Jeff was running canola oil in his crankcase a while back. I wonder if that would work in a 2 stroke as well. Also wonder if he is still using it.
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Castor-oil is a very good lubricant, it sticks to the metal much more than usual oils. This is due to the molecular structure. And it was very popular for racing engines, because you can mix it easily with ethanol or methanol racing fuels.
But there is a big downside for everyday use: It builds up coke-like deposits very fast. Not a problem in a race engine with an overhaul between races.
From time to time I’ve heard something about guys that have done this for testing. But unfortunately no one really talked about results. Would be great to hear something about that.
There are some engine, gear and hydraulic oils based on vegetable oils and biodegradable for machinery in environmental fragile areas. https://www.fuchs.com/de/en/products/product-program/automotive-lubricants/#195-biodegradable-lubricants
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Kristjan, I’m not saying water cooling is a problem. I’m saying the water cooled snowmobiles, at least the ones I’ve owned, don’t engage the clutch until 5000 rpm’s. The fan cooled snowmobiles engage around 3000 rpm’s. My concern is, the cfm difference. Would it be hard to size a gasifier with such a difference between idle and moving?
Til,
Used to use castor oil and alcohol in 2-cycle model aircraft engines all the time. Gunky on the outside, but well-lubed on the inside if you keep the engine well cooled. Mostly synthetic oil now, but you can get blends with castor still.
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I didn’t use it this year because of a lack of time and it is hard to keep up with so many projects. I used it for two or three years in my clones. Low total hours. The only thing I noticed was that the top of the piston was blackish. Oh, that was the main reason to not use it last year. I wanted to see if the blackish stuff burned out. I never tore the engine down, just looked through the spark plug hole. The professional way is a three oil mix and some transformation magic like chemist stuff.
My personal issue is the lack of time to find a local plant to produce my own oil. I would have to stop working with charcoal and focus on oil. Some times a fella has to make the hard calls. If I have to buy Canola oil why not just buy dyna oil?
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Hey Jeff,
I know the feeling of having to many projects on hand.
But knowing that vegetable can be done does not oblige to do it. Sharing our experiences is imho even more important…
Keep it coming… i enjoy reading and learning
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Andy,
Well on idealism of biofuel. 4 strokers need oil too 
and not much less thain 2 strokers.
There are 5 liters of oil in my car neading yearly change. I need to add at least about 2 liters per year, so 7 liters or about 2 gal of oil per year. Thats allmost enough to run a 2 stroke, if mixed.
My dad used to run all sorts of oils in his moped, premixed. It run well eaven on chainsaw oil.
He says there is sbsolutley no harm to a engine useing regular motor oil. Only downside is it sometime sinks to the bottom and it burns less complete. Not a problem in injected engines.
Bill, are you thinking charcoal or wood? I see no problem with charcoal, however water or antifreeze injection will be a must, for flame speed.
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Also, no need for oil filters.
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I know my snowmobile uses way more oil than my car and only goes 1/3 as far on a gallon of gasoline.
Drive it faster so the gas doesn’t run out so quick.
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A chain saw is 50:1 mix.
My car holds about one gallon of oil.
That would be good for 50 gallons of assoline.
I change my oil about 4000 miles
Get about 25mpg, guessing
4000/25=160 gallons of assoline
Hmmmm.
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35 plus mpg for me and only change it in that car at about 7500 miles and use no oil in between. Two strokes can’t come close.
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Gentleman. Back onto the topic of woogasing/chargasing a 2-stroke crankcase pumping single cylinder engine . . . .
Mine are all lower end open roller and ball bearing types. No problem with clean air/gasoline and special aircooled rated oil.
What are the soots/deposits in DIYmade-gasious doing to these bearings?
tree-farmer Steve unruh
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Hi Steve,
you are rigth, back to the topic.
Well, you need very good gas cleaning, same standard than the air filter for the original carburetor.
If it is only soot, it will thicken up the oil and you have less lubricating action.
But for charcoal gas, the particles in the gas are not soot but rather fine char and ash particles. Theese have a grinding action.
All particles will sum up to some degree in the crankcase before they are maybe finally caught be the gas flow to the cylinder.
So good filtering with a good cloth/paper filter is more essential than for a 4-stroke.
Regards,
Til
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Good point Steve. I have never thought about that. How are the bearings getting lubed with mixed gas? They run at such high rpm’s. As I understand it, the 2 stroke oil is burned with the gas.
Hi Bill
In my understanding, it is like this: The 2-stroke-mix enters the crankcase together with the air as a kind of mist or spray. During operation, the crankcase is getting warm, so the petrol evaporates leaving the oil behind. The oil is deposited on the surfaces. A few drips are enough for ball and roller bearings. They don’t need to be absolutely soaked Also enough for the piston. Remember, there are oil scraper rings in 4-stroke pistons to avoid that too much oil comes up at the side of the pistons.
Some bearings may have kind of oil catchers, using centrifugal forces.
Old 2-stroke engines with friction bearings or need more oil, so they need a mix of 1:25…1:33 instead of 1:50…1:100 (enough for modern engines with good oils).
Of course, a part of it is always carried away and combusted, but new oil is constantly coming in with the petrol.
I have an older motorcycle with a single cylinder 250ccm two stroke engine, which I overhauled. After running in with 1:50, I reduced the ratio to 1:75. When I opened the crankcase, there was enough oil everywhere. The piston an rings were oily, the crankshaft and rod and even a small lake of oil at the bottom.
Too much oil just causes an “octopus-effect” because of a smokey exhaust and unnecessary carbon deposits on piston, piston-rings and exhaust without any benefit for the bearing-life.
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Allso the air/perol/oil mix is compressed, pushing it in the bearing.
However, my tared up motor showed a interasting pattrn inside, the crankcase was teribly dirthy, but the crankshaft was only dirthy on the outhet edge. This is due to centrifugal forces.
Allso, oil injected engines are supposed to use less of it becouse the oil droplets are bigger and tend to stick better to the components.
A big advantige of 2 stoke engines is their compression can easyaly be boosted. As a kid, laying sand paper on a peace of glass and drinding the heads bottom was done often. For my chargas moped l raised the compression from 1:9 to 1:13 and it realy worked great for chargas.
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Bean oil, some of us still use it in racing because its the best Lubricant out there.
When cold bean oil is not interesting at all.
But heat it in an engine and it starts to polymerize and thicken.
AS it heats, cooks and polymerizes it becomes a better lubricant.
I mix it with some synthetic oil in my methanol motors to provide some top end lubricity.
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Two strokes are not that easy to modify and increasing compression leads to melt downs in them more often than not.
I would not even try to soup one up to be honest. ( unless you REALLY know what you are doing )
There was a 2 stroke diesel used in outboards in the 60s ( also a chainsaw ) that used a second piston to push air only and scavenge the power cylinder.
There are some OP engines with an oil sump that used a blower to scavenge.
There were also some 2 stroke case scavenged engine like this that might be worth trying.
This is a semi diesel and would need a new head made for SI
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Well, we are talking woodgas here. There is far less filling ratio so with woodgas a 14:1 compression engine will have much lower pressure/temperature thain the same engine runing on petrol.
As for modifying, you are right. One wuld think they are much simpler thain 4 strokers, but there is a art to modifying them. The part people often missundertand is the exhaust. Cut off the exhaust on a 4 stroke. A slight increase of power occurs. Cut of a exhaust pipe on a 2 stroke, you made a barely runing mess. A proper 2 stroke exhaust is in fact acting as a turbocharger, and aids to power, fuel economy and ecology.
Ha, the “scilent piston” design is interasting!
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