Wife and i took a trip today, to pick up some stuff for me. The WHOLE day
As it was a long trip, we did some sightseeing.
Thought i should share some pic’s.
Couple from the last few weeks of hiking. The top one there is a long long freckles to get down in the bottom, that one is about 300’ deep and there are caves under it I plan to go back and repel down inside of to explore
I always publish only successful projects, but they are necessarily accompanied by unsuccessful ones. About a year ago I started converting a Solo 656c chainsaw, it had a catalytic converter installed in the exhaust muffler, which after some time of operation glowed and heated up the surroundings a lot. I cut off the catalytic converter and installed a kind of “resonant” pipe, which was supposed to allow more power and higher rpm, this actually happened, the chainsaw really worked much better. At higher rpms, it felt like it had more torque. I used it like that for a year without any problems, well, a few days ago, when I was felling a thicker tree, it stopped, … what happened? The pictures show the situation. I blame the cause of the failure on cheap ole for the mixture and … too high engine rpm…
Yes you are probably right about your assessment of the failure. Not the best oil. And too much throttle finger, too long.
But Tone you have to figure too much heat for too long was also a major factor too.
Long bars with full chain teeth: and those teeth filed aggressively, can be factors too. Especially when driven by broad shoulders, and a strong will-power to get quick successive cuts done.
Here is the guy I have now based my chainsaws oil selection on for the last few years:
I’m sure that chainsaw manufacturers stick their names on oils that probably come out of the same vat, whether it’s Stihl or Echo or whatever. I usually just buy Stihl and run it 40 to 1. I don’t run a saw 8 hours a day, day after day, so I would be inclined to listen to someone that did. I cut about 10 full cords a year over the course of several months and probably have the saw running continuously 15 minutes at a time. Not really hard duty. I have several saws that are 15 years old and one that is 40 years old still running fine. I guess that if I took youtuber advise I go with the Castrol recommended by Buckin Billy Ray just because he actually runs saws.
One adwise an older guy gave me: buy oil from a OIL company, that only sells oil.
A company that sells gas, diesel, and stuff see’s the oil as a by-product, to sell to give some extra money.
I don’t know how true it is today, but somewhat makes sense to me.
You have surely torn down you fair share of saws Goran. What have you observed to be the biggest wear areas that could be attributed to oil and oil mixes? I would assume cylinder walls but a lot of the posted stuff seems to be piston skirts. Are the bottoms of pistons really banging cylinder walls that much? I have always been surprised that oil in gas would keep the rod bearings sufficiently lubed.
Steve, I totally agree with you, the heat generated by increased engine power is also an important factor, probably the most important one. When I disassembled the saw at home, there was a lot of burnt sawdust on the cooling fins of the cylinder, which limited the cooling efficiency, this was probably the main cause of the failure, … negligence in maintaining the tool, as with wood gas, the most common cause of failure is operator negligence, …
There’s a used farm equipment/parts place close to me. About 10% of their machines are burnt up, melted down combine harvesters. Oil leaking from engines mixed with the chaff and powdered crop dust is all it takes.
Hi Tom, soot it is! Or: carbon build-up, gets loose when changing oil mix, or saw gets a new owner that runs it worse or better than the former owner, or when the build-up is big enough to came loose.
Many things affects this, often running the saw hard, very hard, makes the carbon “crisp” and cocrete-hard, comes loose, and then it often are no more fun.
The oldies i like is sturdier built, with bigger tolerances, they throw the soot out like a beautiful shower of red sparks.
After that, dumb-mistake-straight-gassing is very common, could be seen on the piston aluminum sticking to cylinder wall (could be dissolved with caustic drain-cleaner) and often recognized by enormous play in the crank bearings.
Last weekend I loaned out my 044 stihl to a good friend that is doing some logging on his homestead to be told him use it as long as he needs, I have my 026 firewood saw in the mean time and nothing that warrants the big saw. He sent me home with the dodge loaded down with 8-10’ alder logs 10-14” diameter. I got home and went to warm up the 026 and immediately found it had eaten a crank seal and leaned out. Sigh. 2 is one and one is none. Waiting on my brother to bring me his spare echo 590 so I can offload the dodge now. I was once a collector of saws and with nowhere to put them I sold and traded them off some years ago. Feel a fool for my pack ratting of saws then I would not be sawless right now
I don’t think I have ever sold a tool Marcus. I have lost a lot of them and broken many. I’m far from the hallowed ground Goren dwells in as a saw owner but I have 8 currently that start. I used to have a McCulloch 250 that I picked up at a farm auction in 1975. I think it was over 80cc’s. It was heavy. Must have taken a good man to run that all day long. I reluctantly loaned it to a buddy in 1987 and got it back with a seized piston and a shoulder shrug. I was too stupid to tell him it needed oil mixed in with the gas. I don’t lend out tools now. I know SteveU lends out generators. I won’t even loan out one of those to one of my sons.
Only my brothers my dad and this friend that I trust with a tool loan, this friend has a 039 stihl that I ran when I had my firewood business that is better then 25 years old he got from his grandfather that still purrs like a kitten. He takes excellent care of all things and I call him brother for good reason. Far and few between are men like him in todays age
We took a trip today, visiting Ptuj, home of one of the bigest carnevals in Europe. Hundreds of performers come here from all over the world. Unfortunaly l missed the national mask, Kurent, and the whipers. Those are something to see (and hear).
Visiting my neighbor Brankot,… he’s always doing something interesting,… a wood splitter powered by a motor cultivator, the structure will be lifted by a hydraulic cylinder, which will rotate the axle with wheels,…
I have had a wrong impression of Sweden. We still have shin deep snow after several thaws. I thought Sweden was much harsher. My great grandparents came from Norway and have pictures of their house there with a door in the second floor gable to get out of the house if the ground level door was blocked by snow.
