I have a suspicion that synthetic oil has less smell, I was using non synthetic
I doubt that. More synthetic oil burns than mineral oil since the flashpoint of a lot of our synthetics are a good bit lower than mineral oils or castor oil. But I suppose the quality of the oil has a lot to do with it and what base stocks its made from. I tried synthetic oil in my gasoline 2-strokes and found it to be as cumbersome with carbon as mineral oils. What I found helps keep the carbon soft and the rings clean is adding like 5-10% glow fuel with 20% oil and 5-10% nitro to my gasoline/oil mixture (by volume). This requires a richer needle setting and thus more oil and fuel going through. Its a little bit wasteful but it made a huge difference in carbon production in my 1973 Tecumseh 3hp auger engine with breaker point ignition. The rings are clean, the piston top has a light layer of carbon and the exhaust port stays mostly clean. The auger engine likes nitromethane too, it picks up a nice chunk of rpm with the hot fuel added and the exhaust has the castor smell to it which is not as obnoxious as regular gas/oil mixes.
I'd run my gasoline engines on methanol if I could find carburetors that are the right size for my engines. I dont think the WT499 would work well on my 3hp Tecumseh engine.