Wrong mix in chainsaw?

[Lloyd H]

32 x 1

I run 32 to 1 in everything with no problems, my attitude is if it wont live on 32 to 1 it ain't much of a saw

 

[Mike Van]

What Lloyd said - I don't own a saw made after 1980 or so - But 32/1 shouldn't hurt anything except the bug population. Dump it out, put your regular mix in & saw on -

 

[mantis]

I always run it rich in the summer.Keeps the bugs at bay.It wont hurt anything,and probably help it in the long run.It was probably bad gas that caused it

 

[Orange Hill]

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.

Hey I am a mellow guy and I am not here to ruffle feathers, so if I come off that way just know that is not my style.

You are correct in your ratio. Richness when referring to jetting is the relationship of the air and fuel mixture in the combustion mixture; as you jet for fuel not oil. The purpose of the oil in the premix is lubrication not combustion; it does burn but but not completely and may even inhibit combustion to a small degree like green wood to a fire. There is energy there but it takes energy to release it. Also the more oil in the premix the higher the premix viscosity and the more resistant it is to flow though the jets orifices in the carb. So again it is leaning the mixture a small percentage by reduced flow at a given vacuum level and you are moving a bit further away from a ideal stoichiometric air/fuel ratio of 14.7:1. So if you think about it you can have two different oils mixed at the same ratios but have them jet differently to a small degree if they are of a different viscosity.

Have you ever seen a guy put a new carb on his car and foul his plugs because it was too rich? There was no premix used yet his plugs fouled because the mix was rich meaning he had too much gas to be completely burned with the available oxygen. I use to ride dirtbikes with a guy that brought a small bottle of 2 stroke oil with him to add to the tank to lean his mix out a bit when we hit the higher altitudes, we just carried extra plugs as our bikes got too rich. I was afraid of toasting my engine when we were back at lower altitudes. His bike did run better then ours at the higher altitude because more oil leaned out his air/fuel mixture.

All of that said you can run a saw a bit leaner when you have more oil in the mixture because of the quenching effect of the oil and the increased lubrication available to protect the piston and cylinder. That is part of the reason why I keep my 2 stroke dirtbikes at 40:1 even though I could run them at 50:1 with a good quality synthetic but I would have to rejet my bikes more often.

 

[egoaway]

Orangehill great post

I learned alot from your post about how carberators work. But when I am refering to a gas can I would say "Hand me that rich mix (32:1) can for the mcullah or hand me that lean mix(50:1) for the Husqvarna or Stihl. That way my employee won't get confused and put 50:1 mix in the cheap saw. but now I know that its the oppisite when refering to how the carb is running.

If you ever wondered what a very rich running saw (242xp) will do. I came back from vacation and forget my gas can had no 2 stroke oil in it. Well my saw ran too good and got through almost a full tank of straight gas before it died. I miss that saw. Had the best power to weight ratio.

 

[K7NUT]

Great post, I learned alot.
Thanks for the info

 

[AIM]

Crush: Very good explanation of things. Even helped me figure out a few things about my little airplane engines.

The common rule here is to run a higher oil content if you want your engine to run cooler. The belief is that the unburned oil will exit the exhaust carrying heat with it. I can't say that this is scientifically correct but it does seem to work. The whole viscosity thing explains a lot about why I have to fuss with them when I change fuels.

 

[Dalmatian90]

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?

Unless my math is wrong...

51 ounces of 50:1 = 50 ounces gas, 1 ounce oil

51 ounces of 32:1 = 49.4 ounces gas, 1.6 ounces oil

1 U.S. Gallon = 128 ounces.

 

[mantis]

Unless my math is wrong...

51 ounces of 50:1 = 50 ounces gas, 1 ounce oil

51 ounces of 32:1 = 49.4 ounces gas, 1.6 ounces oil

1 U.S. Gallon = 128 ounces.

Or 32 oz. gas+1 oz. oil

 

[Octane]

As the others said, you didnt hurt a thing by running 32:1 in it. If your saw ran that bad, Id say it was either mixed much richer than that or it was old gas.
Either way, as long as it runs good now, I wouldnt worry about it.

 

[xcr440]

Sounds like bad or water in the gas versus too much oil. I run all my 2 stroke stuff at 32:1.

 

[KD57]

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.

Very true.

 

[mga]

driving to my first job one morning to service a furnace, i happen to see some junk by the side of the street. i stopped the van to check it out and grabbed a leaf blower they were throwing out and threw it in the back of the company van.

i brought it home and tried to start it...the damn thing had oil oozing out of the muffler. so, i drained the gas out and put my own mixture in and cleaned the plug. two pulls later the thing fired up and ran like a charm once the old oil was gone and burnt out.

people don't know how to mix oil and gas. their loss...my gain of a nice homelite blower.

 

[LANNY]

I too put bar oil in gas tank, to make a long story short, changed plug, fuel filter, and cleaned carb before it would run, still ornery for a couple of tanks.....Lanny