Originally Posted by
Roelof
While synthetics are doing best things in real cars I have not seen any good fuel based on only synthetic oils. Yes, there are many fuels with a good performance but most of them give a bad lifespan on engine and bearings. To me the best fuels are the onse with a combination of synthetic and castor, but only that. Some fuels lower the real oils and add some low friction stuff like teflon based oils to it, again they do perform very well but if you want to get the best lifespan of an engine they are not the best choice.
Most people do indeed add 1 or 2% castor oil to their fuel when they know it has an 8 or 9% oil content as most top onroad fuels have. Adding 1% dus not hurt the performance to those who are not running at the top but does add a significant lifespan.
There is synthetic oils out there that is really good, but as you say, the best is usually a combination for these engines.
Additives is great if they are used right, your daily driver wouldn't get far if you only used a base oil, but it needs to be done right.
Originally Posted by
SlowLST2
I have been and still am a huge advocate of castor oil. I’ve run blends and even straight 12% castor. There’s very little difference between 12% castor and 6% castor/6% synthetic. Castor oil is a HUGE benefit for ringless engines. Some guys just don’t get the clue and run a high synthetic fuel. Then they wonder why they wear out quickly. PAG and even POE oils work for their intended purpose, but internal combustion - a little less so.
It's a big difference between running in the backyard and racing, as well as what oils you ran. If I remember correctly you use straight castor and Klotz Techniplate only, and that can explain a lot.
Both PAG and Ester (POE is just one of several Ester families, and there are thousands of different formulated Esters depending on their purpose), can be great for our engines as they can reduce friction compared to castor oil. But even PAG used for RC fuel has shown that some reduce friction by around 50% compared to others in tests, so it's completely impossible to say that they are all bad based on one or two tested oils.
Originally Posted by
SlowLST2
You’re preaching to the choir to me on oils. I’ve done a lot of research and testing on oils. Not as much as some, but enough to know that refrigerant oils have no place in internal combustion engines IMVHO. Those oils were never designed or intended for internal combustion. In fact, they were designed for use in environments with NO AIR. So oxidation, hygroscopy, and unzipping is a real problem with them.
PAG oils was developed as a less flammable hydraulic oil during WW2, after that they have been adapted for many purposes (usually food and textile industry, and metal working). They can be formulated for a huge variety of purposes, and it's not like we buried a bunch of dinosaurs several million years ago just so we could make mineral oil to lubricate and fuel stuff, humans adapt things through tests and development to work with our needs.
Oxidation isn't a big problem for a 2 stroke engine, and if you want to see what it really looks like you should try some castor oil in an engine that runs mineral based oils like a car or lawn mover, lets just say there is a reason why they print not to mix it on all castor based lubricant.
PAG is made in both water solvable and non water solvable versions, but that's not the whole story as it's a matter of how the water is held and some PAG oils is good for protecting against corrosion, methanol isn't exactly free of any charges when it comes to hygroscopic tendencies either.