How to tell 2 stroke from petrol

[Maico490]

Must admit I'm a bit confused. The first pic looked like it had either been run lean or straight gassed leading to aluminium tranfer to the bore. The second pic though shows what looks like a new piston but what the globules are is anyones guess. Try taking the plug out and then turn the saw upside down and pull it over several times. Put a new plug in and then see if it will start. Don't pull more than about six times on full choke as it can be easy to miss the "pop" and flood newer saws.

My guess is that someone has fitted a new piston and it still wouldn't go so is offloading it. Try searching the bloke's history to see if he bought it as a non-runner.

[likeitorlumpit]

fitters do a smoke test i believe it consists of setting fire to the fuel

2 stroke burns smokier.

it may even be a bit more sophisticated than this but i forget my learning

[GardenKit]

fitters do a smoke test i believe it consists of setting fire to the fuel

2 stroke burns smokier.

it may even be a bit more sophisticated than this but i forget my learning

We do smoke tests, but its a bit hit and miss as some oils burn cleaner than others and stale fuel burns smokier than fresh.

 

The evaporation test on clean white paper can also be affected by the age of the petrol, as fresh,straight, petrol evaporates cleanly, but stale fuel leaves behind the soilds that have formed, so leaves a dirty paper which could be mistaken for oil.

 

It is possible to 'feel' the oil between thumb and forefinger, but once again its difficult to be sure.

 

The sure way is to to use the chemical testing kits, but due to the cost of them we tend only to use them to solve disputes.

[spudulike]

Whats happened to the original poster - has the saw started yet?

[Old WoodChip]

The piston looks new, the bore you cant really see whats going on. I think if he has been using an old saw in the past he maybe used to starting that & it sounds like he dont use them much (IMO) and if you get a saw off ebay it would make sense to strip it anyway, even if it did start easy but thats just me, I like stripping things :-)

He didnt say if it was a cheap non runner or even almost new?