Mixing small amounts of 2-cycle fuel

This is quite frightening. I am writing my congressman right now, demanding that legislation be passed requiring all small engines be clearly labeled:

"DANGER! DO NOT DRINK FROM FUEL TANK!"

I hope to heck I'm not too late.

Reply to
Plague Boy
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There are 96 teaspoons to a cup measure. Two heaping teaspoons per pint gives you roughly a 50/1 mix or one teaspoon per 8 oz. cup. Get a cup and teaspoon kitchen measure and keep them in a plastic bag in the garage just for this purpose. Two cups fill my weed eater or small chain saw.

HTH

Reply to
RLM

Heaping?

Reply to
salty

FULL!

Reply to
RLM

96 to a cup measure? I went to milliliters to avoid such mixups. I mix up in a small soda bottle because it's foolproof to get the oil fully mixed, it's dandy to pour from, and I can save anything that won't fit in the tank.
Reply to
E Z Peaces

I tried it this weekend. 500ml water bottle full of StaBil'ized gasoline, plus 10ml of Castrol 2-cycle oil measured with an old syringe. It was just enough to fill the tank of my Echo weedcutter. (I didn't know it had such a large tank.) I could probably mix the fuel directly in the tank now that I know that, but it's a lot easier to pour from a small bottle than from a 6 gallon gas can.

I don't know how long the syringe is gonna last. The oil may dissolve or swell the rubber plunger and ruin it.

Bob

Reply to
zxcvbob

Where are you? 1 US cup = 48 US teaspoons....

Reply to
BQ340

On the farm, where I did a lot of sawing and string trimming, I'd mix a liter at a time. I used a piston syringe with a long tube, intended to inject medicine down the throat of a lamb. As I recall, the o ring went bad in a year or so.

The tube would reach to the bottom of an oil bottle. I used it with a turkey baster, which lasted several years. Eventually the bulb cracked, not from oil but from air. I replaced the baster.

With age, the tube shrank, which meant it took longer to draw the required amount of oil, especially in cold weather. I should have replaced the tube with clear 1/4" tubing just long enough to reach the bottom of a bottle.

Now that I use a smaller soda bottle, I use a cheap plunger syringe. Some cheap syringes may be impervious to oil. At a store the other day I saw cheap bulb syringes intended to measure a dose of medicine.

Reply to
E Z Peaces

You've got me thinking about using a soda bottle to transfer gas from an approved can to my 4-cycle push mower. If I run out 200 yards from the garage, that's half a mile of walking to fetch and return the gas can, and I'm likely to spill some when I fill the tank.

Topping off before going out could reduce such occurrences, but topping off from an approved can invites spilling. Besides, if I have to tip the mower on the side, less gas in the tank means less chance of leaking from the cap or through the carburetor. In storage, less gas in the tank means less to lose by seepage, possibly into the crankcase. In long-term storage, an empty tank and carburetor are probably better than Stabil.

If I had to fetch a liter of gas for my mower, using a soda bottle could mean no spilling, from the can to the bottle or from the bottle to the mower. It could cut my walking in half because I could use a cord to hang the empty bottle from the handle.

If I started out with a full soda bottle (or two) hanging from the crossbar on the handle, I would never have to top off the tank because I'd have a visible reserve. No more hassle if I have to tip the mower on its side. If I didn't want the bottle hanging as I mowed, I untie it at the work site. This could even make it practical to run the mower dry before putting it away. Unused gas could be poured back into the approved container.

Reply to
E Z Peaces

Walmart sells a large syringe made specifically for mixing oil with gas. I think it's less than $5.

Reply to
salty

Using food containers for gasoline is risky. No matter how close you watch, some ignorant person will think it's food. I'd prefer something like a used paint thinner can. Painted red, of course.

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

My paint thinner comes in a plastic gallon jug like antifreeze. For that much gas, I'd rather use an approved container. A paint-thinner can could get knocked over, and the cardboard cap seals I've seen aren't reliable. I don't know how well that kind of plastic would stand up to gasoline. I'd hate one day to mix gasoline with paint by mistake.

To transfer gas from an approved can to a lawn mower, the size and opacity of a paint-thinner can could lead to spills.

If I used a soda bottle for a visible fuel reserve for a 4-cycle mower, I'd remove the label and write all over the bottle with magic marker. I'd pour the gas back into the approved can when I finished mowing.

Reply to
E Z Peaces

Sorry, my mistake, I had looked this up before and posted it right and didn't this time.

96 teaspoons per pint. 48 per cup.
Reply to
RLM

I only want to mix a cup of gas at 40:1 how much oil will it take

Reply to
shadowbum101

1/40th of a cup.
Reply to
RonNNN

One fortieth of a cup.

Actually a teaspoon is 1:48 of a cup if that helps.

Reply to
Frank

0.2 ounces of oil. Roughly 6 cc's if you happen to have a syringe around or can get one.
Reply to
Unquestionably Confused

6 ml is almost (5.9) spot on...the other way it's 1.2 tsp to guesstimate.
Reply to
dpb

That's correct too. I used to work in a lab and have some old graduated cylinders for stuff like this. My wife has a measuring cup in both ounces and milliliters but graduations are not that fine.

Reply to
Frank

To answer your question expressly, it will probably take less oil than you have, unless you are out of oil. If you start with a cup of gas, you'll need to add a tenth of a quarter cup of oil to it (alternatively, you could instead add a quarter of a tenth of a cup of oil--which depending upon how you go about it, may yield greater accuracy). This will be facilitated by the use of a cup with metric graduations. Making your own graduated measuring cup from a narrow cylindrical container (think of a test tube), should give you results that are as accurate as you please. If you would like to end up with exactly a cup of gas and oil, the calculations get messier. It may be easiest to begin with a cup of gas, proceed as in the first case, and then discard all but a cup of that solution (well-mixed). Alternately, you could look up how many teaspoons or tablespoons are in a cup (8 fluid oz.) and divide that number by 40 to determine the amount of oil that you would need in terms of those units (2 decimal digits will probably suffice, depending on your purposes, if you are using a calculator). Don't smoke while you are performing this work. Hope this helps! Good luck!

Reply to
Bill

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