Husky 359 Chain saw and SYNTHETIC Oil

[gss036]

I just went down to an old friend's house to pick up my 4 year old saw and could not believe what had happened. The cylinder and piston were scuffed bad, the needle bearing was coated w/carbon, as was the cylinder and bore. The ring was completely frozen in place. He put on a new cylinder and pison,etc. BUT! the point of this post is the oil I have been using since the saw was new 4 years ago. I have used nothing but "KLOTZ" full synthetic 2 stroke motorcycle racing oil. I have holed my share of pistons on 2 stroke motorcycles, but have never seen one carboned up like this. I think this was case of not knowing what was happening insde the saw and trusting the oil. This would have been a good case for a test of SEAFOAM decarbing, if I had known.
Has anyone ever saw something like this? Experienced it?
Ken is 91 yr old and worked in the woods and on chain saws, 2stroke engines for better than 35 years now and he says he would never use anything but regular 2 stroke chain saw oil, just for this very reason.

 

[bandit86]

Re: Husky 359 Chain saw and SYNTHETIC Oil

I think synthetic oil is highly over rated. To quote my old shop teacher, "Oil is cheap, engines ain't", its better to change oil more often. I dont know how it applies to 2 strokes, but if it's highly carboned up, sounds like too much oil and or fuel was put in the mixture.

 

[JB]

Re: Husky 359 Chain saw and SYNTHETIC Oil

Chainsaws are not motorcycles.

 

[gss036]

Re: Husky 359 Chain saw and SYNTHETIC Oil

Apperciate the comment, but they pretty much operate the same, just bigger piston and bores, otherwise just smaller. They are both air cooled engines.

 

[Vlad D Impeller]

Re: Husky 359 Chain saw and SYNTHETIC Oil

Does the chainsaw motor run at a higher temp than the motorcycle?

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Husky 359 Chain saw and SYNTHETIC Oil

I'm not big on 2 strokes, but I would guess the ratio between the motorcycle and saw is different. When it comes to the small engines, I tend to stay with the recommended lubes.

Oils are different. I once built aircooled VW engines. On my new engines I would only hold up the warranty if the recommended oil was used. I've witnessed many bad engines due to Valvoline, Quaker State, and Wolfs Head oils. Those oils maybe okay in other engines, but not VW air cooled.

This could be the same situation with your oil between the cycle and saw.

 

[gss036]

Re: Husky 359 Chain saw and SYNTHETIC Oil

The difference in the engines may be different, I don't know. This is the first chainsaw I have ever ruined. I also have a Stihl031 which is about 25 years old. I holed 4-5 2stroke motorcycles, but I don't think it had anything to do with the oil. They were Yamaha's and all were repaired under warranty by the dealer, after the 3rd one he said no more free repairs, so I traded it to him and got another new 400cc Yamaha that never had any problems with over about 4 years of ownership.
I do know that I will go to the chainsaw shop and buy some Husky oil to mix my gas.
I had a small plastic thing of OPTI oil, (chain saw shop also sells it) which says it is for 2 stroke engines and it should be mixed with 2 1/2 gallons of gas. That would be about 100-1 mix, but don't think I will trust it. The owners manual plainly states not to use TCW marine oils in the saw, although this was not TCW, but air cooled MC oil..
As was suggested above, maybe the wrong mixture? I was mixing the Klotz oil 50-1 (3oz@gal). Maybe too strong which caused all the carbon. Anyway I have learned a not too expensive of a lesson, but nether the less costly. I did it myself, so no one to blame it but me. Thanks for the thoughts and input.

 

[Plainsman]

Re: Husky 359 Chain saw and SYNTHETIC Oil

My 5 year old stihl chainsaw mixes at 40:1

 

[dolluper]

Re: Husky 359 Chain saw and SYNTHETIC Oil

Too rich a mixture would cause the carbon build up ,as for syn oil in a two stroke ,big waste off money Spend it on gas for your boat instead

 

[gss036]

Re: Husky 359 Chain saw and SYNTHETIC Oil

I had e-mailed Koltz 2 weeks ago, but no answer, can't say I blame them for not wanting to get involved. The Husky runs great now with a new piston and cylinder.
I was by the lawn mower/saw shop the other day and they are a Stihl dealer but reccommended the ultra Stihl oil, which is synthetic. They guys says a lot of people will run it about every 5th gallon of mix, just to clean up the piston/cylinder, really not enough difference in cost for a bottle to mix a gallon of fuel, maybe 40 cents. All the Stihl oil is for a 50-1 mix.

 

[rwise]

Re: Husky 359 Chain saw and SYNTHETIC Oil

I holed 4-5 2stroke motorcycles, but I don't think it had anything to do with the oil. They were Yamaha's and all were repaired under warranty by the dealer, after the 3rd one he said no more free repairs, so I traded it to him and got another new 400cc Yamaha that never had any problems with over about 4 years of ownership.

They (Yamaha) will not admit it (at least when I last talked to them) but when the 400 first had the CDI they put the wrong spark plug in them, this is what blew the hole in the piston/s on my 400 yammy. I proved it to them by changing the plug and working with the race crew here in tulsa, (I new all of them at the time) when I let it go it had ran at least 10 times longer than with the OEM spark plug.

 

[gss036]

Re: Husky 359 Chain saw and SYNTHETIC Oil

My rebuild is good so far, saw ran great all day and good starting. I cut almost 2 cord of wood from 20-22inch alder trees today. Saw cut great.
I used reg 50-1 oil mix and went through almost 1/2 gal gas. My wood shed if about full so will not be using the saw again for a year unless I get greedy as my wood access is rather easy.

 

[kmk_7110]

Re: Husky 359 Chain saw and SYNTHETIC Oil

My former boss retails and repairs and uses Huskys. He used one of them at his campground and it froze up because he used the local hardware store special. Some lawnboy 2 stroke mix stuff. He sent it in and they said the lawnboy crap wasn't good enough oil to use and that caused it to freeze up.

 

[gss036]

Re: Husky 359 Chain saw and SYNTHETIC Oil

OIL has always been a very contraversial subject w/2 stroke engines, just read the above outboard engine boards. I have a 1989 Merc 200 hp that I have ran serveral differnet brands, but last few years switched to Penziol synthetic blend and am very satisfied w/ the results.
I have run my 25 year old Stihl 031 on regular 2 stroke oil w/o problems. Mostly on 2 stroke motor cycle oil because I had 5 dirt bikes so always had a good supply on hand.
For what little bit I will running my new saw now, I will buy the mfg suggested oil, the difference in cost is not even worth considering. Thanks for all the input.