My two Old Poulan/Craftsman started and ran as I expected. With my arms vs My Son-In-Law’s (w/o going to ER Yet) LOL! The .MPG files of the saws running w/n attach. 1. I ran both 5-10 Min with fresh Stabil treated fuel. Normally, I “would have” left some of the treated fuel in the saws for a year as in the past. The old fuel looked so bad that I felt it might be better to Run Them Bone Dry. *** Opinions! Bad IMO from evaporating (if fuel will) since it looked more like oil than fuel. 2. ** I saw a Craftsman attachment related to Electric Starting past pull start Engines. I’ll have to go back to see if it was related to Old Equipment or will adapt. I feel it was and I’ll try to attach it to get some opinions X Safety and Realistic. I feel it was to prevent Kickbacks. If I would try one, it would be w/o the bar and chain to prime up a saw that had been sitting a year as these. Plus, I have a complete retired engine as the green one + spare parts. Electric Starting Adapter at the Link below: http://www.sears.com/craftsman-power-bit-start-trade/p-07185952000P

This is one of the more interesting threads I've seen on this subject. On the one hand, the original poster's logic is correct. If the oils of the past were inferior, it's silly to believe that carbon buildup and plug fouling would be intolerable with modern synthetic oils at 20:1. On the other hand, Nevada Walrus makes a good point. In the old days, the more oil we added to the mix the richer we set the carburetor jetting to compensate (2-stroke racing motorcycles.) Many of today's engines don't allow carburetor adjustment, so at some point, more oil could theoretically cause a dangerously lean condition. For what it's worth, I will now be using Mobil 2T, which I finally found at a Twin Cites Autozone store. And I always mix at 32:1. That's my compromise between the 16:1 I ran in the 70's and the 50:1 required by the EPA Nazis.

Some pages I found that might help you out. An 031AV Illustrated Parts List: http://ebookbrowse.com/5977d1211367857-stihl-031av-stihl-031-ipl-pdf-d23786564 It looks like you can actually download a PDF of it from this site, rather than simply viewing it, at the first link: http://pdftop.net/preview/YToyOntpOjA7czo4NzoiaHR0cDovL3d3dy50cmVld29ybGQuaW5mby9hdHRhY2htZW50cy9mNDAvNTk3N2QxMjExMzY3ODU3LXN0aWhsLTAzMWF2LXN0aWhsLTAzMS1pcGwucGRmIjtpOjE7czoyMToiUHJpbnRlZCBmcm9tIE1lZGlhQ2F0Ijt9 Stihl has the operator's manual for your saw at: http://www.stihlusa.com/information/info_product2.html Please forgive the link to another forum, but arboristsite.com was very helpful to me when I bought my 032AV. There are a lot of knowledgeable folks there: http://www.arboristsite.com/chainsaw/ You can find the 031/032 service manual here, at the bottom of post #6 of this thread about the 031AV: http://www.arboristsite.com/chainsaw/77059.htm

Hey off_ltd, I bought the JD S240 from a local JD dealer. I didn't buy the extended warranty because it's basically a waste of money. My final considerations, after much research, were the JD 155, the JD 170, the JD S240 and the CC XT2 LX46. I went with the JD S240 because of the upgraded deck and transmission, which are the same as on the X300, and the Kawasaki engine. I prefer the Kawasaki engine over B&S and Kohler engines, although I will admit the B&S and Kohler engines offered in the models I was looking at are good engines. I've had B&S and Kohler engines before and I never had any problems with them. If I had it to do over again, I would have gone with the JD D170 with the 54 inch deck or the CC XT2 LX54, even though I don't really like the boxy front ends of the new CC lawn tractors. Oh well, to each his own. The 42 inch deck on the S240 just doesn't give me a wide enough cut. I'm not dissatisfied in any way with the S240. It seems to be a decent lawn tractor, although I wish these companies would put some kind of suspension on these lawn tractors. I put a mulching kit on it, the one that has the interior deck insert and I went with a set of Gator mulching blades. It does a really good job mulching and I get a nice, uniform cut. I'm thinking about getting a twin bagger attachment for it but I refuse to spend $350.00 for a few pieces of molded plastic. I won't buy it unless it's on sale at a much lower price. I think the CC LX2 would have been a nice lawn tractor. I think I would have bought it if it had a different style but then again, as I've said, to each his own. CC offers a better warranty than JD.