A question...in spite of possibly igniting a bonfire.. :-)

[FolkBus]

What are the experiences/thoughts of the wonderful folks on this board of using (or not) synthetic oil in an 8V-71.

Understanding it is a 2 stroke DD,  I'd like to maybe reduce my carbon footprint maybe a small amount. No I'm not changing engines.

--Mike

[bevans6]

The two stroke still likes the old fashioned straight weight oil - 40 weight.  I personally think a high quality synthetic 5W-40 would be fine, but expensive - you expect to add a gallon every couple of thousand miles even on a good engine.  There are issues with oil and two strokes that would take a book to cover.  If you want to reduce your carbon foot print, using synthetic oil in a DD probably isn't the place to start.

Brian

[Bill B /bus]

DD spec: 40wt single viscosity,. ash content less than 1%.  Everyone, that I have read about with multi oil has been forced back to the DD spec. Engines designed in 1938 run on old specification oil. Think about that for a minute - a 75 year old design that still performs its function well!

Bill

[luvrbus]

Royal Purple 40w was at one time the only approved synthetic oil approved for the 2 stroke it has a military spec also,Cole used it his 8v92 for years his engine would use about a gal between 10,000 mile oil changes (no leaks on his engine)

 I know a guy here that uses a 15/40 Amsoil synthetic in his 8v92 and loves it plus he is not a dummy he rebuilds the 2 strokes for a living  

A 8v71 using oil to cool the pistons that I don't know if a synthetic would work or not,with the new fuel of today about any oil will work IMO because there is such a small amount of ash in the C rated oils on the market today I use Delo 400 in the wife's rv it has a ash content of 0.5    

[Dave5Cs]

Mike,
If the synthetic oil in an 8V-71 doesn't work well, then you may have an extremely low Carbon footprint?!...

Dave5Cs

[Seangie]

If your worried about the carbon footprint, and you don't blink an eye at the cost of synthetic, upgrade to a 4 stroke

Or just put a bumper sticker on your bus that says "runs on 100% recycled non toxic renewable fuel source" and explain to people that the heat turns the exhausted steam from the flowers used to make the fuel into a black soot that's edible but not something you'd want to taste.

You should know better than to post a question about oil


-Sean

www.herdofturtles.org
1984 Eagle Model 10S

[bevans6]

Two stories in the news this week up here about diesel fuel.  One is a new recycling plant to create diesel fuel from recycled plastic.  Not sure of the carbon footprint of a process that uses diesel fuel to haul plastic to processing to create diesel fuel, but probably a step in the right direction.  The second was the sale of a biodiesel processing business from a Canadian owner to a company in Texas.  The plants and such will stay here in Canada, but they are producing biodiesel from compost and biological recycling waste.  Canada mandates a 2% biodiesel content in all diesel fuel now.

Brian

[TomC]

Synthetic oil is still petroleum based oil that has been modified for consistancy. Considering how fast the oil gets carboned up in a 2 stroke, I'd stay with good old straight 40 weight oil and just change it more often (I change mine every 5,000mi).

Now if you had one of the new DD engines that have line haul oil changes of 50,000mi, synthetic might be a good choice. Good Luck, TomC

[Oonrahnjay]

  Synthetic oil is still petroleum based oil that has been modified for consistancy. Considering how fast the oil gets carboned up in a 2 stroke, I'd stay with good old straight 40 weight oil and just change it more often (I change mine every 5,000mi). 

    Yep!  (Not that that's a fight I got any dog in ...)

[FolkBus]

Thanks all..I think I'll stick with good old Delo 100