There seems to be a lot of price difference on some of the 2-stroke oils that are out there. Is there that much of a difference as long as it meets TCW3? I know some are designed for premix and others for oil injection. Do some oils truly smoke less? Is there an oil that is better for older engines?

The first thing is that their are 2 main groups: synthetic and mineral base (synthetics tend to smoke less), then you get into different brands have different additives and then different viscosities on some oil injected motors. I think you should use the highest quality oil you can afford. Pennzoil because of its availability.

Whatever you choose make sure it's not walmart store brand. Might as well throw a handful of dirt in your motor.

I was looking at the Lucas Oil Land & Sea. They tout a lot of benefits stating that their product goes above and beyond all of the engine manufacturers' branded oils. They also get a price premium for their product. Anyone ever use it?

I have no experience running lucas, but they don't sell garbage, sure it's just fine, you might do a little research if it's going into a DFI motor though.

Lucas all the way if you can get it...all I use in racing and other applications. I just cant get the marine oil where i live.

I have been using Mystic oil, no problems and compression is still about where it was 3 yrs ago, boat is used weekly all year long. Mystic lubricants did great in heavy equipment we used to use and seem to still do so.

Mystic oil stuff is damn good. Just kind of hard to find it or you just find bits of it.

All motor oils, 2 stroke, 4 stroke, hydraulic, transmission, etc. have to meet certain American Petroleum Institute standards for the specific type of oil. Oil Viscosities have a range of... between X and Y @ 100 degrees and between A and B @ 210 degrees. When I first graduated from College I worked for an Oil Company and I did the lab testing of every batch of motor oil blended by the company. Our base stocks were the same as those blended by us for many big name companies. Our additives were also the same. The only difference was cost. The real difference between oils is the quality of additives, because they all use the same base stocks. There used to be a difference with Pennzoil, but not any more.
We all know Wal-Mart beats down their suppliers on cost, which in some cases forces that supplier to buy cheaper additives. The oil those suppliers produce still meets the same base API standard, but the real question is, how far does it exceed that standard? If you notice, some of the 2 stroke suppliers add a die to their oil. They do it so that if the motor goes, it is easy to see whether or not you used their oil. If they have a concern due to the appearance of poor lubrication, they can run tests on a sample of the oil you have been using to determine if it meets those API standards. If it doesn't then they have ammo to void warranty claims.

Back a few years, I used to get a new demo boat every year, they all got between 450-500 hours put on them, I broke them in correct, hard and fast, and when I turned them back, would check them out carefully. I used factory oil religiously and every year the motors were like new for compression/blow by. Except one, just to try I used the wally super tech 100% for a year and the poor motor was just done in. Compression was 91-92 on each cylinder, should have been 120, bearings were sloppy, motor had 460 hours, no different than any of the others. Not scientific but showed me enough. I won't run that stuff in a weed eater now.

Boy that's the truth....In the old days there were three colors, red, blue, green....
red did not mix with anything, excessive carbon build up on the rings and massive engine failures. Oils have come a long way. Stick with the name brands and don't buy it off the convienance store shelf where the sun been hitting it for gosh how long.

No excuse for not having your brand of oil now days with the internet. Amazon and other places even have free shipping.