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BANNED: 2-stroke engines.

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  • BANNED: 2-stroke engines.

    I have also posted this on a related-but-not-boats enthusiasts' site and I make no apology for doing so. In this case, website envy is uncalled for, and all 2-stroke guys need to show solidarity:


    A fellow I know got into racing shifter karts this last summer. Like me, he lives on the outskirts of southeast Seattle, but he was doing all of his racing at the other end of the state, in the Spokane area, making for a long, tiresome drive. I asked if there were any shifter kart races out here, like maybe at Pacific Raceways, a big old sportscar/roadrace/drag/dirtbike track, also on the outskirts of southeast Seattle. He said, "Pacific has shifter karts, and I'd love to race there, but they don't allow 2-strokes."

    This is happening all over. There are more and more lakes that don't allow 2-stroke outboard motors. People who know nothing about 2-strokes, especially in government and among the "greens," all have been telling each other that 2-strokes are massively polluting the environment. I read of one of these self-appointed "experts," a nice young woman from the environmentalist movement, a person who had never changed a sparkplug or had a speck of grease under her sensibly-short nails, testifying before Congress as an expert witness saying that legislation was needed to outlaw "filthy two-stroke engines."

    Of course, this earnest, well-intentioned sweetheart actually didn't know a single thing about 2-strokes, and had probably never even heard of them before she read one of the anti-2-stroke articles, all reproducing the same set of bogus statistics and wild misinformation, that have been floating around the green movement for years. And any gearhead knows how this got started. Sixty years ago, 2-stokes could be pretty bad. They ran basically 30wt oil ("bunker C") at 20:1, 16:1, even 12:1, and de-carboning the exhaust port was a regular maintenance item . . . if the owner happened to be savvy enough to really DO any maintenance. Outboard motors had a little 1/16" bleed hole in the lower crankshaft oil seal that let excess oil drain out of the crankcase and into the lake when the engine was at trolling speeds. The blue haze was easy enough to see, back then.

    But today we run high-tech 2-stroke oils at 80:1, 100:1, even 120:1 in our outboards, chainsaws, weedeaters, and in our bikes/sleds/quads. Any carbon buildup in the exhaust port is slow and minimal. Fishing motors no longer have the oil-bleed hole, it having been replaced in the late '60s to early-'70s with oil recirculators. Yet our engines are still criminalized as "filthy."

    Unfortunately, Hapless Harry Homeowner buys a weedeater but never reads the owner's manual. After using it the first time, running very clean on modern oil and fresh gas, he then leaves in in the shed for weeks, with the pre-mix oil falling out of suspension to the bottom of the fuel, with the lighter "igniter" fuel fractions evaporating away, and with the deteriorated gas (gasohol) absorbing condensation from the inside of the half-empty fuel tank and crudding-up the tiny fuel passages and screens in the little pumper carburetor.

    So when Hapless Harry goes to weedwhack the next time, which he does without shaking up the de-mixed premix that's in the tank, he first has an awful time getting the machine to start at all. If it does start, it smokes like mad because the carburetor is running rich due to its jets and screens being partly gummed with the cruddy fuel, and also because it is drawing a very oil-rich mixture from the bottom of the tank. If Harry's luck is really bad, the engine will sieze after it has run through the oil-rich fuel at the bottom of the tank and got to the oil-lean mixture that's left. And like every one of these dopes, he will tell you, "TWO-STROKES!! I HATE TWO-STROKES!! TWO-STROKES ARE CRAP!! Ironic, isn't it? In the hands of a clueless general public, the mechanically-simplest, lightest, least-expensive, and handiest engine option we have becomes an object of hatred. And the (largely) college Liberal Arts majors with their soft, pink, clean hands, the class of people who are very heavily represented both in all levels of governments and their bureaucracies, and in the green movement, all are very sure that every 2-stroke engine is an undesirable, smoke-belching relic of the past that should be outlawed and consigned to a museum.

    And so, we lose our lakes, our trails, our race sites, our simple machines.

    What I want to know is whether anyone has seen one of these 2-stroke bans being successfully fought against by our side, and how this was done. Or if anybody has any practical ideas (say, somebody in the marketing or P.R. biz, or in government) on how this might be done.
    Attached Files
    Last edited by Smitty; 01-15-2014, 01:14 PM.




  • #2
    Carl Kiekhaefer, the smart, imperious engineer and industrialist who originated Mercury outboard motors after WW2, bought his own lake in Florida, "Lake X," for developmental testing of his engines, which he manufactured in Wisconson. From the Fifties on, tens of thousands of gallons of pre-mix were run through outboard motors on that lake. Little motors, big motors, motors that were trolling, motors that were accellerating, motors running flat-out, including three Mk78s on Raveau runabouts that ran day and night for fifty thousand miles (or some large figure, I forget) in an endurance run that was heavily advertised in the late Fifties.

    Somewhere in the mid-to-late-Sixties, when the Left took over the environmental movement (during the Eisenhower years this was called "conservation," and was a mainstream Republican issue; how times do change!), somebody at Kiekhaefer Corp decided they should commission a study on the residual effects of all of the almost-entirely 2-stroke engine testing on Lake X, which had fairly limited in- and out-flows. Interestingly, and maybe surprisingly to all, results of the study showed no such effects. Any oil getting into the lake (and remember what I said above about the old engines with their excess-oil-drains and their heavy premix ratios and primitive oils) apparently was evaporating or being consumed by bacteria.

    (EDIT) Not my "tens of thousands of gallons;" three million gallons! If interested link to this and scroll down a little way to section V, part A:

    http://www.wakeworld.com/MB/Discus/m...6-02-80813.pdf

    But that doesn't matter to today's "experts," who are banning 2-strokes on one lake after another, just as they are banning us from the woods and from the racetracks.
    Last edited by Smitty; 01-16-2014, 11:35 AM.



    Comment


    • #3
      The link............

      is faulty? perhaps they deleted it because the report did not support their cause?
      "Keep Move'n" life is catching up!
      No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.

      Comment


      • #4
        Have you noticed how you don't hear anything about that massive BP oil spill in the Gulf a few years back ? This event was supposed to destroy the ecosystem in that area for at least 100 years . Well as it turns out there is a natural bacteria that consumes oil as a nutrient and after the spill this bacteria multiplied in response to the high level of nutrient (oil) that was present . Nature has done such a good job that the area has largely returned to pre spill. I guess it's just not as intertaining as a bunch of Hollywood experts crying on CNN.

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        • #5
          And who supported and voted these politicians making these anti two stroke decisions in office? I'm willing to bet many of them are outboard owners and even some are boat racers. The two stroke manufacturers exemptions in place now can be revoked by EPA at any time some EPA bureaucrat decides to, or the president issues an executive order decreeing it.

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          • #6
            30 weight oil is a long way from bunker C. The first lie always makes me disbelieve the rest of the story.

            Another little porky: 200-1 in weedeaters.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by hoosier View Post
              Have you noticed how you don't hear anything about that massive BP oil spill in the Gulf a few years back ? This event was supposed to destroy the ecosystem in that area for at least 100 years . Well as it turns out there is a natural bacteria that consumes oil as a nutrient and after the spill this bacteria multiplied in response to the high level of nutrient (oil) that was present . Nature has done such a good job that the area has largely returned to pre spill. I guess it's just not as intertaining as a bunch of Hollywood experts crying on CNN.
              Something else for them to think about: Here in Northwestern PA. we have a creek called Oil Creek, the reason is there is always a film of oil on it not great but the water has many, many "rainbows" and the fish, plants, waterfowl and everything else is thriving very well. It is also a good swimming creek. This is mostly a natural thing but the "booming oil industry" back in the day had some to do with it. 2 cycles have nothing on this creek and the funny thing is you never here of any "tree huggers" comments on this.

              Just my 2 cents on the 2 cycle topic. The world has much bigger problems to worry about than a few ounces of oil. Like why our "new and improved" fuels cause so many problems such as clogging up jets, hardening and deteriorating plastics, leaving a "varnish" after evaporating. Imagine what that does to the environment. Oh that's right it is new and improved so it must be better.

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              • #8
                Evinrude E-tec 2 strokes are advertised (and supposedly proven)to be "cleaner" than their 4-stroke counterparts. Are they also banned in the clean and green northwest? If so can I run a Briggs and Stratton OB (yes they exist) on these "clean" waterways?

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                • #9
                  Hoo boy

                  All I can say is that at some point in the very near future 2 stroke outboard engines are going to be banned in the United States. We as boat racers either deal with it or we are going to go away. Not saying I agree with it,,but it is going to happen. We either go to 4 stroke stuff or electric. the writing is on the wall. It is going to happen. Dave

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                  • #10
                    I think long before that Dave there will be ethanol in all the fuel we use
                    Mike - One of the Montana Boys

                    If it aint fast make it look good



                    Comment


                    • #11
                      everyone might have to run PRO bean oil and menthanol

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                      • #12
                        2 cycle

                        Knowing the government and their lack of knowledge and being pushed by the over zealous environmentalists they will probably ban 2 cycle engines on lakes and streams, etc. regardless of what oil and fuel it is running on. Just look what they did with E fuel?
                        "Keep Move'n" life is catching up!
                        No man's life, liberty or property are safe while the legislature is in session.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Electric

                          Heck - I see the potential of being force to use electric motors and battery packs... see this video of an electrical engineer in Oregon who modified an old Datsun - street legal and smokes on the drag strip (less than 12 seconds in a 1/4 mile)... Full torque right away. But hate to think of initial cost for battery pack...
                          http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=369h-SEBXd8

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            My understanding of the decline of the two stroke over the past 60 years is different. The free market and individual choice led to the demise of a lot of two cycle products.

                            In the 50s and 60s you could buy 2 cycle cars ( not all crap - look how collectable they are now ). But, people didnčt want small 2cycle car engines, sales fell and car companies quit production. Free markets not regulation.

                            In the 50s and 60s lots of people had 2 stroke lawnmowers and hated them. Noisy, dirty , messy and unreliable were the reasons they gave when they bought 4 strokes. Manufacturers, bowing to the invisible hand of the market stopped making 2strokes. Environmentalists and governments had nothing to do with it.

                            In the 60s and 70s 4 cycle motorcycle enthusiasm failed and lots of 2 stroke bikes were sold. Then the market changed and everyone wanted 4 stroke. Manufacturers heeded and phased out 2 strokes ( even for racing). Free choice not regulation.

                            Outboards are the same today. Lots of people hate 2 stoke outboards and love 4 cycle engines. People around here laugh at the thought of using a 2 stroke outboard. Not overnment regulation; free markets.

                            The only 2 strokes around now are weedeaters and chainsaws. I whack weeds with electricity and cut 7 cords a year with an electric chainsaw , working on days when I have excess solar power. No noise, no mixing fuel and no trips to town for gas. My version of freedom.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              California (unbelievable tree hugging) had to allow the e tec as it has lower emission's than all other 4 strokes. But Terry Clemm told me they were also doing away with bathrooms. hahahhahahah

                              Do any Americans live there??????

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