TruFuel 50-1or Stihl 50-1 or Red Armor 50-1??

[shooterdon]

After reading this thread I bought 6 cans of TruFuel for $40:

TruFuel 50:1 Pre Mixed Fuel Portable Design Steel Cans 2-Cycle Oil (6-Pack) | eBay

The container closure is made from proprietary resin to maximize safety & durability. Premixed and ready to use formula with synthetic oil, a fuel stabilizer and ethanol-free gasoline.

www.ebay.com

I have been having issues with my Husqvarna 570 backpack blower so figured it would be a good test. It has been running like crap especially in the winter. Yesterday was 15 degrees and I needed to blow some snow. Poured a can into the tank. The tank was still 1/4 full of old fuel.

What a difference. I am sold on the stuff.

Cost of mixing my own is about $4 for gas, $.50 for Stabil and $2.50 for oil. $8/gal

Cost of this stuff is $27/gal. So more than three times the cost.

Most of the time I am not running the blower for more than 20-30 minutes so the savings of mixing my own are not significant. If I have a fall clean up to do, that lasts 2-3 hours, I will likely mix a batch up. Same for the chainsaw. If I am taking care of a downed tree, the pre-mix makes sense. If cutting a lot of firewood, mixing my own makes sense.

 

[Tchamp]

There is a app called pure gas that gives you locations to fill up with non ethanol gas, used it all the time when traveling with my motorcycle.

 

[Yander]

I've been using true fuel I bought at Lowe's for about 3 years. I love it.

I don't cut a lot of wood mostly just wood for burning in the backyard so I don't use the saw but three or four times a year.

No more worrying about the carb getting gummed up from ethanol gas.

 

[Todd727]

Do keep in mind that leaning the mix out can and will cause scoring of the cylinder walls. I'd not exceed 50-1 under any circumstances.

Adding more oil actually leans out the air-fuel mixture if you don't make carb adjustments.

 

[A-P]

I use Tru fuel, they sell it here at Tractor Supply or some automotive places. Works well.
I also use the Husqvarna pre-mix. My saws can't tell the difference, or at least I can't tell the difference.
I use the non-mix for the splitter and it likes it much better than e-gas from the pump.
If I run regular e-gas in the mower I will run the last tank of the season with non ethanol gas.
E-gas gums up the carburetor otherwise. Its all expensive, but I can work when I have time without any fuss.
Now I concentrate on keeping the blades sharp and an annual tune up and that's it. Priceless.

 

[John_Mc]

One thing that video dont show.
Always tune your OPE to your mix and ratio run period. Oils are different and gas is different. Tune to what you run.
Heck tune can change in same day for those that pay attention to such stuff because of weather from morning to evening.
But I am guessing most folks have no clue how to tune and why they run as is. Also why they come out with AT MT and Injection IMHO.

Learn your OPE and the H L I and how to tune.

I agree 100%. I can't comment on whether TruFuel is good stuff or not, since I've never used it. I've seen that video before, and frankly I'm a bit disgusted with it. For someone who professes to be a mechanic, she should know that you can't just dump in a different fuel and fire it up and claim to be testing the fuel. The saw needs to be tuned to the fuel it is using. With the newer auto-tune saws, this is not an issue, as long as you run the saw enough to let it adjust for the new fuel - but those blowers were not auto-tune.) I suspect that the blower that lost all those RPMs on the high end was just running rich.

Great reply! Is there a video you can recommend for that subject?

One of the best descriptions on tuning saws is at the Madsen's web site. Try this link:

Chainsaw Tips & Tricks | Madsen's Shop

Madsen's specializes in serving professional chain saw users. If you make your living with a chain saw -- or just want the kind of tools or garments used by some of the hardest working people on the planet, Madsen's is for you.

www.madsens1.com

Then click on the saw tuning link in the right hand column. It's a good text description, and they have some good audio files so you can hear what it sounds like when tuned to various conditions. You'll need good speakers or headphones to hear the sound clearly. Many laptops or tablet/phone speakers are just not good enough to hear things clearly in these audio files.

Note when tuning:
Do not run the saw for extended periods at full throttle under no load.

I prefer tuning by ear to tuning with a tachometer. When I was first learning, I would tune by ear, then check with a tach just to verify where I was. Madsen's method has you setting the high mixture with the saw out of the wood. Their method does work well, but some newer saws (but not so new as to have auto-tune) have a rev-limited coil. When the saw hit the rev limit, the noise it makes can be confused with the burble that a saw makes when running just slightly rich. Since hitting the rev limit can be an indication that the saw is adjusted too lean, someone who confuses the two can damage their saw by running it too lean. It's very important to make sure the burble you hear is coming from the saw being slightly rich - a saw running rich is generally below it's rev limit. Then slowly tweak it leaner until the sound just "cleans up" at full throttle. richen it slightly till the burble comes back then try cutting some wood: the saw should burble slightly at full throttle out of the wood, and clean up as you start to cut.

If you like videos, there are a lot of good ones out there. Unfortunately, there are also a lot of bad ones out there. This one is good. He uses a similar procedure as the Madsen's one but is doing his high speed tests mostly in the wood, then easing off the pressure on the saw to listen for the burble. By testing in the wood, the RPMS drop well below the rev limit, so he avoids any confusion. He still has the saw set slightly rich for my taste: he has to put a bit of pressure in it for the sound to "clean up" under load. However, he mentions that he is doing that intentionally ince the saw is breaking in. I bookmarked this video because he gives a decent description and because the sound is clear enough to easily hear the burble at full throttle that he and Madsen's talk about,

 

[boatmoter]

What is the best and experience? I got a gallon of Red Armor. We have e-gas here and it's terrible. Not cheap but is it worth it??? Im a retired ASE master automotive tech. when they came out with the Ethanol fuel I seen it was going to be a huge problem,not only does it eat up a regular steel exhaust system,you will lose around 9 miles to the gallon using it. it also will clog an injector up after running it for years. unless you have the flex fuel system on your car,not many come with that. it will ruin the carb's on small engines. so I always use non Ethanol in all my small engines. if you do not have that option,use the recommended amount of seafoam in every tank full

 

[John_Mc]

Others have mentioned the pure-gas website. I's a great resource for finding non-ethanol gas. It is user-maintained, so it relies on users keeping things up to date. If you find a gas station with non-ethanol available, please add it. If one listed no longer carries it, please update the description or delete the station from the list.

Pure-gas.org - ethanol-free gasoline in the U.S. and Canada

Pure-gas.org is the definitive web site listing stations that sell pure gasoline in the U.S. and Canada.

www.pure-gas.org

NOTE: if you leave out the "-" in the name and just use puregas dot org, it takes you to a different web site that prompts you to download an app. There is no "cancel" button. This makes me suspicious that it is a malware site trying to get you to download something you don't want on your computer or smartphone. I can't be sure, but I'm not about to click on it to find out. I just closed the tab.

 

[2manyrocks]

There are some youtube videos showing how to remove ethanol from gas. Would this make better sense for someone who lives in an area where the only gas for sale has ethanol in it ?

 

[redmt]

VP 50-1 I run it in all my 2 strokes. No issues, no problems, never a hard start, stores well for a couple years if needed. I buy 5 gallon cans. Expensive but worth the expense .