[zz28zz]

I've had a couple of 2-stroke street bikes. They did OK on plugs. My old 2-stroke dirt bikes were hard on plugs. Some of our race courses would change altitude by 4000+ ft. Either had to jet carb to risk siezing eng or foul some plugs. My tool bag was always filled with 4-5 extra NGK plugs for a 80-100 mile race. I experimented with different brand plugs. Denso and NGK did pretty good, all the others fouled quickly.

 

[whimsey29]

Did the first break in oil change after about 4 1/2 to 5 hours of running under 300W
-500W loads.There were no metal chunks in the oil. However, there is a fine metallic swirl in the oil, you can see it in the picture. I stuck a magnet in the oil and nothing stuck to it. So I'm assuming the swirl is aluminum. My Briggs 5,500W gen has an aluminum cylinder bore and it did the same on the first oil change and a little on the second oil change and by the third oil change no more swirl. The loads I've been using are portable 300W & 500W halogen shop lights. There is no flickering of the lights, they remain steady. As a back up gen when I'm looking for limited power to run lights, computers and even the fridge possibly, so I don't have to fire up the 5,500W Briggs,

this seems like a good deal at $170 including tax.

 

[GenKnot]

Run a magnet thru that stuff if you haven't already disposed of it. See what kind of ferrous particles are in it. Most of the shiny stuff will be aluminum.

EDIT: Oh, I see that you already tried the magnet in it.

 

[sledman8002002]

there is a fine metallic swirl in the oil, you can see it in the picture.

Not too bad for the 1st change IMO Whimsey. I've seen worse.

this seems like a good deal at $170 including tax.

Certainly comes across to me that way too! I'm still jealous but I hope you guys get plenty of life out of them 👍

 

[whimsey29]

Unless it blows up, this is my last post on this. After the recent first oil change I ran it under a 729W heater load for 1 hour. It ran flawlessly, the engine never hesitated, in fact it ran better than under the 300W & 500W halogen light loads I used previously. With those loads it would occasionally cause a hiccup in the engine running, but no flicker of the lights. This appears to be a good back up generator, especially for the price.