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TCW in air cooled power equipment???

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bobbyc

Advanced Contributor
I went to mix some oil and gas for my 2 cycle, air cooled snowblower. The only oil I could find was this older bottle of Sunoco 2 cycle TCW. The container says it can be used in both air and water cooled engines. Up until reading the label, I had believed that TCW was for water cooled engines only. Any thoughts or additional information would be appreciated.2 cycle oil.jpg
 
Outboard motors work alot harder than air cooled two strokes. The only real difference is the flash suppressor in the exhaust may want to plug up quicker with TCW-3 and the carb has alot smaller jets.
 
There is a ton of stuff written about TCW versus air cooled vesus water cooled versus whatever. Read what you want, believe what you want. As near as I can figure, the air cooled oil uses different detergents. The water cooled engines don't get hot enough to burn off those detergents. But water cooled detergents don't hold up to air cooled temps. So they say, that is.

However, there is no specific formula for either one. The mfr can put anything he wants in his oil. The only requirement is that it pass the qualification test.

Having said all that, I've been using TCW in all my air cooled equipment for years with no problem whatsoever.
 
bobbyc said:
I went to mix some oil and gas for my 2 cycle, air cooled snowblower. The only oil I could find was this older bottle of Sunoco 2 cycle TCW. The container says it can be used in both air and water cooled engines. Up until reading the label, I had believed that TCW was for water cooled engines only. Any thoughts or additional information would be appreciated.View attachment 12688
Click to expand...


Generally oils for air cooled 2 strokes are a bit heavier ( higher viscosity) than oils for water cooled outboards because they run hotter.
Thet say the oil you show is suitable for a number of air cooled engines as well as watercooled in the data sheet,

http://www.sunoco.be/PDF/UK/TDSUK2T Outboard.pdf

If you are worried don't use your snow blower in very hot summer weather :)
 
The TCW2 if used a lot will eventually carbon the rings and cause failure.
That's why they discontinued it and put out TCW3

The old oils were famous for causing ring failure and scoring cylinder walls.

I bought a new boat with twin 85's in 88.Within 6mo. they both needed new rings.
Luckily I caught it before it did any damage.

That was before they developed TCW3 Been years and no problems.

Use the TCW2 but not as a regular thing.
 
Jerryjerry05 said:
The TCW2 if used a lot will eventually carbon the rings and cause failure.
That's why they discontinued it and put out TCW3

The old oils were famous for causing ring failure and scoring cylinder walls.

I bought a new boat with twin 85's in 88.Within 6mo. they both needed new rings.
Luckily I caught it before it did any damage.

That was before they developed TCW3 Been years and no problems.

Use the TCW2 but not as a regular thing.
Click to expand...
The oil in question is TCW3!

attachment.php
 
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