Chainsaw winter bar oil?

Johnny

Johnny

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Not sure if this is a huge issue or not, a bit out of my wheel house honestly.
I'm going to be running a Stihl 271 at or below 32f and do not have access to winter weight bar oil.

What are my options?
I've used 10/40 motor oil for years but I'm not crazy about running it it my "good" saw.
I've read about people using vegetable oil straight or a mix with bar oil, seams beyond sketchy to me.
 
I run same year round and never had a issue. Might just not oil as much so if you have a adjustable oiler you could bump it up a little but bet you will not see a diffrence as the saw running will heat the oil enough.
 
They make winter chainsaw oil. It’s about 20 weight. Chainsaw oil has additive to make it cling to the bar. I asked this question couple years ago and a professional told me in sub temps he runs 5-20 synthetic car oil. He also said if he is out of oil he takes his wife‘s canola cooking oil in winter.

I would think if the saw is properly warmed up 3 season oil is good to freezing point.
 
Cut the bar half with canola or vegetable oil. Keeping it warm also helps
 
Your saw will be fine with your standard bar oil above 20 degrees. Make sure the bar port is clean and inside the sprocket cover. Get some heat in the saw before you go WOT.
There probably isn't a gallon of Stihl winter bar oil to be found at dealers in Pender county. Some western NC Stihl dealers don't even stock it.
 
Fullboost21 said:
Your saw will be fine with your standard bar oil above 20 degrees. Make sure the bar port is clean and inside the sprocket cover. Get some heat in the saw before you go WOT.
There probably isn't a gallon of Stihl winter bar oil to be found at dealers in Pender county. Some western NC Stihl dealers don't even stock it.
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You ever see any Sabre oil around?
I hear good things about it.
Low carbon etc.
 
Slacker said:
You ever see any Sabre oil around?
I hear good things about it.
Low carbon etc.
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Never used it myself. A guy at work talked about trying some out since he runs thier other oils in his Harley.
I only use Stihl platinum bar oil and silver bottle HP ultra 50:1 mix in my saws. I used to run the orange bottle woodcutter bar & chain oil with no problems. The platinum keeps the bar a little cooler.

On a side note for others reading, I know commercial tree crews that run the cheaper bar oils and don't have problems. As long as it's bar & chain oil with a tackifier it should be fine. Typically the only oil pump failures that we see are from motor oil.
I have seen a lot of blown up equipment from cheap 2 cycle mix through.
 
It isn't rocket surgery, I have used old used oil for years.
 
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The Cam2 chainsaw oil seems to be a bit thinner than standard bar oils. I've used it in the winter before and liked it. Rural King used to stock it.
 
Fullboost21 said:
Never used it myself. A guy at work talked about trying some out since he runs thier other oils in his Harley.
I only use Stihl platinum bar oil and silver bottle HP ultra 50:1 mix in my saws. I used to run the orange bottle woodcutter bar & chain oil with no problems. The platinum keeps the bar a little cooler.

On a side note for others reading, I know commercial tree crews that run the cheaper bar oils and don't have problems. As long as it's bar & chain oil with a tackifier it should be fine. Typically the only oil pump failures that we see are from motor oil.
I have seen a lot of blown up equipment from cheap 2 cycle mix through.
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The guys at Ope are big haters of the Stihl silver Bottle. Smells bad, lots of carbon, gives headache etc etc.
I like the echo brand stuff 50:1.
Avoid the royal purple. Tons of carbon in my saws.
 
Slacker said:
The guys at Ope are big haters of the Stihl silver Bottle. Smells bad, lots of carbon, gives headache etc etc.
I like the echo brand stuff 50:1.
Avoid the royal purple. Tons of carbon in my saws.
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Smell never bothered me with any mix, but im in & out of a shop all day so maybe im used to it. Silver bottle keeps the high hour 4 mix engines clean with no scoring on the cylinder or piston / rings. Never had to clean the spark arrestor screens on any of my equipment.
I also sell the Echo power blend gold, we use it in the shop at work. I really like the Echo red armor.
 
Fullboost21 said:
Smell never bothered me with any mix, but im in & out of a shop all day so maybe im used to it. Silver bottle keeps the high hour 4 mix engines clean with no scoring on the cylinder or piston / rings. Never had to clean the spark arrestor screens on any of my equipment.
I also sell the Echo power blend gold, we use it in the shop at work. I really like the Echo red armor.
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I never thought about 4 mix.
I have a FS110R 4 mix that's been with me for 16 years now. I will keep an eye out for Red Armor.
 
My Grandpa had a “backup” oiler can similar to this one for his old Husgvarna saw which had the old old school manual lever pump oil system (which he ran 30w motor oil) for various reasons …

5C0D3185-EB8E-4241-ACFA-E7BAA426E7C1.jpeg

… The first was in summer when having to cut a “wet” tree (especially a “damn sweet gum”) he’d run a half & half mixture of my Gramdma’s vegetable oil and #2 fuel oil (aka non-road taxed diesel). It half added extra lubrication to the chain and bar while keeping the sap from gumming everything up so quick (he also had a bucket of straight #2 to drop the extra chain in to start soaking of the sweet gun sap while using another chain. The second was in winter having to cut downed rain/snow/ice trees and he ran all vegetable oil in it for extra lubrication needed to cut water soaked wood. In the winter he‘d sit the old can oiler on the truck engine (near the exhaust manifold) to keep it warm and easy to pump. Old school simple solutions I still sometimes fall back on today because simple solutions many times work better than modern crap.
 
The saw motor will warm up the bar oil enough unless it is bitter cold, I mean cold enough to freeze the sap in the log.
If it is cold enough to freeze the sap then you don't need to be cutting wood unless you want to wear out your chain in a hurry cutting frozen wood.
 
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