2 vs 4 stroke glow fuel

Ted shuffled out of his cave and grunted these great (and sometimes not so great) words of knowledge:

USUALLY, that is all it is, HOWEVER, a lot of 4 stroke fuels are all synthetic oils. They say that castor oil will mess up the valves in a 4 stroke. I don't know. My Saito 72 is 3 years old and has about 2 gallons of 10% nitro with a synthetic/castor mix through it. I have had no problems at all.

I use the same fuel for both my 2 strokes and 4 strokes. I usually run Byron's 10%, however recently I was given 4 gallons of 15% Cool Power, so I have been running that.

Yes, you can mix them, but I wouldn't. If you are going to mix them, I presume at least one of the jugs has been in use for a while. If the fuel in either jug has picked up water, you will be ruining all of the fuel. For storage, I would keep the jug tightly capped and in a cool environment (basement, etc ). If it is kept well sealed and cool, fuel should last several years (or more).

Byron's fuel out of Ida Grove told me that their 2 & 4 cycle fuel wa

the same, that they did was just put it in a different jug because som people wouldn't buy it if didn't say 4 cycle if that's the engine the had, I've burned their 2 cycle fuel in my OS 4 strokes for 1 yr's.without any problems or failures ahd I'm not good abou winterstorage or the use of after run oil. Garr

-- sandburr@fmctc.

----------------------------------------------------------------------- snipped-for-privacy@fmctc.c's Profile:

I've done a bit of reading about this topic. Conventional wisdom holds that fuel for 4-stroke engines should be 100% synthetic oil instead of Castor oil or a blend of synthetic and Castor oil. Conventional wisdom says that Castor oil can cause excessive build-up in 4-stroke motors.

This conventional wisdom flies in the face of the recommended fuel by most every major 4-stroke engine manufacturer:

Magnum recommends 20% Castor oil for break-in and 16% or more pure Castor after break-in. A partial blend of Castor oil is required for warranty coverage for Magnum 4-strokes.

Thunder Tiger's recommendations aren't listed on Ace Hobby's website, but Tower Hobbies' tech notes mention that 2-stroke fuel is recommended for Thunder Tiger 4-stroke engines, and not 4-stroke fuel.

O.S. doesn't require Castor oil, but it doesn't forbid it either. O.S. only recommends fuel with 18% or greater lubricant content. Synthetic, Castor, or a synthetic/Castor blend may be used. O.S. does note that certain

Like O.S., the folks at YS don't forbid or demand Castor oil. Synthetic, Castor, or blended lubricant can be used. YS recommends 20% to 24% lubricant content, however. Like O.S., YS recommends avoiding 4-stroke fuel with less than 20% lubricant content.

Of all of the major 4-stroke engine manufacturers that I checked, only Saito specifically recommended synthetic lubricants over Castor oil. Saito also recommends at least 20% lubricant content, and a mix of synthetic-castor oil is acceptable.

When actual manufacturers' recommendations are examined, in almost all cases the following parameters apply:

Is there a universal fuel? Sure! A fuel with 10% to 15% nitro and 20% synthetic/castor blend lubrication will work with almost any 2-stroke or

Ed,

Thank you for your informative post. Your delivery was fantastic too, btw : )).

CJ

Nice (accurate) analysis Ed - congrats :-)