"Interesting discussion! A few
"Interesting discussion! A few questions: are the piston, bearing and ring clearances set by the factory dependent on the use of a specific oil/fuel mixture...is the "viscosity" of a 25 to 1 mixture equal to that of a 64 to 1 mixture and does it have a bearing on the amount of blow by and compression? I have heard that the older british seagull motors required a 10 to 1 mixture for both lubrication and compression purposes and would not have enough compression to run on leaner mixtures...I do not know if this is true but I do know that worn out two strokes(bad rings) that don't have enough compression to run on their original fuel/oil mixture can sometimes run if the mixture is doubled and a "hotter" spark plug is used. I also have some question about Amsoil...is it better than other synthetics and who is it made by? To be quite truthful, I am skeptical about the claims made by any manufacturer that their product is superior to other similar products. Today, even a one MPG increase in mileage and a reduction in pollution is a major achievement in terms of advertising and sales. If a car/boat manufacturer could achieve such a gain, why would Amsoil not be supplied with each new car/outboard and recommended as the oil of choice? I am also a fan of the older omc engines but I don't think they are environmentally friendly regardless of the oil/fuel ratio...They were designed 60 years ago and fuel efficiency and environmental concerns were not among their design parameters. Since that time, engineers have been able to greatly improve on the two stroke in terms of efficiency and clean burning. If an environmental footprint is a concern, these are not the motors I would select. It is true that the pressure tanks are not "vented" in the conventional sense, but when the cap is unscrewed for refueling, the amount of fuel vapor released would seem to exceed the vapor released through the traditionally vented fuel cap. As to the smaller starter rope, it sounds like an interesting approach...Some OMC motors were equipped with oblong recoil spools which were indexed to provide easier starting by using the larger part of the recoil during the compression stroke...I believe it was called "Easamatic" or something like that. I'm not trying to be negative here and as I said you have made some interesting points."