Other What oil do you use and why?

kkwedell

x-h20.com
Location
Walnut Creek
I just take a gallon of pennzoil and mix 16 oz of redline in it. Seems to work just as good as running straight redline with keeping the cost down.
 

Vumad

Super Hero, with a cape!
Location
St. Pete, FL
Like the title says. I want to see what everyone is running and maybe give me a reason why you run it. I'm sure we will get some funny answers.
This year I switched to walmart oil which is $12 a gallon. I wanted to see if oil really made a difference, so far the only difference I can tell is the smell of it when it burns. Ski still makes good compression and it didn't blow up yet. I used to run maxima K2 but it felt like a waste of money. Speaking of money now that I have parted out a few skis I have drained the oil tanks on them and burnt that oil. I can't complain about free oil, you just need to make sure there isn't any water in it.

For those of you who didn't feel like reading that here is the oii I use and why I use it.
Walmart oil - Because it's cheap $12/gal
Oil from skis I parted out - because it's free

So what do you run and why did you choose it?

From what i have heard from a friend. Is that his uncle who works for one of the companies that sells high performance oils (i.e redline) i forget the exact one. Was told from their testing supertech aka walmart 2 stroke oil was the best oil for non powervalve motors.

Since then i have been running it. Works good, smells good, looks good.

amsoil... mostly because I'm a dealer...

Walmart, any generic TCW3 is :):):):) oil.

I was running generics. Walmart, Westmarine, etc. I had horrible water ingestion problems. I started thinking about this blue froth I had on stuff all the time. One of the guys in the group on a B1 had similar problems in the surf. He found a local place that wholesales Merc Quicksilver (fill you 1ga from a 55ga, $20/ga), so he gave it a shot. No more water ingestion issues. I switched, my issues vastly improved (X2 always has ingestion issues).

So, of course, experiment to back up a claim...

Take your :):):):) generic oil. Put about 1" worth in a glass jar. Put the next 5-6" as water (old spagitti jars work good). Shake well. Quicksilver immediately beads up like cooking oil. Generics turn the water blue, froth and take hours to separate. Oil the mixes with water? What the crap?

We have found a place local that sells amzoil for $28/ga wholesale, so I may be switching over to that once I burn through my stockpile of quicksilver, now that I can afford a little better oil.

I'm sure a few of those threads OCD linked have similar info.

Moral of the story, buy the best oil you can afford, but don't buy the cheapest available even if it's all you can afford.
 
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icecoled007

Captain of this ship
Location
Colorado
I run Kawasaki Oil, its about the same cost as Penzoil, Walmart oil, but I feel like its better for my ski.

I run everything 40:1
 

tshank123

Yo hablo ingles
Location
Vegas
Walmart, any generic TCW3 is :):):):) oil.

I was running generics. Walmart, Westmarine, etc. I had horrible water ingestion problems. I started thinking about this blue froth I had on stuff all the time. One of the guys in the group on a B1 had similar problems in the surf. He found a local place that wholesales Merc Quicksilver (fill you 1ga from a 55ga, $20/ga), so he gave it a shot. No more water ingestion issues. I switched, my issues vastly improved (X2 always has ingestion issues).

So, of course, experiment to back up a claim...

Take your :):):):) generic oil. Put about 1" worth in a glass jar. Put the next 5-6" as water (old spagitti jars work good). Shake well. Quicksilver immediately beads up like cooking oil. Generics turn the water blue, froth and take hours to separate. Oil the mixes with water? What the crap?

We have found a place local that sells amzoil for $28/ga wholesale, so I may be switching over to that once I burn through my stockpile of quicksilver, now that I can afford a little better oil.

I'm sure a few of those threads OCD linked have similar info.

Moral of the story, buy the best oil you can afford, but don't buy the cheapest available even if it's all you can afford.

Never even considered water ingestion as a reason for running one oil or another. I'd like to do that experiment just to see but I still dont understand why getting water in your carbs will make any difference of how it reacts with the oil.
 

Vumad

Super Hero, with a cape!
Location
St. Pete, FL
Never even considered water ingestion as a reason for running one oil or another. I'd like to do that experiment just to see but I still dont understand why getting water in your carbs will make any difference of how it reacts with the oil.

Water gets into the motor while riding, especially bad in the surf or subs and what not. That water usually works it way out the exhaust very quickly. Your crank and other parts of the motor are coated with oil. That water should just slide right through and disturb that minimally. However, if you have cheap oil that mixes like water, like the ones I ran before I knew better, that water and oil mix into a sludge and stays in the engine much longer. It usually lead to hard starting that eventually resulted in a tow.
 
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tshank123

Yo hablo ingles
Location
Vegas
^^^Ok, makes sense. Maybe Ill start running some better oil in my SJ since it injests water more than my other skis. Otherwise, it still makes more financial sense to run cheap oil.
 

High Speed Industries

Your one stop shop for quality parts @highspeedind
I solved my water ingestion problem by keeping the water out of my carbs. So far it's worked well.

I don't really see how oil would mix with water but I might give that experiment a shot. I wonder if the oil is really mixing or if its just the dye that's in the oil.
 
Location
Ohio
Penzoil semi synthetic marine for as many years as I can remember....price is right (16 a gallon I think...used to be 9.99!!!) and its as good a oil as my ski needs.
 

High Speed Industries

Your one stop shop for quality parts @highspeedind
I think it's crazy how many people run cheap oil. I figured most people would be running the expensive stuff.

I'd still like to hear some reasons why some people choose the expensive stuff over the cheap stuff. I can't see any real proof that shows how one oil is better than another. Maybe some burn cleaner or smell good but that's about it. That's pretty much why I started this thread. How do you justify paying the extra $40 a gallon over the cheap oil? What is it really doing for you, or what do you think it's doing for you.
 
I think it's crazy how many people run cheap oil. I figured most people would be running the expensive stuff.

I'd still like to hear some reasons why some people choose the expensive stuff over the cheap stuff. I can't see any real proof that shows how one oil is better than another. Maybe some burn cleaner or smell good but that's about it. That's pretty much why I started this thread. How do you justify paying the extra $40 a gallon over the cheap oil? What is it really doing for you, or what do you think it's doing for you.

you really answered your own question here... burns cleaner has a lot to do with it... like is said in my previous post, i run amsoil, because i am a dealer, so i run it in everything i own.. from my chainsaw and air compressor to my skis and vehicles.. do the ones who run penzoil in their skis also run it in their daily driver? ..

with 2 stroke oil, there's really only 3 variables.. 1, does it lube what it needs to and leave a film thickness that prevents metal to metal contact through the entire system?.. 2, does it burn clean or does it leave residue that causes problems... 3, how does it react with other properties, such as water...

it isn't like a 4 stroke oil that has to hold up over thousands of times circulating through the engine, going through countless heat cycles that break it down... it goes in passes through the engine one time, gets burned and blown out the combustion chamber through the exhaust... you could run vegetable oil through a 2 stroke if you wanted, it would lube the system well enough to run it for awhile(no I'm not telling you to go out and try it)...

it all comes down to what the oil does inside the combustion chamber.. does it burn off clean and get picked up by the exhaust gas and pass through the system clean, or does it not become suspended with the exhaust gasses and stay in the chamber leaving carbon deposits that get caught in places they shouldn't, like the rings or does it build up on the ports causing blockage... there's a few variables that could affect the same oil.. such as engine compression, timing, engine tune, mix ratio, and even fuel quality will affect how the oil burns off.. oil companies that produce higher priced oils will put more time into testing in different conditions to achieve the best quality oil over a broader range of variables...

i hope that kind of sheds a little light on your question...
 

OCD Solutions

Original, Clean and Dependable Solutions
Location
Rentz, GA
All things are relative, oil is no exception. If you ride balls to the walls and WOT all day long, you might want to invest in a higher end oil. If you're a guy like me who likes to slash waves and cruise around all day blipping the throttle and rarely ever holding it pinned for more than a few seconds... You can run the cheap stuff at a lower ratio and not worry about it.

I tore my SS865 down at 50 hours and it looks and feels brand new so I'm sticking with Quicksilver Premium Plus at 32:1 as my engine builder recommended.

My favorite 2 stroke oil is still Bombardier Mineral oil but I switched to a TCW-3 oil for the extra corrosion protection it supposedly offers.

No proof one way or another, just personal experience.
 
I've been using amsoil interceptor (black and yellow bottle) for years with great results. It's about $100 for a case of 12. Haven't had to pull any engines apart since I started using it so I can't say how nice it keeps the insides.
 
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