chainsaws its for air cooled engines is the main thing I look for and I aim to avoid generic looking lables . I don't pay the premium price but if I did I wouldn't feel comfortable at 50 to 1 even though it seems to work fine for many people. I run mostly saws that have a lot of hours on them and I am very confident I get way more help then anything from that mixture(compression and less friction,less wear,less heat). What ever ratio you use make sure everything is in tune , correct carb adjustment and don't run it with a clogged air filter or 1 with a hole in it. At that carbon should be very little to no problem, very little to almost no smoke ( I see very, very little difference when running 50 to 1, mainly at warm up after choking it. ) If things are not adjusted and tuned right carbon build up may be significantly more at the heaviar mixture, I just haven't seen it in my saws at 25 to 1, years ago at 16 to 1 I needed to clean the exhaust port once in a while and all the saws seemed to smoke some but the oil burns cleaner these days and myself haven't had the problems the oil critics tell me I'll have and I have put more then several hundred hours on some of the saws I had over my career. My new Makita has been drinking it, one of these days I want to pull the muffler , do a mod and see what it looks like. I don't expect any significant build up .

 

[PatrickIreland]

I'm happy to take the ribbing, it all comes with the knowledge!
I'm looking a little crusty myself, at the minute - trying to drive my boss insane.
Every few days he'll remark that I could do with a shave - "Nah, I'm growing a beard".
Then a few days later I do shave and he says "I thought you were growing a beard?"
"Nah, I changed my mind."
Repeat ad finitum. He can't really complain, he has a beard...:greenchainsaw:

You are doing great for a newbie, be patient and you are correct in that the oil questions have been asked on here probably more times than any other question. These guys like to have a little fun with newbies but they are a great bunch of slightly crusty fellows with a lot of knowledge concerning engines. It is a good practice to wait for several replies and then read between the lines and weigh the results against common sense, then you should be good to go.Ask all the questions you want and as far as I myself am concerned there really is no questions that should not be asked. If you are not sure about something then ask away, the ribbing will not cost as much as not asking and doing something not correct.
Pioneerguy600

 

[cedarfarms]

"bottle label color" ?

black of course!

good old guinness ...

 

[cedarfarms]

not sure what mix you should use tho ..

 

[PatrickIreland]

not sure what mix you should use tho ..

12:1 is standard - pints to person.