I wasn't quite sure where to put this.
I finally "came into" the 100 gallons of hydraulic fluid I have wanted to acquire. This is expensive Cateprillar 10 wt. which was only in a large machine 8 hours before removal (they burned up the engine right after service job). Filtered to 2 microns. Mixed at 10% with premium #2.
The engine is '86 N/A hydraulic with new bore (2nd over) Prothe (Right Way Industrial) pistons (sorry guys....I've had really good luck with these in two engines) with about 8,000 miles on them. Nicely broken in and virtually no oil consumption even with hard running.....very pleased with this engine since rebuild.
I came into this expecting nothing....was trying to rule out "placebo" effect in my head. Actually, I expected all sorts of bad stuff.....smoke, stink, bad idle, bad cold start behavior, hesitation on acceleration, the potential for coked cylinder walls.....figured I would be dislocating my knee while attempting to kick myself for trying this. Understand?

OK, fine. I've only done about 100 miles. What's it like so far?

??
No cold start problems (warm time of the year though), a little more smoke under hard acceleration or up long hills (nothing too noticeable though), markedly quieter idle (warmed up....like a turbo motor is "quiet"), smoother idle, and best of all........like an immediate 5 or 6% power increase. Wow....I wasn't expecting this to be a positive experience!!!!!
So, looks like I'm going to be doing this for the next.........well, 1000 gallons or so.....unless poo hits the fan. I'm not totally sure I have the nads to go to 15%. But, I've always heard that is safe. Think I will hold the line at 10% for now. It feels neat.....like always having a tail wind!!!!!