<VV> Fuel for Small Engines (No Corvair)

[Dale Dewald]

At 12:00 10/15/2010 -0400, J1M1SH at aol.com wrote:

 >>>snip<<<

>At work, we have been frying a lot of chain saw and weed wacker engines
>because of whatever is in the gas now. We have to use octane booster to keep
>them running, this is on new equipment, the old stuff seems to work.

My local Stihl/Husqvarna dealer recommends only premium fuel for all two 
cycle engines--especially those built in the last 10 years or so.  The 
later engines are set up to run a little bit leaner and have non-adjustable 
crank-triggered ignition systems designed to meet rudimentary emission 
regulations. These engines will suffer from spark knock at high 
speeds/loads when run on 87 octane fuel.  The problem is that you cannot 
hear the knock very easily like you can with a 4-cycle engine--you only 
find out later when the bearings fail...

Dale Dewald
Hancock, MI