Good idea of bad idea?

[Two-Stroke]

Nothing gets me in better shape than breathing heavy behind my hydrocarbon-beltching Lawn-Boys! (-: I always come in after bagging grass on a hot, sticky day, smelling like a refinery industrial accident. But I wouldn't have it any other way, because I, too, consider it good exercise. And I DO love my Lawn-Boys!! I wouldn't speak for anyone else; but for ME, yes, I am crazy!!

I can't tell if you're kidding but once the mower is warmed up there shouldn't be any smell. If your mower is "belching" it's probably out of tune... and using too much gas as well as spewing hydrocarbons. :thumbdown:

On Saturday night I mowed for about three hours -- temperatures in the mid- to lower-50s (F) -- and a beautiful full moon. I almost didn't need the 900 lumen headlamp I was wearing.

 

[bwright1818]

Yeah, I'm kidding....but I'm not kidding.....I tune my mowers by the exact Lawn Boy Mechanic's hand book procedure, so I know they're running as lean as is safe to do. I do use 24:1 oil mix, though. (TCW-3 Merccury premium plus oil, and my ports always seem to be fine when I look at them.) There ARE some days, when I come in after mowing and have a pretty strong smell from the exhaust on my clothes and skin. This is mostly when I bag, and the exhaust is shooting straight at me. They don't really "beltch;" but, on the other hand, there is a reason two strokes are becoming more phased out. I suppose that, if I were a good citizen of the earth, I wouldn't use them. But I was running two stroke mowers and outboard motors before I could drive. And I have made my living in the marine business for almost 40 years now, so me and OMC have a connection that runs deep in the soul. (For better or worse!) So I'm gonna keep mowing with Lawn Boys, mild smell or not, until they take the pull cord from my cold, dead hands.

For the record, I have been around plenty of 4-stroke mowers that have left almost the same smell on my clothes and skin. So mowing for exercise may not be the smartest thing for me to do. But I do it anyway.

 

[impalass]

Yeah, I'm kidding....but I'm not kidding.....I tune my mowers by the exact Lawn Boy Mechanic's hand book procedure, so I know they're running as lean as is safe to do. I do use 24:1 oil mix, though. (TCW-3 Merccury premium plus oil, and my ports always seem to be fine when I look at them.) There ARE some days, when I come in after mowing and have a pretty strong smell from the exhaust on my clothes and skin. This is mostly when I bag, and the exhaust is shooting straight at me. They don't really "beltch;" but, on the other hand, there is a reason two strokes are becoming more phased out. I suppose that, if I were a good citizen of the earth, I wouldn't use them. But I was running two stroke mowers and outboard motors before I could drive. And I have made my living in the marine business for almost 40 years now, so me and OMC have a connection that runs deep in the soul. (For better or worse!) So I'm gonna keep mowing with Lawn Boys, mild smell or not, until they take the pull cord from my cold, dead hands.

For the record, I have been around plenty of 4-stroke mowers that have left almost the same smell on my clothes and skin. So mowing for exercise may not be the smartest thing for me to do. But I do it anyway.

24:1 is on the rich side for lawn boys built after the 1970s and you can do harm to the piston as the mixture in the cylinder is not being burned properly resulting in a lean mixture.
lawn boy recommends 32:1 and i use a 2 stroke synthetic oil at a ratio of 36:1 and the spark plug is a brown color.

http://classicmotorcycles.about.com/od/technicaltips/a/MotorcycleCarburationRichAndLeanMixtures.htm

 

[robinb66]

24:1 is on the rich side for lawn boys built after the 1970s and you can do harm to the piston as the mixture in the cylinder is not being burned properly resulting in a lean mixture.
lawn boy recommends 32:1 and i use a 2 stroke synthetic oil at a ratio of 36:1 and the spark plug is a brown color.

Motorcycle carburetion – Rich and Lean Mixtures

I agree but you also have to remember lubrication technology has advanced to awesome proportions over the last 20 years and what we have to deal with now far surpasses what we had and allows us to mix ratio's that we would never have dreamed about using then with no harm!!!!

 

[WhyZed]

I agree too,
24:1 is lean (gas to air mixture) and is not doing your top end any favors. The more oil you put in your mixture, the less gas is on your mixture.
It is not doing your wallet, lungs or performance any favors either.
New oils or old oils is fine, as long as they are high quality, low or no ash oils and 32:1 or 40:1 or even higher is all good.

The only way to know, truly know, if the oils you choose to run are lubricating enough is to actually open up your engine and check.

I ride a 125 and a 250 2 stroke race MX bikes and I open them up often. 40:1 mixtures are lubricating those high strung, high rpm race engines just fine. :thumbsup:

 

[Two-Stroke]

I agree but you also have to remember lubrication technology has advanced to awesome proportions over the last 20 years and what we have to deal with now far surpasses what we had and allows us to mix ratio's that we would never have dreamed about using then with no harm!!!!

You nailed it, robinb66. :thumbsup:

That change in oil technology has transformed two-cycle engines to where they don't need to be smokey and smelly (although those smells do bring back fine memories for me.) You can use less oil in the fuel ( I run 50:1 without any problems) and the oil itself burns more completely. So the engine shouldn't spew smoke once its warmed up.

It's a shame that this thread got diverted to what has become the endless debate among two-cycle engine fans: what ratio to mix fuel and oil. :laughing: