[76GMC1500]

My limited experience with 2-stroke oils is in 2-stroke dirt bike engines, but it has been an interesting experience. *I generally run whatever "quality" oil is priced right or I can get my hands on. *This ranges from $6 a quart Yamalube 2-R to $16.95 a quart Bel-Ray HC-1. *With an average lifespan for a piston of around 20 hours, it's pretty easy to see any accelerated or reduced wear. *

My conclusion so far is that I have seen no difference in wear no matter what oil I run except when I blow a crankshaft seal and start sucking crankcase oil. *

What I have seen are differences in cleanliness of the engine. *A major part of 2-stroke motorcycle maintenance is cleaning the exhaust valves. *My particular bike is notorious for fouling exhaust valves. *After running some of the brands of synthetic oils, my exhaust valves come out cleaner than they go in. *Of course, outboards don't have any such thing but keeping the ring grooves clean is important to maintaining proper ring seal. *My observations so far have been that the synthetic blends do carbon up some in the ring grooves, on the piston crown, on the exhaust valves, and on the combustion chamber. *Redline synthetic does leave deposits on the piston crown, none in the combustion chamber, minimal in the ring grooves, and some on the exhaust valves. *Bel-Ray HC-1 leaves some in the combustion chamber, minimal on the crown, none on the exhaust valves, and minimal in the ring grooves. *Amsoil Dominator performs very similarly to Redline. *Amsoil Interceptor is the interesting one. *Everything in the cylinder is absolutely spotless after the pistons entire lifetime of 20 hours. *I think the last engine we pulled apart had one fleck of carbon under the spark plug. *It's also one of the cheaper oils at $10.95 a quart.

I've also noticed that if you overheat the crown, you'll get carbon build-up on that hot spot regardless of what oil you burn.

Basically, if you have a boroscope available, you should use it to determine what oil keeps your engine the cleanest and run that oil. *Don't worry about brand, they all seem to do fine at wear protection.