OutdoorKing Repair Forum

Good Afternoon Gents,

I�ve got one of those chuzuki 2-stroke motors (ie. a clone of the Suzuki M120X) that Masport sold as the �IronForce� (as distinct from the earlier IronHorse) on some of their mowers for a relatively short period back in the noughties. The motor in question features in the following video (which was not made by myself)�



I bought my particular unit off a footpath-collector a couple of years ago, and from memory I think the compression tested in the high-90�s at the time, which was at least as good as either of my Suzukis - neither of which are unduly smokey. When running, however, the chuzuki has been consistently smokey, no matter what I try...

At first I thought that perhaps the previous owner had tried to use some motor oil instead of proper 2-stroke oil in his fuel mix, and the stuff had perhaps sludged up on the inside walls of the crankcase. However, I�ve run the thing for long enough myself now that the amount of proper fuel that would have since travelled through the crankcase would have surely been enough to de-sludge it. And the oil I use is Castrol Activ 2T, which is quite pricey, and formulated amongst other things to reduced smokiness.

The next thing I tried was to swap over a properly cleaned and adjusted Mikuni carb from my standby Suzuki onto the chuzuki, but this didn�t yield any improvement in the situation either. Nor did swapping the plug over with a genuine NGK, in place of the possible NGK-clone that was originally installed in the unit (You never know with the Chinese, do you�) The plug colour is actually not too bad, and the exhaust port is more or less fully clear. The air-filter sponge is also good.

Anyway, if you watch the video that I linked to above, you�ll notice that the guy guns the unit slightly at about the 50sec-mark. The result: smoke abounds, in much the same fashion as with mine. There's also a few short write-ups over at ProductReview and one particular chap there really bags the model for, amongst other things, its smokiness:

http://www.productreview.com.au/p/masport-2-stroke-iron-force.html

So, in conclusion, I�m just wondering whether anyone else here has got one of these things themselves, and if so - is it smokey, or were you able to do something with it that somehow got on top of the smokiness?

Or, has it perhaps been unsmokey for you since purchase?

Many Thanks in advance
Moby Mick.

Out of curiosity Mick what fuel ratio are you using, tried leaning the oil out on it a bit to see what that does

Crikey that was quick Norm! I should have mentioned in my opening post that I'm actually running the thing on the same roughly-45:1 mix that I put through the Suzukis, because the possible over-oiliness of the chuzuki's specified 30:1 mix was one of my own first gut-reactions too. I also can't be bothered with trying to stay on top of what would have to be a dedicated separate fuel mix for it either, given that my trimmers are both 50:1 Stihl's, and also how hot it gets up here in Brisbane during the summer, which doesn't do the fuel much good after a while. So the long and the short of it is that it is already running on a leaner mix (approx. 45:1) than what the manufacturer would otherwise wish (which is 30:1) Good thought tho'.

Best Wishes,
Mick.

Try 50:1 mix ( as with Suzukis) and use it with 95 premium and another brand of 2 stroke.
Are you using 2 stroke for outboards rather than the stuff for garden equipment.
Try getting synthetic 2 stroke.

Hello Mowerfreak, and thanks for some reasonable suggestions that certainly couldn't hurt to try. However, the only catch is that the current fuel mix - a'la 91 and Castrol Activ 2T - is running quite un-smokily in my two Suzuki daily drivers as well as in the Stihl trimmers. To me, that's enough of a reason to not look into more expensive fuels and oil types as a long term fix for the Chuzuki's problem (because for one thing, the price of a bottle of full-synthetic would most likely exceed what I paid for the Chuzuki!)

For what its worth, the Activ 2T is certainly a step up from your average domestic garden-variety 2-stroke oil, and it's certainly not formulated for water-cooled outboards. In my own humble opinion, when bought on special in a 4L bottle, it's probably the optimum compromise between price and quality for use with outdoor power equipment, and I probably wouldn't have even gone for something in its price range except that I'm very attached to my Suzuki's, and thus wanting to look after them.

The petrol-octane suggestion would be a bit less painful to try, though. Come to think of it, I probably already have given it a whirl, courtesy of filling up the fuel can a couple of times in the past with 95 at petrol stations that only seemed to offer 91 in E10. But since I do the bulk of the mowing with the Suzukis, and wasn't paying proper attention to the Chuzuki when I gave it its regular little run, I can't remember what the result was. But I'll certainly pay attention next time.

Best Wishes for now,
Mick.

When you try the 95 again, do 50:1 as well and let us know of any difference big or small.

Just a thought, have you checked that the muffler is not restricting the exhaust? Is it smokey all the time or just under revs? Because to my way of thinking the only way it should be smokey with modern 2 stroke oils is if combustion is incomplete, something that may happen if the exhaust is not free flowing. Try pulling the muffler off and running it and see if it is any different.

+1 to aussietrev on this one.
To be smokey, it has to be running rich. The 'no change with carby substitution' test tells us that the problem lies elsewhere, so the muffler is the next suspect on the list.

It may not just be carbon either - I picked up a couple of Echo SRM200DB brushcutters for crazy cheap recently, and one had the muffler [no spark arrester mesh on this model] plugged solid with mud wasps' handiwork.

It was filled completely; they had even got through the small holes in the baffles, and filled the cylinder exhaust port as well! Luckily, the port was closed by the piston, so they didn't get into the cylinder itself.

Had the machine running about 15 mins after I finished cleaning the crud out of the muffler!

You should be up here in rural Queensland if you think mudwasps are a pest down there Gadge. We have a variety up here that is so small they are hardly visible and can get into holes that you would not think anything should be able to get into let alone take mud and food to provision and seal the nest for their young, and turn around inside and fly out again. It always fascinates me how minute all the things like muscles and organs must be inside those tiny bodies. For example, how the hell does anything pass through the body of a pin waisted wasp?

If we are going to move to entomology, I recently discovered spiders don't even have muscles (I know they aren't insects- but they interact with them). They use hydraulics to move their legs.

So if you really want to talk about spiders


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...th-in-one-year

Assorted Gentleman - thank-you for your various replies, and my apologies for my own tardiness in getting back to you.

Mower freak - By all means I will try the 95 and the 50:1 mix, but don�t hold your breath, because it will be a good couple of weeks before I need any more petrol, and then need to actually use it.

Aussietrev & Gadge - Yes, in addition to inspecting the muffler, and trying to avoid being stung in the eye by a Mud Wasp when doing so, I�ll also attempt to rate the motor�s smokiness at both cold and warm temperatures when variously idling, accelerating, running at WOT without load, and also at WOT under load, when I wheel it out for some cyclone-aftermath-grade lawnmowing this week.

Best Wishes,
Mick.

I'm a bit of a nut about spiders and in fact have supplied photos and specimens for a recent review of the ant mimic family Corrinnidae by Queensland Museum's entomology department. One of my photos ended up being the cover art for the publication, was quite chuffed about that.

What do they mean by ** spiders online in the box on the top left of this page? Sounds creepy.
I take it to mean lurkers.

That has been asked a few times Mowerfreak. Answer here:
https://www.outdoorking-forum.com.au/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/73796/Who's_Online.html

--------------------
Jack

Wow, I can see why you provided the link. Many thanks.

We must have something similar down here too, aussietrev. I've encountered their works in the 'pigtails' of a scrounged LPG cylinder switchover manifold - which I wanted because it has an adjustable high pressure regulator on it.

The unit had been mounted on a wall, out in the open, for several years - with no protector caps on the pigtails' cylinder end fittings. Some insect had plugged both pigtails for at least 150mm or so from the open ends - I had to uncoil them, so that I could use a piece of stiff wire to clear them, to the point of being able to flush the rest of the crud out!

Here's where a micro mud wasp built nesting tubes on my shed wall Gadge. An LPG pigtail would present no challenge I'm sure.

Note the hole where the adult wasp has emerged. Now you know why I said the wasps were barely visible to the naked eye.

Hello again Gents,

Well, I was able to do some decent mowing this week with the Chuzuki, and can consequently report that the unit produces the most smoke when either accelerating from idle or when operating under load at WOT - in both cases when either warmed-up or still cold, with the volumes of smoke when cold perhaps being slightly more than the quantities produced when warmed up.

Or to put it conversely, the motor produces less smoke when either idling, or running at WOT without load - once again in both cases when either warmed up or still cold.

I gave it a brief run from cold without the muffler on, and it did indeed appear to produce substantially less smoke. The funny thing, though, is that I was able to blow through the muffler without any significant resistance when I had it off, to the degree that I just wouldn�t have thought that it could be presenting any type of flow impedance to the combustion process.

With further heed to the possible �restriction� theory, however, I thought it might also be worthwhile to swap the motor�s Air Filter Sponge over with one of the GA-brand sponges in my Suzukis. Unfortunately however, this didn�t yield any noticeable improvement.

So I�m basically still scratching my head about the problem�(?)

BUT, the whole issue may have now become incidental however, courtesy of the unit�s Starter mechanism now deciding to throw in the towel. The problem is due to the woefully bad plastic that the Cord Reel inside the Starter is made from, which is simply crumbling away under the load during starting that the little fold on the outer end of the Recoil Spring produces where it hooks onto the Cord Reel. I�ve tried cutting new notches into the Cord Reel onto which to hook the Recoil Spring, but they just break away in turn after a couple of starts. This is simply unacceptable on a motor that is probably less than 10 years old. I�ve literally seen better quality plastic used in the buckets for some brands of cheap ice cream than what this thing�s Cord Reel is made from.

The Starter itself is not actually cloned after the Suzuki version, but rather after the Honda/Chonda (I added Chonda, because I�m not sure whether the Chonda Starter is a true clone inside of a genuine Honda or not�). But even if the Chuzuki Starter was directly cloned after the Suzuki equivalent, I�m sure the plastic inside it would still be krappy, because the Chinese seem to take a real pride in making their generic items as krappy as possible. For instance, the rubber that the cap on the end of the Chuzuki�s Spark Plug Lead is made of is also starting to crack quite badly, even though the Spark Plug Leads on my Suzukis are still uncracked and going strong after 30 years or so.

The cracking Chuzuki Spark Plug Lead rubber sort-of reminds me of the PCV hose on my neighbour�s Gardenline Chonda, which I had to replace a few weeks ago for her in spite of the fact that the mower in question is only 4 years old. The same hose on a genuine Honda - even if it were made in China - would obviously last for much longer�

Anyhow, to wrap things up, I thought I�d post the following link especially for AussieTrev:

https://www.parklandspowerproducts.com.au/products/lawn-mowers/parklander-red-back-450e-1944

Of particular appropriateness to this thread and your posts Trev is not just the mower�s name, but the fact that it runs the exact same Chuzuki 1E58FL 2-stroke motor as what is being discussed here. However, for obvious reasons Trev, I strongly advise you to resist the urge to race out and buy one�

Best Wishes and Thanks to All,
Moby Mick.

I think you can rest assured Mick that nobody here would go out and buy any Chonda