2-stroke 50:1 in a 4-stroke

[antifreeze]

During the winter months, after the mower deck comes off and the snow blade goes on, I make a habit of burning last season's boat gas in my old Wheel Horse (15 hp B&S). The old horse smokes a little on startup but runs strong pushing snow with the oily fuel. I'm about to take delivery of a new GR2020 (20 hp Kohler) and put the old horse out to pasture. Am I hurting or helping the 4-strokes with this practice? Should I break this habit with my new Kohler?

 

[MagKarl]

I burn mix gas in my mowers with no problem. I don't do it in my vehicles with catalytic converters.

 

[Wild and Free]

Other than a fouled plug once in a while, it should be ok if you do it every other tank or so.

One of the best things for diesels pre DPF systems is about a 200:1 roughly 1 quart to 20-25 gallons of fuel mix of 2 stroke oil in the fuel to keep the fuel system lubed up nice plus it lowers the cetane rating and makes for a slower more efficient burn for more power and better fuel economy and a quieter less pinging diesel engine.

 

[Stumpy]

Yep. In the fall I dump the remaining the weed whacker and leaf blower gas into the 5 gal tank of our mower and then fill it up. It's started every spring and runs just fine. I doubt it really hurts or helps anything. Two stroke oil is designed to burn ashlessly so spark plug fowling shouldn't be an issue, at least I've never had a problem with it.

 

[hodge]

Other than a fouled plug once in a while, it should be ok if you do it every other tank or so.

One of the best things for diesels pre DPF systems is about a 200:1 roughly 1 quart to 20-25 gallons of fuel mix of 2 stroke oil in the fuel to keep the fuel system lubed up nice plus it lowers the cetane rating and makes for a slower more efficient burn for more power and better fuel economy and a quieter less pinging diesel engine.

I wouldn't do it frequently, especially on a newer engine. The burning oil leaves deposits on the valves, in the chamber, on the plug. It may run ok, by why risk the warranty on the new engine to use up some old gas?

As far as cetane, I thought the opposite was true- the higher the cetane, the better. The cetane rating has to do with the speed of the combustion rate, and higher is better for a more complete burn. My Cummins certainly prefers 48 cetane over 40.



Cetane number or CN is a measure of a fuel's ignition delay, the time period between the start of injection and the first identifiable pressure increase during combustion of the fuel. In a particular diesel engine, higher cetane fuels will have shorter ignition delay periods than lower cetane fuels. Cetane numbers are only used for the relatively light distillate diesel oils. For heavy (residual) fuel oil two other scales are used CCAI and CII.

In short, the higher the cetane number the more easily the fuel will combust in a compression setting (such as a diesel engine). The characteristic diesel "knock" occurs when the first portion of fuel that has been injected into the cylinder suddenly ignites after an initial delay (once ignition occurs, all the remaining fuel burns smoothly as it leaves the injector nozzle). Minimizing this delay results in less unburned fuel in the cylinder at the beginning and less intense knock. Therefore higher-cetane fuel usually causes an engine to run more smoothly and quietly. This does not necessarily translate into greater efficiency, although it may in certain engines.

 

[Apogee]

It won't hurt anything to burn the 50-1 mix unless your new mower has a catalytic converter on it. You might ask the dealer as many of the new units are coming with them.

If it does have one, you wouldn't want to burn the 2-stroke mix in it. It won't hurt the engine, but would ruin the converter.

 

[Wild and Free]

I wouldn't do it frequently, especially on a newer engine. The burning oil leaves deposits on the valves, in the chamber, on the plug. It may run ok, by why risk the warranty on the new engine to use up some old gas?

As far as cetane, I thought the opposite was true- the higher the cetane, the better. The cetane rating has to do with the speed of the combustion rate, and higher is better for a more complete burn. My Cummins certainly prefers 48 cetane over 40.



Cetane number or CN is a measure of a fuel's ignition delay, the time period between the start of injection and the first identifiable pressure increase during combustion of the fuel. In a particular diesel engine, higher cetane fuels will have shorter ignition delay periods than lower cetane fuels. Cetane numbers are only used for the relatively light distillate diesel oils. For heavy (residual) fuel oil two other scales are used CCAI and CII.

In short, the higher the cetane number the more easily the fuel will combust in a compression setting (such as a diesel engine). The characteristic diesel "knock" occurs when the first portion of fuel that has been injected into the cylinder suddenly ignites after an initial delay (once ignition occurs, all the remaining fuel burns smoothly as it leaves the injector nozzle). Minimizing this delay results in less unburned fuel in the cylinder at the beginning and less intense knock. Therefore higher-cetane fuel usually causes an engine to run more smoothly and quietly. This does not necessarily translate into greater efficiency, although it may in certain engines.

Here is a link with several articles explaining everything from cetane to lubricity engine noise performance ect ect.

http://articles.mopar1973man.com/general-cummins/36-fuel-system?limitstart=0

There is a ton of research and info here, Happy reading.

 

[motorhead]

I would not do it until the engine is broke in. You need a little extra friction on break in to seat rings and other parts. Two stroke oil is the best to use later as it is designed to burn and leave low deposits. I have a 5.9 Cummins diesel in my '07 Dodge truck and when I tow hard I use the 200 to 1 ratio. It actually runs smoother and my mileage improves a little.

 

[dmanlyr]

I use what I can find out of old boat tanks and such in my C600 dump - at 3mpg, it happily slurps it all up!

David

 

[hodge]

Here is a link with several articles explaining everything from cetane to lubricity engine noise performance ect ect.

http://articles.mopar1973man.com/general-cummins/36-fuel-system?limitstart=0

There is a ton of research and info here, Happy reading.

Several articles, from one source (moparman). I spent some time searching links on google, and found about as many expert opinions as I did articles, all of them as official looking as moparmans. So, I will buy my fuel by the judgement of my foot- 48 cetane makes my Cummins run better, and my fuel mileage is higher.

 

[Wild and Free]

The military has done many years of research and they too use two stroke oil in their diesel fuel, a lot of Mopars info came from government and military studies as well as scientific testing sources. Very little is his info he just sourced it from other places as an ongoing study for many years.

Everyone has different ways of thinking and judging, I do not use it myself either but do see the benefits and drawbacks as I have used cetane boosters on my 3 Cummins Rams over the years and all of them had negative effects, I did use old engine oil and did see benefits similar to 2-stroke oil while doing that versus adding cetane.

You have a good ol 12 valve Cummins which is the most bullet proof and troublefree fuel system there was, but if you had a newer 24v or CR Cummins the 2-stroke has extended the life of many pumps and injectors versus straight fuel.