2-cycle oil Anarchy

[Gabe_nyc 23]

I bought a used 7.5 hp Mercury 2-cycle motor in great shape.

It came w a dozen cans of very old, very dirty 2-cycle oil.

I assume that the oil itself does not go bad and that if I pour it into a clean container through a filter to keep crap on the outside of the can away, it will be useable.

That being said, I have no experience with any of this, so what do you all think?

[SloopJonB 12,567]

What is the "very dirty" bit about?

Is it new oil in unopened cans?

Just the fact it's in cans makes it several decades old.

 

[Gabe_nyc 23]

Very dirty on the outside.

Cans are unopened.

Cans are steel so if I wash them, they will rust.

My plan is to wash the cans and then transfer the oil to plastic containers (and filter it).

I don’t think that the oil itself would have degraded, but maybe modern oils have additives etc that make them superior and so I should just dump the old ones.

[Santanasailor 639]

Its a possibility that the old cans might have more value to a collector than the cost of replacing them with new oil.  Before busting them open or washing them, check out what you might find on eBay or possible look for a site that features semi-antique/collectible items.  

Frankly, I would go to the local walmart or west marine and get a modern 2 cycle oil and mix per recommendations for your engine.  

[IStream 3,415]

1. You can wash steel cans without them instantly turning to rust. Just dry them when you're done.

2. The oil inside is probably fine

3. There is no need to transfer the oil or filter it, as long as the area where the oil touches the can on its way out is clean

4. If the engine doesn't have a fuel filter, it would be a good idea to put one inline and that'll prevent any issues with dirty fuel/oil

5. In your shoes, I'd just buy new oil because it probably is better. I'll bet you can sell those cans on eBay. There's always some nut who'll pay money for useless "vintage" stuff.

[Zonker 5,241]

Yeah I'd bet modern 2 stroke oil has way better additives. That's less than a gallon of old oil.

For the amount of oil a 7.5 uses I would splash out and buy a gallon of new oil.

[Gabe_nyc 23]

2 minutes ago, IStream said:

1. You can wash steel cans without them instantly turning to rust. Just dry them when you're done.

Some of the cans already have a bit of rust on the outside (mostly on the bottom).

FWIW, availability of plastic containers is not much of a challenge (:-)

[Gabe_nyc 23]

9 minutes ago, IStream said:

5. In your shoes, I'd just buy new oil because it probably is better.

 

6 minutes ago, Zonker said:

Yeah I'd bet modern 2 stroke oil has way better additives. That's less than a gallon of old oil.

For the amount of oil a 7.5 uses I would splash out and buy a gallon of new oil.

That was my thought too, but I just hated waste potentially-good stuff just because I didn’t know any better (:-)

[Blitz 122]

I'm sure the oil is fine. Modern oils are better though.  Does it say tcw3 on the can?  That's a rating on the newer oils.  If it has that I would use it.

[Gabe_nyc 23]

On 8/1/2021 at 1:16 PM, IStream said:

I'll bet you can sell those cans on eBay. There's always some nut who'll pay money for useless "vintage" stuff.

The cans did not say “TCW3” so the oil itself has gone on to “Recycling Heaven” (:-)

I don’t want to mess with ebay for this, but if any of you are feeling nostalgic for some old cams, DM me today and they can be yours for the cost of the postage.

[casc27 151]

Looks like you tossed out almost $200...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/272375572345

[Gabe_nyc 23]

2 hours ago, casc27 said:

Looks like you tossed out almost $200...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/272375572345

Meh ... mine were older and half the size, but also, if you subtract the time it would have taken to list them on eBay, answer questions, etc, etc, ... 

Doing all that might have severely cut down the amount of time I have available to post dumb questions and even dumber answers on SA (:-)