Old TCW-2 oil

[freeisforme]

I was cleaning out the shed the other day and found a few cases of older TCW-2 oil I used to run in my old Mercury. I dug out the old motor, dusted it off, shot the cylinders with some fresh lube, put it in a bucket of water and mixed up some fuel using the old oil. To my surprise, it fired right up after only a couple of pulls. It hadn't seen the light of day since the mid 80's.
It ran fine, pumped water so I figured I'd toss it on my 12' tinny and go for spin. It ran great, I burned up nearly 3 gallons of gas Saturday afternoon in the rain.
I figured I'd treat the motor to a new impeller, some fresh plugs and leave it on that boat. Today, I mixed up a fresh batch of fuel, in a new 6 gallon tank, using modern TCW-3 oil which I use in my newer motors. It ran a few minutes and wouldn't refire, it would run and die, and carry on. Thinking maybe I got a bad batch of fuel, I grabbed the tank from my other motor, switched over the lines and it did the same. I then pulled the motor, put it back in the barrel of water, and reconnected the 3 gallon tank from yesterday with about 1/2 gallon of yesterday's mix, to my surprise, it fired right up and ran fine.

I poured out anther 3 gallons of gas, (from the same fuel caddy), mixed up another 3 gallon batch with the older TCW-2 oil, and it runs fine, but won't run right on the newer oil?

My newer motors run fine on the very same tank and fuel that the older 9.8 Merc won't run on?
The only change was the oil and the tank. For whatever reason, the Merc 9.8 doesn't like the newer oil? I mix 16 oz of Quicksilver TCW-3 to 6 gallons and it won't run or barely fires, yet when I mix 8 oz of TCW-2 to 3 gallons of the same fuel, it runs fine? The old oil is smokey but it runs fine.

This don't make much sense to me, it's not the oil that it fires on, and since the fuel is the same and my other boats run fine on the newer oil, why won't the old 9.8 run right with it? The older oil does look thicker in viscosity, it's more than double that of the newer oil too.

I have a good supply of the old oil here, (several cases), but why it won't run or run right on the new oil has got me?

 

[JB]

Re: Old TCW-2 oil

Evil spirits?

 

[javsam]

Re: Old TCW-2 oil

yep,sounds like evil spirits.

 

[TOHATSU GURU]

Re: Old TCW-2 oil

We cleared out a section of the warehouse a while back and found some old Chrysler TCW oil from 1983 or maybe even older....One pint cans. I ended up using it myself without any problems, but one sealed can, when opened, smelled foul and looked like brown sludge. The moral of the story is that if it looks and smells good, it is good. And if it looks and smells like crap, it is crap

 

[pduquette]

Re: Old TCW-2 oil

HHMMMM ,Maybe when you were moving the motor arround you knocked something loose in the bowl of the carb then cleared it when moving it back to the barrel ???? Just a wild shot in the dark........pete

p.s. I don't bevieve any spirits are truly evil

 

[freeisforme]

Re: Old TCW-2 oil

That was my first thought, until I hooked up the tank that my Evinrude was currently running on an it did the same thing, sputtered and stalled, and basically didn't want to run. It runs fine on the old, thicker, TCW-2 oil mix. For what ever reason, it just don't like the new oil. It's got me, never had a motor do that before. I also figure that it might run on the older fuel once it was warmed up a bit but did the same thing when I switched tanks. Its as if there was water in the fuel. But it's all from the same tank.

I had actually forgot I had that motor, it got burried over the years in the shed out back. I had figured I must have sold it or something I guess. I still don't remember why I put it away in the shed back then. I sold the boat with the 15hp that was on it last at least 25 years ago. The 9.8 was the motor that came with that boat.

 

["G"]

Re: Old TCW-2 oil

Free...
The older oil is basically 30wt motor oil. In essense, you created a higher compression with thicker oil. The problem; most likely your rings are carboned up or varnished up and won't seal to the cylinder wall enough to provide good compression with the thinner oil. Confirm that with a dry/wet compression test. Remember, a 2 stroke "sucks" fuel through the reed plates. Low compression equals low "sucking".
Solution; Run the outboard on the old oil for a while. Use a little detergent oil at the 25-1 ratio then slowly move up to 50-1. Eventually the varnished up rings MAY break free enough so you can run the new stuff. Fool the engine and switch tanks to the new oil while you're running. That may work too.
Good luck.