Two Stroke

[FredPuli43]

Years ago, I saw fuel pumps for 2 stroke mixture, hand operated, at garages.Not any more. I have a 2 stroke brush cutter. How do I get the fuel? The mixture is 50 petrol to 1 oil, apparently. Do I have to mix it myself or can it be bought in cans or bottles ready mixed?

[shoota]

You can buy plastic bottles with the measures cast into them.
ordinary petrol to the lower mark, then top up with the oil to the higher mark, shake and strim.
I'm not aware of anyone selling it readymixed.

[chrisgel]

I think the only way is to buy 2 stroke oil and mix it yourself. I've never seen ready mixed.

[New Judge]

I don't think you can buy the fuel ready mixed now, Fred. You can buy two-stroke oil to add to your fuel. Halfords and Screwfix both sell it.

[paddywak]

The last time I saw any two stroke oil it was in a bottle that you squeezed to fill a graduated reservoir, chart with the bottle then told you the amount of oil to petrol for the mixture you needed.Re the pumps you used to get at garage I had a Saturday job at a petrol station and that was the first thing we had to check at the start of the shift as there were loads of scooters which were two stroke on the road and also some cars, several models of Renault if I remember rightly.Got paid the princely sum of two bob an hour, which was good money for an after school job.

[Old_Geezer]

Can't say I've ever noticed ready mixed stuff. In my youth when I had a moped one had to mix it oneself; and now in my old age I've a few petrol driven garden tools and again I have to buy the petrol and oil myself and mix it. If you can find a place that sells it ready mixed then best of luck to you, but I'd have thought it would be a risk to the garage as demand would need to be high enough to ensure it didn't go off.

[Hopkirk]

When I had a moped you mixed it yourself in the tank, but when I moved up to a motorbike it had a separate tank for the two stroke oil.

[Hopkirk]

My father in law had a petrol strimmer which needed it in a different ratio to his two stroke hovermower, so ready mixed would have been a problem.

[New Judge]

The hand pumps whic Fred mentions had an dial-like knob which was said to adjust the petrol:oil mixture. Its range was about 20:1 up to 50:1 in steps of five. I was never convinced it made any difference and one day when I arrived to fill up my Lambretta SX200 the pump bloke had the front of the two-stroke pump off to fill it with petrol. (The fuel was stored within the pump in a large tank). I was not surprised to find that the mixture dial was purely cosmetic, being unconnected to anything and having no operating mechanism of any kind! The pump bloke confirmed that this was so and that the pump dispensed two-stroke mixture at "about twenty to one (ish)". He was also very coy about the provenance of the oil used in the pump and there was some suggestion that it was reclaimed sump oil taken from the garage's workshop.

After that I mixed my own !!!

[chrisgel]

NJ - That confirms my suspicions from all those years ago. I was forever removing the baffle of the exhaust of my Suzuki 80 to degrease it of all the excess oil that clogged it up.

[tonyav]

I used to own one of those NJ, wish I still had it. Have you seen how much money a good one fetches now.

[tonyav]

I arrived to fill up my Lambretta SX200

Sorry mean't to say Lambretta SX 200.

[SlackAlice]

All mods together, I has a Lambretta GT200

[Hopkirk]

I'm still trying to picture New Judge on his

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6101/6269408801_d631f10e4f_b.jpg

[tonyav]

Yes, SlackAlice, I also owned two others a GP 150 and a GP 125, Those GT 200's were pretty rare.

[SlackAlice]

has?
had is better

[tonyav]

LOL, thats bare compared to the one I owned Hopkirk, chrome crash bars, back rest and lots of mirrors and spotlights and a tall whip aerial.

[FredPuli43]

Well, thanks all. I've found the simple solution, courtesy of the bloke who was felling trees on the farm. It is to buy a 100ml bottle of Stihl's 100ml 2 stroke oil. This you mix pro rata with petrol, getting a 5 litre container of petrol and adding one or two of the Stihl bottles accordingly. But, bizzarely, as observed, different engines require different mixtures.There seems no logic to that.

[tonyav]

I used to put one shot per half gallon in my Lambretta's Fred, using the pump at the garage, however I don't know how much 2 stoke oil there was in each shot.

[Toureman]

For my petrol strimmer I bought a petrol can and a small graduated plastic bottle that would easily get the right mixture for my strimmer, it was very cheap and easy to use..

[DTCwordfan]

Shell used to do a bottle, like one of those weedkiller dosing bottles; one can squeeze up and get the quantity to mix in.