Brown 2 stroke oil

[Jay Jay]

My son was working away from home and he rang and said that where he was working one of the men had some marine items to sell, an engine buggy, fire extinguisher and three quarters of a 25ltr of Exol 2 stroke oil for injection or pre mix outboards, well!! the oil smells ok ( not burnt ) a bit like the smell of sweet biscuits but it is Brown in colour, now I'm a bit weary of it. Any comments please???

 

[VicS]

The only Exol 2 stroke outboard oil I can find is dark blue
https://www.exol-lubricants.com/assets/data-docs/tds-new/Optima-Marine-2-Stroke-Blue-M298.pdf

 

[jdc]

Do some calculations.

Price of known-good 2-stroke oil: around £5 a litre. 3/4 of 25 litres at £5 a litre is £94. Suppose you get it for £24 (75% price reduction), that's £70 saved.

What price the engine? You want to buy 2-stroke oil for it in 25 litre quantities, so I bet it's not a Mariner 3.3 like mine (if I use 100ml a year I'd be surprised, so 25 litres would last me 250 years...). Say a 15HP (maybe 10x this - only you will know). Price of a new engine (if you can get one) £1300 (I just looked on Ebay; do your own sums for your engine(s).).

70 / 1300 = 5%. Are you 95% confident in this unknown fuel? If not at leat that confidant that it'll be good, it's a bad deal. And I've not begun to allow for the hassle, or the wasted petrol... You feeling lucky?

 

[KevinV]

I've had the colour fade out of 2-stroke oil (see through bottle in warm sunlit shed) but I've been 100% certain what oil it was and used it to no ill effect. As above, not sure I'd risk an engine on an unknown oil for the sake of a (in boating terms) tiny saving.

 

[Jay Jay]

Thank you everyone, I think I'll give it a miss it's not worth the hassle or an engine