I remember when you abandoned the 2 cycle club. Traitor! Hahaha

Yeah, I still miss them but not the aggravation. I wouldn't mind finding a 'Gold Pro', 'F' engine, aluminum deck, muffler under deck. Those were the last of the real ones. I do love 'that smell'. :)

The Lawn-Boy "F" is a great choice. It sounds like a boat motor. The way all lawn mowers should sound!

I had a 19" 77 model year f series , great running unit !

When I moved here in '94, my neighbor soon got a new Gold Pro just like the one I was talking about. I noticed he made way too much smoke with it so I asked him about his mix. He's the 'know-it-all' type and was sure he was right in his mix but I'm sure he was using the whole 8 oz can to a gallon. Anyway, this went on for a couple of summers, then I didn't see the mower anymore. Asking about it, seems like the exhaust ports and muffler clogged up from the excess oil and he tried to take it all apart and fix it himself. He couldn't do it so he took all the parts down to the small engine shop where they talked him into a nice new 4-cycle mower. What a shame - all that because he didn't understand the oil mix instructions.

Numerous lawnboy Purists insist on the 32:1 or even heavier usage of lawnboy oil only usage . Often erratic idle and overheating are symptoms of carbon fouled exhaust ports and mufflers . Back in the day most experienced users realized this and religiously decarbonized their lawn boys ever 50-100 hrs of use . The newer syn oils of today preclude this excessive carbon issues and protect at much lower oil ratio,s . Two of my vintage chains saws Pioneer and Mac both were designed for 16:1 oil ratio,s . Today both run great @ 50:1 . I would not sweat 40:1 oil ratio,s with today's oil within any late 70,s or 80,s vintage lawnboy !

Yes, I was onto all that when I was running them and never had to clean an exhaust port. I used Opti-2 a lot during one period in my 10550 but at double-strength which came to about 50:1. It really didn't smoke at all except on choke start. On my small 2-cycles I like to use enough just to get a very light haze of oil smoke. I haven't had any Opti-2 in a long time but use the synthetic blend I find at the home center for the saws and trimmer, etc.