Which fuel for Saito FA-125

[Graham Bowers]

One of my flying buddies has just bought a used unflown model with a Saito FA-125 engine. He's an experienced electric flyer and asked me what fuel I'd recommend. I have zero experience with saito so thought I'd seek counsel here. It's in a Seagull Ultimate and is installed sideways.

 

I've had a look at the instructions online and it says 10 to 20% nitromethane, warns against "castor oil type lubricants" and says there must be at least 20% oil content.

 

What's the experience in here please, and are there any specific recommendations?

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

[Jon H]

As with most things, when it comes to oil i will take quality over quantity every time. A good quality oil at 15% will be better than chip fat at 20%. 

 

I run my saito 45 on 5 nitro and 15 synth oil and in the past ran 150, 180 an 220 saitos on the same. It works just fine and has no problems with it. I recently test ran a brand new saito 82 on the same fuel and it too performed just fine. In fact, i was surpised just how much oil the 82 ejected from its crankcase breather during the run. If it was a Laser it would have failed its test run and required new rings. As it wasnt a Laser, i considered it normal behaviour and ignored it. 

 

In any case, if it were my engine i would use 5/15 fuel and just get on with it. But if you want to conform to the warranty spec its a real struggle as i dont think many fuels use 20% oil any more. Not that the warranty matters much. the reports i have had from saito users is that the saito warranty is not worth the paper it it written on, at least not with the uk importer as i am told they tend to just throw customers straight under the bus in the event of a problem. I have no personal experience of this, but plenty of customers have all said the same thing as they swear to never buy another saito product. Might be sour grapes, but equally it seems to happen quite often so maybe not. 

 

If the warranty spec matters to you the closest you are likely to get to 20% is model technics techpower 10 (if its still available) or optifuel 12 as both have 18% oil. YS fuel is 20% oil, but with 20% nitro as well its a very expensive way to run an engine. I have a number of OS engines that demanded 20% castor in the blurb but run fine on the 5/15 mix i mentioned before. One of which is a 4 cylinder pegasus and given the mess it still makes, im tempted to try 10% oil as it is clearly not short of lubrication as it is. 

 

 

[Graham Bowers]

Thanks for that Jon.

[Mike Mc]

I mix fuel and use 15% high quality synthetic oil and 10% nitro. The key is high quality oil. I never use any Castor oil in my 4-stroke engines. 

 

.

 

[Brian Cooper]

I have eight Saito engines ranging from a .72 to 1.80. 

 

They have all been run on Weston UK Prosynth fuel with 10% nitro from the day they came out of the box, and they all perform faultlessly. . None of them has ever had to be taken apart, and the oldest is about 20 years old. 

 

In fact, all of my engines run on Prosynth - 2 strokes and 4 strokes - and they are all extremely happy, clean engines.  

Prosynth has stood the test of time. It is magnificent fuel.

 

Now watch the anti Prosynth brigade come out to proclaim it's rubbish.  Lol, lol, lol.  😂

 

[Jon H]

39 minutes ago, Brian Cooper said:

 

Now watch the anti Prosynth brigade come out to proclaim it's rubbish

 

Dont have to proclaim. I tested it and found it inferior to its competitors. I know you wont accept this fact being the westons fanboi you are, but that's what confirmation bias will do for you. 

 

Also, if i type Laser5 in massive letters all over a post it dosent actually enhance the product or make it better, so i am not sure what you were trying to achieve with that. 

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Have some respect for the OP, if you want yet another tit for tat session, open a thread and get to it.

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

It will run on anything from 15% oil upwards and 5%/10% nitro, including the 'blue' cheap stuff,😇 as with all Saitos it will throw a lot of oil out, and they do take a long time to run in.

 

A Salto owner with 'only' 9 of them,,,

[Glenn Philbrick]

I will second the use of prosynth 10% all our club members use it for two and four strokes of all makes. We take advantage of their bulk discount.

 

[Solly]

Prosynth for me every time. I too have used nothing else for many years without problems. In fact Weston have now doubled their guarantee on their range of racing engines provided only Prosynth is used. I would ignore anyone calling the fuel inferior, the overwhelming evidence proves them wrong.

[Graham Bowers]

Thanks for all opinions!

[John Stainforth]

Silly me, I stick to roughly what the manufacturers recommend. I was using 18% nitro 20% oil in the US for Saitos. Here I am using Optimix 15% nitro 4-stroke fuel; not sure what the oil % is. For OS, I use their recommendations; for Lasers, I follow Jon's advice.

[Richard Wills 2]

I run mine on Optifuel 12%, 2 stroke version which is 18% synthetic.  If you want to keep to the manufacturers recommendation of 20% oil they do the 4 stroke version.  A fuel with 15% synthetic would also be fine i'm sure.  As for nitro thats personal preference, they run fine on 5%, but they run better for me with more. 

I would stay away from anything with any castor in it.

[aidan mcatamney]

I'm described as a Saito fanatic and almost 100 percent of my fourstroke engines are all Saito.  Except for one OS 95v .  Been using Saito engines since the early 1990s and for the last good number of years I use Optifuel 12 in all my Saitos .  This is what I recommend.   

[Paul De Tourtoulon]

1 hour ago, Richard Wills 2 said:

I would stay away from anything with any castor in it.

Thanks, that will keep its price low when I buy it.😅

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

Thread closed, with apologies to Graham for the lack of respect shown by others.