Wrong mix in chainsaw?

[Jimfound]

A little embarassed but here it is. Was cutting with my 361. Ran out of gas and friend told me he had mix - no need to run back to my house. Filled up the tank and the 361 was hard to start. Started it for a second or two, and then it conked out on me. Oh crap I thought....

My guess is he had a 32:1 mix intead of 50:1. Didn't get q chace to verify that yet. He was not running his saw. Anyway, I dumped what was in the tank and refilled with 50:1. The saw started after much coaxing and then smoked like a SOB. Let a full tank run through before shutting her down for the night.

Question is, how bad off is the saw. Potentially no damage and just need to burn some oil off or...what do you guys think? Thought I would post here instead of chainsaw thread cause this is where I visit when I'm on the site.

Thanks for your feedback. :stupid:

 

[gilraine]

more oil than needed is much better than not enough.. if it was really heavy, pull the plug, clean or replace it and try again..

 

[AOD]

Shouldn't be any damage from too much oil. Worst case is it might smoke a bit or foul a plug. Run a few tanks of good stuff through it, making sure to do some WOT cutting in some bigger stuff and you should be fine.

 

[willsaw4beer]

Your saw will be fine if it was just too rich of oil mix. Hopefully it was not old/ bad gas, that could have been a bit hard on the piston/cyl. You'll most likely be fine, do as others have advised you.

 

[dingeryote]

The only possible damage would be from running a smidge lean.

For just a few seconds it ain't gonna hurt nothin'.

Clean off the plug, fill her up with your normal Mix, and go cut some wood.

On the off chance your bud had straight Gas in his Mix can, you could pull the Muffler and eyeball the piston.

It just depends on how much it bugs ya not knowing I guess.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

 

[Jimfound]

Thanks guys.

 

[WidowMaker]

it's a 361, it'll heal itself...

 

[doorstop]

Gee, I run 10:1 in the Mall - - - don't have any bugs around either . . . .

 

[K7NUT]

Question is, how bad off is the saw.
Thanks for your feedback. :stupid:

You may be screwed, big time!
My advice to you would be, send it to me and I will do my best to revive it for you. However, the testing might take a few years, to be sure!
:hmm3grin2orange::hmm3grin2orange::hmm3grin2orange:

 

[Coldfront]

You think that's embarrassing, a couple years ago on an old Homelite I filled gas in the bar oil res. and bar oil in the gas tank, couldn't figure out why it wouldn't start and took it to a local saw repair. On those saws the gas tank was in the front closest to bar, and the oil tank was toward the back of the saw toward hand hold, just the opposite of all my other saws. Talk about feeling dumb.
And Btw it didn't hurt the saw any, after he drained and refilled both tanks he said he killed all the mosquito's in the neighborhood with smoke but the saw runs good.

 

[Orange Hill]

The only possible damage would be from running a smidge lean.

For just a few seconds it ain't gonna hurt nothin'.

Clean off the plug, fill her up with your normal Mix, and go cut some wood.

On the off chance your bud had straight Gas in his Mix can, you could pull the Muffler and eyeball the piston.

It just depends on how much it bugs ya not knowing I guess.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote

:agree2:


I notice that people call 32:1 a richer mixture then 50:1 and it isn't, it's leaner. It is leaner because per unit of fuel there is less fuel and more oil making a leaner air/fuel ratio. You can foul a plug with oil even if the afr is too lean.

 

[Andyshine77]

The difference between 50:1 and 32:1 isn't large enough to really cause any carb jetting or smoke problems. I would say your friends mix probably had more oil in it than he thought. Hill you're not entirely correct on this one. Much of the oil gets burnt in the combustion process along with the fuel, and as we know oil has energy in it as well. The difference between 50:1 and 32:1 is very minimal..

Andy.

 

[thejdman04]

No problems, just run it hard and hot, burn off the carbon etc, you might have to clean out the screan in the muffler but other then that no problems (the spark arrestor screan.

 

[Labman]

The Stihl dealer told the guy I worked for at the time his Stihl burned up on him because he was running 32:1 instead of 50:1. Stihl was selling the same size bottles for both, the 50:1 bottles were just part full.

Of course, this was the same guy that burned up 3 weedeaters on the can of gas he forgot to put any oil in at all.

 

[Jimfound]

You think that's embarrassing, a couple years ago on an old Homelite I filled gas in the bar oil res. and bar oil in the gas tank, couldn't figure out why it wouldn't start and took it to a local saw repair. On those saws the gas tank was in the front closest to bar, and the oil tank was toward the back of the saw toward hand hold, just the opposite of all my other saws. Talk about feeling dumb.
And Btw it didn't hurt the saw any, after he drained and refilled both tanks he said he killed all the mosquito's in the neighborhood with smoke but the saw runs good.

aahaha...great story...thanks for sharing that one!

 

[Jimfound]

You may be screwed, big time!
My advice to you would be, send it to me and I will do my best to revive it for you. However, the testing might take a few years, to be sure!
:hmm3grin2orange::hmm3grin2orange::hmm3grin2orange:

Send me your address...I'll send it right out...

 

[AIM]

I notice that people call 32:1 a richer mixture then 50:1 and it isn't, it's leaner. It is leaner because per unit of fuel there is less fuel and more oil making a leaner air/fuel ratio.

Ok you lost me... I've always thought that 32:1 was richer than 50:1
Isn't kinda like 32 parts gas to every one part oil?
I'm just asking not arguing.

 

[rtrsam]

You think that's embarrassing, a couple years ago on an old Homelite I filled gas in the bar oil res. and bar oil in the gas tank, couldn't figure out why it wouldn't start and took it to a local saw repair. On those saws the gas tank was in the front closest to bar, and the oil tank was toward the back of the saw toward hand hold, just the opposite of all my other saws. Talk about feeling dumb.
And Btw it didn't hurt the saw any, after he drained and refilled both tanks he said he killed all the mosquito's in the neighborhood with smoke but the saw runs good.

I had a similar thing happen to me, except I wasn't the one who did the pouring, I got to fix it. Shindaiwa 360 (little tiny saw), it would sort of halfway run with the choke half pulled and full throttle, and smoked like crazy. I was puzzled as could be. Had the bar and chain pulled off and was sitting there letting it beller along... and I noticed the bar oil was looking awfully thin as it squirted out of the port. Sniffed it, it smelled like gas. Someone had mis-poured when the tank was about half full. Just dumped out the offensive mix and re-filled properly, no harm no foul.

For what it's worth, I ran all 25:1 in everything for many years, brushcutters, drills, all brands of saws. Probably had to replace the plugs a little more often, and once in a blue moon had to remove and burn off a spark arrester screen, other than that, it worked great.

Used to buy 2-stroke oil in 55 gallon drums. Once we had a drum of red oil. Next drum was green oil (colors to permit you to identify mixed fuel). As we were transitioning from red to green, our mix had sort of a black color to it. Again, no worries, just looked nasty. You had to really know that this was actually good fuel mix and not some sort of used crankcase oil.

 

[mikefunaro]

I generally think its good practice not to get mix from anyone else, unless they share the same "aficion" for chainsaws.

 

[Raymond]

That's why under no circumstances do I use other peoples gas. I help a lot of wanna be tree guys around here often.

And they always try and get me to use their gas. They think I'm nuts for using my own...but I see the empty lawn boy bottles in the back of the truck.

Got another one for ya...
Years ago I went to my local Stihl dealer to get a few things. One of them was STIHL two cycle oil. The only thing the had at the time was the cute little bottles of oil, for a gallon mix.
Not a problem I put 2 in my gas can and only put 2 gallons of gas in the can right?
Then before it was used up the STIHL guys had a shipment come in and I bought the regular 2.5 gallon mix.
Putting the little bottles behind the seat for back up one day.

Then it happened months later...Had a somewhat new guy helping me.
We needed gas I told him the oil was behind the seat..forgetting all about the little bottles back there.

In the corner of my eye while sharping a saw I somewhat watched him put the oil in the can and later stopped and put in the 2.5 gals of fuel.

Few minutes after I'm in the tree my saw seems like it's locking up. Then I look down and I see his saw seems to be locking up.
I'm thinking...now I no damn well I seen him put the oil in the gas can this morning.

Yeah I threw the last 3 bottles away.