Alan,
I just read with interest what Charles wrote. 30 years ago I raced 2 stroke
motorcycles for a couple years. My "pit partner", teacher, racing partner
and overall very good friend was (retired) sportscar racer Bob OKer, his
wife Ila and son Bill. Bob raced a Rickman with a 100cc Hodaka engine and I
raced a 100cc Hodaka "Super Rat". When Bob was racing professionally he was
also a distributor for "STEEN C", which back then was called a "chemical
lubricant" (before the Yuppy term of "synthetic oil"). Now after 30+ years
my math may be off so don't quote me, but I seem to remember that Hodaka
recommended mixing the fuel/oil at a 25:1 ratio. We used STEEN C and mixed
it at 50:1. We also used STEEN C in the gearbox, replacing the normal gear
oil. In several years of racing, we never had a piston seizure, 'holed'
piston or other engine failure. Considering the "torture" those little
engines put up with, it was pretty impressive stuff!!! Another "acid test":
Bob, about 10 miles into a 190 mile desert race (the "Checkers Chase" of
1970), knocked a hole in the bottom of the transmision case on his Rickman.
All the oil drained out of the box. Bob continued another 180 miles to
finish without any gearbox problems!!!
Like Chuck said, your not working with a 2 stroke engine, but I with the
experience we had with using it in the motorcycle gearbox's, I would
recommend it.
I don't know if STEEN C is still available or not. Bill is on this list and
possibly can provide that answer. In the meantime I can assuredly tell
you......... STEEN is some good stuff!
Carl
----- Original Message -----
Subject: Re: Castrol "R" alternative
> alan,
> i'll give this a try.
> my 2 stroke saab runs synthetic racing grade 2 stroke oil. why am i
> responding to your question with this answer? i have done a bit of oil
> research for my race engines based upon my father using castrol"R" when
he
> raced as his choice of "best " oil for racing back in the 50's and 60's.
i
> was searching for a best modern alternative. i found that castrol "R"
was
> still available in it's home market but no longer exported. also i was
> told that it's been reformulated from the original oil once available.
now
> if that's true or not i'm uncertain. but no matter i did get an
education
> on the fact that castor bean based oil is organic and water based. unless
> you use evry bit of it and keep it agitated (mixed) frequently it will
turn
> to a gooey sludge and provides no protection from corosion. so i decided
> to not follow through with trying to import some for racing my saab.
what
> i did find was another interesting thing in 2 stroke oils! low ash high
ash
> organic 2 stroke oils and synthetic 2 stroke oils. (outboard motor oil
is
> not a super choice!) my recomendation would be to seek a 2 stroke oil wich
> suits your situation. the best choices i have been offered are silkolene
> pro 2 , silkolene comp 2 or spectro oils"golden spectro".
> the silkolene is primarilly a motorcycle synthetic used by many racers
with
> high sucess. since you will be spinning it into the mix to be burned it
> would be desireable to have a clean burning low residue oil. that
equates
> to easier starts and greatly reduced plug failure and a lower rate of
> deposit in the exhaust system and combustion chambers. (these are
importaint
> to my 2 stroke) now i realise you are not working on a 2 stroke engine
but
> i think if you contact any of the leading racing 2 stroke manufacturers
they
> can recomend a modern alternative to the lack-o-castrol"R" in north
> america.
> just my rambling thoughts on your search.
>
> chuck.
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