fire_N_ice said:
1) How do I tell how old my "41" is? It was a hand me down, my Father to my brother, and I have had it for the last 5 years.
Only way I can think of is to see if you can find a serial number and talk to your Stihl dealer, or possibly the folks on arboristsite... Generally most products can match s/n's to production date. If you still have any EPA or other such stickers, that might give you a "earlier than" date, as it would be hard for a saw to certify compliance with a standard made after the saw was produced...
2) With the new age of synthetic 2 stroke oils, will using any name brand synthetic at 50:1 hurt my old saw? I here these keep the engine cooler, and better lubricated.
Everything I've heard suggests that you can use the new oils at 50-1 w/ no problems other than possibly needing to adjust your carb a touch... Only "gotcha" I've heard from a few people (including some that sold the stuff) is a suggestion to make the switch gradually - start by mixing 50-50 dino pre-mix and synthetic, then gradually increase the %age of synthetic... The reason given was that the synthetic would burn cleaner and tend to break loose any built up carbon deposits in the cylinder. If the switch was made all at once, the chunks might come off in big enough bits to cause problems with the rings, but by mixing the old and new fuels, and doing a gradual shift, you could get a more gradual cleaning and less risk of big bits breaking loose and causing problems.... I don't know if it's true or not, but seems to me like it wouldn't hurt anything to do it that way (It is what I've been doing lately)
3)When using a name brand regular 2 cycle oil other then Husqvarna, should I go 50:1 or more oil say 40:1?
As long as it's a good brand name oil that is rated with the proper "alphabet soup" for modern chainsaw engines I would go 50-1 (and wouldn't use any other sort of oil in less than emergency situations) - my personal choice is the little "one-shot" bottles to mix with a gallon of gas, with a chainsaw maker's branding on them - lately I've been using the Echo synthetic blend. I figure one gallon of gas is an amount I'm likely to use before it goes bad, but that is just me. If I was doing a LOT of cutting, I'd probably go to getting more at a time. The one-shots cost more, but I figure that at the volume I use, the extra "idiot proofing" you get from the one shot is worth the slight extra cost.
4) (a) If the oil contains a fuel stabilizer. . . What does that mean?
It means the oil was mixed with some equivalent of "Sta-bil" in the appropriate ratio for the designated amount of gas. It is something that I look for, and won't purchase oil that doesn't have it. My feeling is that if the oil maker put it in, I can be reasonably certain that it is going to be compatible with everything else that goes into the can, and that it is something that will probably work, and at least not do any harm... (If not I've got one less company to complain about...) Besides, it doesn't cost any extra - at least the place where I get my oil charges the same for brands with the stabilizer and without....
(b) does it give life to gasoline beyond the @4 week life of gasoline, and how many months?
It is claimed that this will bump the life of the mix into the 6-12 month range, even w/ E-10
(c) Do I not use a seperate fuel stablizer that is suppose to make my gas last up to a year?
I don't... I haven't seen anything that would make me think that overdosing with added stabilizer will do any good, so why waste the money?
The other thing I do is spend the extra to get "brand name" (Shell, Exxon, Mobil, etc) gas in the highest octane they sell - again don't know that it makes a lot of difference, but it makes me feel better about what I'm putting in my saw...
Gooserider
