Will a chainsaw run on Coleman fuel?

[67L36Driver]

I’ve speculated for years I thought a saw, especially an elderly one, would run on Coleman fuel or white gas.

Summer of ‘62 two seventeen year olds had a home made ‘go cart’ but the lawnmower can was empty. Found a can of Coleman fuel in the garage. Burned up the contents going up and down the street.

Rich’s stepdad was not happy.

Neither was the mostly worn out Lauson four smoker.

Label claims the contents is Nhexane plus a rust inhibitor.

Saw collection produced a specimen ripe for tinkering.

Wards 3.6”/Remington PL-4A, 59cc x 16”. 3/8 chisel.

Mixed exactly 16:1.

Baseline and carb adjusted with 93 E free from the BP station at 40:1.

Dumped and refueled with the Coleman mix. Started and ran with no carb adjustments.

Ran it free load a good while to purge the Christian mix.

Ran and cut fine. Maybe ran a touch faster. Leaned on it heavy.

Got a little ‘run on’ at shutdown. I should have let it idle longer and cool off maybe.

There you have it [mention]JimBear [/mention]

 

[jacob j.]

Interesting experiment Carl - a retired military guy here who was a combat engineer in Korea told me that the multi-fuel engine in the G-506 would run on Buttermilk, but
I don't think I was able to buy that story.

I wonder if the lower octane of white gas would be detrimental to the engine over a longer period of running?

 

[67L36Driver]

I’d dearly like to run it longer but us townies are chronically short of test wood.

 

[Woodslasher]

Interesting experiment Carl - a retired military guy here who was a combat engineer in Korea told me that the multi-fuel engine in the G-506 would run on Buttermilk, but
I don't think I was able to buy that story.

I wonder if the lower octane of white gas would be detrimental to the engine over a longer period of running?

I don't know about buttermilk but I was told the multi-fuel engines would run on waste oil and piss with a splash of gasoline mixed in.

 

[Lnk]

Interesting experiment Carl - a retired military guy here who was a combat engineer in Korea told me that the multi-fuel engine in the G-506 would run on Buttermilk, but
I don't think I was able to buy that story.

I wonder if the lower octane of white gas would be detrimental to the engine over a longer period of running?

I think I read somewhere that octane doesn't really matter with high engine speeds as the flame front has very little time to do it's work. So low octane would not have time to detonate. I will look to see if I can find where I read that.

 

[huskihl]

I think I read somewhere that octane doesn't really matter with high engine speeds as the flame front has very little time to do it's work. So low octane would not have time to detonate. I will look to see if I can find where I read that.

“Low octane” in this case is maybe in the 87 pump gas range. At a year or more old, it will drop a few more octane points and can and will pre-ignite causing detonation. But it’s somewhere in the 82-84 range I’m guessing. I’ve had old fuel cause run-on with the switch turned off until it cooled down. But I think you’re correct as long as the fuel is fresh.

I was thinking Camp fuel was in the 50 octane range

 

[Lnk]

“Low octane” in this case is maybe in the 87 pump gas range. At a year or more old, it will drop a few more octane points and can and will pre-ignite causing detonation. But it’s somewhere in the 82-84 range I’m guessing. I’ve had old fuel cause run-on with the switch turned off until it cooled down. But I think you’re correct as long as the fuel is fresh.

I was thinking Camp fuel was in the 50 octane range

You may be right. I work in the gasoline industry but not in the chemical properties. I work in distribution. As always I got sidetracked reading something else. Real low octane would definitely be a problem

 

[67L36Driver]

I’ve never seen the compression ratio published for a saw.

I’m going on the feeling it’s between 6-8:1.

Likely closer to the six than the eight.

What was ‘farm gas’ back in the ‘70s? Less than the 87 pump gas we have now I bet.

 

[Basher]

I have seen Naptha ran in an outboard motor mixed with two stroke oil and it lasted many years of high speed heavy push application.

 

[smokey7]

Didn't eggshooter used to run all his stuff on that white gas before he started using the VP or the Sunoco?

 

[67L36Driver]

Bump for giggles.

[emoji6]

 

[heimannm]

I ran an 8 HP Briggs & Stratton engine on Coleman fuel for about 30 seconds, then the rod broke... You could hear that thing knocking (pre-ignition, not the rod) the moment we started it up. If had been running fine on gasoline for days.

I saw in another thread (may have been over on AS) that Coleman was around 50 Octane.

Mark

 

[67L36Driver]

I ran an 8 HP Briggs & Stratton engine on Coleman fuel for about 30 seconds, then the rod broke... You could hear that thing knocking (pre-ignition, not the rod) the moment we started it up. If had been running fine on gasoline for days.

I saw in another thread (may have been over on AS) that Coleman was around 50 Octane.

Mark

Interesting. [emoji848]

While I don’t advocate using a white gas/Coleman fuel mix as a steady diet, I will offer it as an emergency alternative should one be out of ‘normal’ mix while out in the boonies.

Warrants a longer run of Coleman mix in in this dog eared Wards 4.0”. Remington SL 11.

The compression is low. It won’t usually start using the comp release, hence the zip tie fast idle latch. [emoji6]

 

[Duce]

“Low octane” in this case is maybe in the 87 pump gas range. At a year or more old, it will drop a few more octane points and can and will pre-ignite causing detonation. But it’s somewhere in the 82-84 range I’m guessing. I’ve had old fuel cause run-on with the switch turned off until it cooled down. But I think you’re correct as long as the fuel is fresh.

I was thinking Camp fuel was in the 50 octane range

Isn't that why people should use auto-tunes?

 

[Al Smith]

Interesting subject .At one time gasoline had two main ingredients ,Heptane and iso-octane and given a rating of octane content 100 being the highest percentage obviously .The formulations over the years has changed and now given as "octane "rating as related to the older methods .
"White gas " used to be no octane but now referred to as naptha once used as dry cleaning fluid .Surprisingly in some of the older McCulloch information it mentions white gas with a ratio of 20 to 1 oil mix .That said I don't think it would be wise to use it as engine fuel . I might mention for those who have "Zippo " lighters using the lighter fuel it is naptha .

 

[Al Smith]

I just had my memory jogged .One derivative of naptha , napthalene ,an aerobic smelly stuff is used in moth balls .At one time it was believed some moth balls in the gas tank would put some extra kick in flat head Fords .Most likely an old wives' tale . I'll just say a hand full of moth balls will keep the cats from using the flower beds for a litter box .

 

[jakethesnake]

Honest. I ran a 22re Toyota engine on citronella lamp fuel. Went 7 miles to get gas. Tank had maybe a couple quarts of gas in it. I dumped the jug of lamp oil. Maybe half gallon. Drove fine. I filled tank. Truck is still fine. I did rebuild the bish but the lamp fuel didn’t hurt it.

I had no gas here at the time. So needed to make it to gas station. Worked. Wouldn’t recommend it.

 

[qurotro]

I've use some when I rebuild the carb of a honda 5hp. Knocking when accelerate. But just testing the carb anyway.

 

[67L36Driver]

I just had my memory jogged .One derivative of naptha , napthalene ,an aerobic smelly stuff is used in moth balls .At one time it was believed some moth balls in the gas tank would put some extra kick in flat head Fords .Most likely an old wives' tale . I'll just say a hand full of moth balls will keep the cats from using the flower beds for a litter box .

Moth balls lower the octane rating actually.

An engine running in the detonation range will produce more power like a diesel, Until mechanical damage occurs. Bent rods, holed pistons, blown head gasket etc.

May be OK for the trophy dash but not the feature race. [emoji12]

 

[Fishnuts2]

Can't remember where I saw it, but it seems that someone posted that Sea Foam was actually just naptha and lots of people put that in their mix.