There’s a lot more to motor oils than car and truck engines. A whole world of equipment, from boats and snowmobiles to lawn mowers and chainsaws, runs on 2 cycle engines. These engines are fundamentally different from regular automobile engines, and 2 cycle engine oil performs very differently from regular motor oil.

The 2 cycle engine is called that because, unlike regular 4 cycle engines, it completes the four stages of operation (fuel intake, compression, combustion and exhaust) in only two strokes of the piston. A 2 cycle engine will be smaller, lighter and simpler than a 4 cycle engine, and it will usually run much faster – as many as three or four times as many RPMs at the same displacement.

A 2 cycle engine oil also works very differently. A 2 cycle oil is actually mixed directly with the fuel. Some engines do the mixing themselves, injecting oil directly into the combustion chamber, while in others the fuel and oil are pre-mixed manually. Conventional pre-mix 2 cycle oil is usually mixed at a fuel to oil ratio of 32:1 or 50:1.

Unlike regular motor oil, 2 cycle engine oil is meant to be consumed during the combustion process. This means a 2 cycle oil needs to not only provide a strong lubricating film. It also needs to combust as cleanly as possible to keep by-products from fouling the engine and exhaust ports.

These are both areas where synthetics greatly exceed conventional lubricants. A 2 cycle synthetic oil leaves fewer combustion byproducts to clog ports and harm performance. With synthetics, it takes less oil to do the job. Many pre-mix synthetic 2 cycle oils can be mixed at ratios as low as 100:1. Less oil going into the engine means less burned oil in the exhaust, while the tailored synthetic molecules provide better protection than conventional oils.

Synthetics can also be tailored to specific 2 cycle oil applications. For outboard motors, synthetic 2 cycle oil can be less toxic to surrounding water, while helping protect against rust. As a snowmobile oil, synthetics can be engineered for better fluidity at low temperatures to help engines start faster under cold conditions and run more smoothly.

Across the range of 2 cycle engines, synthetic 2 cycle oils can do a better job of reducing friction, which means fewer repairs and a longer engine life.