Boat Oil in my bike

2door said:

It would help if we knew what engine you have. If you're talking about a Chinese 2 stroke then read on.

By "boat oil" I'm assumimng you mean outboard motor oil. The general consensus here is that oil formulated for outboards is not a good idea. Some have run it without a problem but the oil is made for water cooled engines. I'd suggest you look for oil made for air cooled engines. It is usually made to withstand a higher engine temperature.
Good luck.

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Right on, I have outboard oil for my boat, and wouldn't even consider using it in my HT. Besides oil is cheap for what it does. OB oil dirt cheap, HT (Amsoil) oil $11.00 a quart, still cheap. Just for those that feel that $11.00 is much, 1 oil change in my truck, is 3 gallons. About $60.00 for oil change, with me doing it myself.

When I built my first bike, I didnt know the difference between liquid cooled oil and air cooled oil. I was using Pennzoil marine 2 cycle oil. I didnt know about spark plug color either. That engine lasted about a year, but the rings and the crank bearings finally went. I had hoped to get more out that engine, and probably would have if I had been using the right oil and known how to adjust my air/fuel mixture. That bike is no longer with us. I am on my second bike, but my fourth engine, due to some bad luck with two other engines, not oil related. With my current engine, I started out using Lucas semi-synthetic air cooled oil, but even ordering on ebay I paid about $12 for a pint. Found universal 2 cycle synthetic oil for air cooled engines at walmart for $6, and the color of my spark plug tells me my engine is happy with it. This engine is almost a year old, and I expect to get at least another year out of it, perhaps several. If you want an air cooled 2 cycle engine to last, you need to use air cooled oil in it.

A couple oils I used before switching to what I consider to be one of the best 2 smoker oils (Opti2) where listed to be good for air or water cooled engines, over the years I've run many oils in chainsaws, weed wacker and 2 smoker dirt bikes, never had an oil related failure in any of them, and a couple of them were run on a mix of 30w SAE Penzoil in the mix instead of 2 smoker oil, I don't tell any one to do this but I ran an Echo chain saw for years on a 32:1 fuel/oil mix with the straight old 30w oil and that saw is over 30years old now and still runs great, the Echo engine is a much higher quality engine than the HT no doubt.

I say run a good quality 2 smoker oil in the HT, get the mix right, and above all else.... make sure the engine is NOT running lean, if it is, wont matter what oil you use or how much, the engine will have a short life if it is running to lean.

Map

I'm the cheapskate of the bunch.

I'm running a mix of ALL the 2 stroke mix oil that was hangin' around in partial plastic bottles for the chain saws, trimmers, and outboards I have run.
AND some Yamalube, and Motul which I consider both to be top quality oil.

The mix works well in my ht 48cc.
It had a clicking wrist pin bushing when I got it, and it still clicks!
(Time to find a replacement, though)

OK, my ford... I think it's abt $20 for oil and a filter when they're on sale.
Got 150k on the truck now... it runs well.
I think I changed the oil 8 or 10 times... maybe...
2 air cleaners swapped out.

It's probably best to do what the wise fellows suggest.
I'm just gettin' by...

Good luck
rc

I second what mapbike said about lean conditions. Lean means too hot. too hot means you will burn your engine up fast. you want to run at least a little rich for the breakin period, then back it down to the proper mix. you can tell how youre running by looking at your spark plug. if you see any grey or white, youre running lean. if you see black or chocolate, youre running rich. if you see anywhere from tan to honey brown or toasty brown, you have your air fuel mix right on. when breaking in, you wanna see a chocolate color. after break in, you wanna see the tan to toasty brown color.