Originally Posted by
SlowLST2
While mostly all true, there are not many oils miscible in methanol that are suitable for our engines. Probably the biggest issue - aside from the corrosive properties of many pay oils when moisture is present - is film strength. The typical oils we have available are adequate for toy engines, provided they’re operated within the limits of the oils. If these synthetics were “up to snuff” to handle all of the loads imposed on it, then there’d be no need for castor anymore. The fact that so many people see such a marked difference when using a castor/synthetic blend - and more castor than synthetic - is poignant because it clearly shows that the synthetics lack somewhere that castor does not. For those of us in the United States, we don’t have as many options as you do in the EU. We are stuck using lower quality oils because the better stuff is either unobtanium or freakishly expensive. There has to be a balance. While racing does involve different stresses that bashing does not, there are as many that bashing does that Racing does not. Every application has different lubrication needs, so again, it’s all about balance.
I did obtain some old Fuchs Aerosave and Motul Micro 2T and tested a little bit, but Motul is a PAG base. Not a significant difference in operating temperatures (a good indicator) or performance. SPL Avenger is a POE base, and is touted as a very good oil, but I haven’t tried it yet. FWIW - the Aerosave and Motul oils are over $80 per US Gallon. That cost factor is a major reason why US fuel manufacturers don’t use it. PAG is dirt cheap by comparison. Used in a blend with castor, it works fine, to a point.
There are to many variables to just use one oil or just a base oil, castor oil isn't better than synthetics when it comes to certain points, and the same goes for synthetics. There is no need to pick one camp, and certainly not in this case, a correct mix of the two will be better than any of the two alone.
Good oils cost money, yes, but this isn't the 50's when everything needed 20% castor oil to work. There are a lot of people here that uses 5% for airplanes with no ill effects, and for racing cars some have used less than that with full synthetic (but at that point it's not about caring about anything else then keeping it alive until the race is over). We have a lot of oils here that is far worse than the usual American oils, and if you do your homework you will see that the actual cost isn't that bad as you don't need to use as much oil, there is only so much space that can have oil in-between so fill it with something good.
Aerosave (PAG oil) was developed as an after run oil, it's really crappy for anything performance oriented as is the Motul Micro. For flying they might work, but they need to be used in Really moderate percentage.
The difference between the fuels that people use now and what is possible to obtain would create a lot of problems for many as they tune in a very different way, so the one question is if any company would be willing to spend more money on development (though I doubt some of them is spending anything right now either) and the product just to have a bunch of people complaining about how hard it is to tune the engine. It's clear that people usually isn't willing to rethink and try something out of their comfort zone, and even pro's have problems with tuning as it is...