engine smoke

[rboat]

I have an older late 80's two stroke 4 cylinder 88hp Evinrude Engine. I always premix the gas and oil 50 to 1 like it asks for. On startup, and for a while it smokes blue clouds pretty good. Is this normal and ok? Should I mix with less oil or would that just cause more wear? I usually mix in a little seafoam with each tank for cleaning and stabiling the fuel. After running awhile the smoke dies down to a more normal 2 stroke level. I only get out a couple times per month. Does sitting around cause more oil burn at start up? My friend says a blue cloud is good because you know the engine is getting sufficient lubrication. The smoke seems a bit excessive to me. Any thoughts from you engine gurus? Thanks.

[Jm526]

For me starting a two stroke up in the morning you will get smoke and a lot. But you say it's blue, this does not seem normal, I think you have to much oil. Try mixing less and see how it smokes. It needs to be a thick white smoke. If it's thinks and white your 100% good. Good luck 

[Bass Turd]

It's quite possibly the Seafoam. Try a different brand of stabilizer and see if the smoke volume/color changes. It the manufacturer recommends a 50:1 ratio I wouldn't change that. Just double check you are measuring correctly. 

[Way2slow]

Older two strokes are going to smoke, that's what they do.  Some actually can make a hellava smoke screen if you took a lot of priming to get them started or was idled for a bit before cutting it off the last time it was used.  The newer ones, not quite so much but some do a little.  Even an eTec will spit a little every now and then.

One thing could be you are a little rich on in the mixture.  Rich idle mixture creates a lot of smoke, but so do rich mids and mains, but those are not adjustable and takes a little engine knowledge to determine how they are burning.  Idles are sometimes adjustable. 

If the synchronization is off, that will cause one to some more. 

I would suggest doing one thing, if it starts fairly easy, and runs good, run the p*** out of it and not worry about it.

[Angry John]

Do not put less oil in the mix thats how you seize up a cylinder.  You may try a different stabilizer but seafoam is supposed to help clean out carbon, which will increase smoke production.  Oil may be getting past the rings and increasing smoke production it may be time to re-ring the engine.

[Way2slow]

Angry Jon, you are confusing two stroke with four stroke.  There is no oil to get by the rings, it's all mixed with the gas and is on both sides of the rings with the gas.  Bad rings in a two stroke only cause loss of compression.

However as he mentioned, don't reduce the oil mixture.  This will reduce smoking but can cause damage if you do a lot of WOT running.  Also adding SeaFoam or any fuel additive does cause a slight increase in smoke, but read my other post on what to do about it.

You also have to remember, the 88 is not VRO.  VRO actually reduced the oil to a 100:1 ratio at idle to help reduce the smoke, you do not have that option, and at 50:1 it's smokes but DO NOT reduce it.

[WRB]

Your older 2 stroke is going to smoke until the power head heats up enough for the thermostat  to open, then the amount of smoke should reduce. The "P" hole only indicates the water pump is working, water coming out of the exhaust indicates the thermostat is open and circulating water through the power head.

Don't change the 50:1 oil to gasoline mix!

Tom

[WIGuide]

Yep it's going to smoke at startup. Usually it does it more when it's colder. I had an 88spl on my last boat and it did the same thing. I've now got a 130 that had the VRO removed and even running usually a minimum of 4 days a week it still smokes some at initial startup and then reduces once the engine heats up.