Well, when looking at the sds and a voa I just didn't see where there could be much detergent. And I know the voa won't show much, if anything... And the sds is not much help, either. Hilarious.. .I think you're probably right about Echo and the lack of an ashless oil.
FD oils have ash limits and for good reason, so you won't see much show up on a VOA. VOA are not that accurate at low levels anyways. Two cycle oils have every little additives in them, despite what guys think.
BW that's how I always do it. I have a tach for reference but the ear works just as well for that. When I see or read of ope operators who can't perform simple mechanical tasks it makes me think they're in the wrong business. The very idea of spending hundreds of $ every month for shop labor just makes me feel like I'm going broke. I grew up in a farm equipment dealership and we also sold boats, Mercury motors, and ope. I worked on everything.
BW.... You say can't choose a ratio based on viscosity, and also that too thick can also be bad .. so what are your thoughts on diluting an oil like, say... HP2? Running it at a leaner ratio like 60:1 or 50:1 since it's a thicker oil. What sacrifice do you see when that is done? I have run 50:1 and it seems to run well, run clean... But what is lost when diluting an oil beyond the normally run ratios, such as HP2 @ 50:1 instead of Honda's mentioned 32:1? I understand the obvious ... Less oil... But what about the additives being lessened? Conversely, enriching an oil can have issues. Based on your experience what have you seen, and what are the pitfalls of this? You know, with a br800 scrubbing the piston crown to get a better judgement of cleanliness on a br800 just isn't feasible. You probably don't have a lot of time with a 4-mix and I don't love the design, but I have 3 of them and before I move on I want to finish my tinkering
All oils smell good to a mechanic, some just smell better than the majority.
