ECHO 361WES and 390ESX quick review

[Piston Skirt]

360/361 -> 362 main difference is cylinder inner plating (now chrome).

[shillo]

4 minutes ago, Piston Skirt said:

360/361 -> 362 main difference is cylinder inner plating (now chrome).

Hope they have put bigger fuel and oil filler holes on the 362

[Piston Skirt]

Just now, shillo said:

Hope they have put bigger fuel and oil filler holes on the 362

No.

Last digit change on ECHO means minor update (like 2510-2511, this year’s trimmers & brushcutters 2620–>2621 etc.).

If you look carefully - to enlarge filler holes 36x needs both tanks ant starter modified which is quite a major overhaul. That would change the model name into the recent/new 4-digit type.

[wyk]

53 minutes ago, shillo said:

Hope they have put bigger fuel and oil filler holes on the 362

 

As piston said, it's unlikely. There's very little room on the chassis.

I forgot to add, the bar nuts are also smaller. 10mm? 11mm? In other words, if ya lose the spanner for the 361, the 13mm one off your Husqvarna isn't gonna work. It made very little sense for Echo to do such a thing. Especially since everything else on up is 13mm on Echo. Just..why?

[Piston Skirt]

7 hours ago, wyk said:

 

As piston said, it's unlikely. There's very little room on the chassis.

I forgot to add, the bar nuts are also smaller. 10mm? 11mm? In other words, if ya lose the spanner for the 361, the 13mm one off your Husqvarna isn't gonna work. It made very little sense for Echo to do such a thing. Especially since everything else on up is 13mm on Echo. Just..why?

The nuts on WES model, just like the caps are a heritage from previous generation.

Top handle had them changed.

360 is actually the oldest development of the 3 makers so no wonder it has some outdated things on it.

[Graham]

Excellent review.  I'm into a fourth year with a 390.  It's had a lot of use: few thousand metres of hedgelaying, small felling, firewood cutting.  Thus far a broken recoil spring.  There's a lot of stop/starting hedging.  Really like it.

 

[coppice cutter]

On 12/01/2021 at 17:09, BishBashBosh said:

I think they changed/upgraded to chrome plating the bore.

Yeah, I've seen that in the blurb.

 

Seems odd when chrome plating was ditched in the late 70's for the more durable and robust nikasil type coatings that have been on the go since.

 

So either it's just marketing speak or it's something that's been resurrected again in an improved form.

[Piston Skirt]

10 hours ago, coppice cutter said:

Yeah, I've seen that in the blurb.

 

Seems odd when chrome plating was ditched in the late 70's for the more durable and robust nikasil type coatings that have been on the go since.

 

So either it's just marketing speak or it's something that's been resurrected again in an improved form.

Nikasil is Mahle’s thing.
Not all chrome platings are the same as well. The one used by Yamabiko is specific, used for quite many years and differs from those you will find in regular stuff.

In 362 it replaced Yamabiko’s own patented iron plating which is also superior to the regular chrome plating. That one also has a long history.

None of those have a bad reputation and none of them are “resurrected”

[coppice cutter]

Nikasil is used as an all encompassing term to cover all forms of nickel silicon coating, none of them are chrome.

 

Chrome was primarily used in 2-stroke racing engines in the 70's (Yamaha were the main users), but iron-liners were still common place as well and from early 80's on most companies were developing their own electro coatings anyway, all of which were vastly superior to chrome.

 

So it seems odd that it's now being put forward as a selling point, then again maybe I'm taking it too literally.

Edited January 16, 2021 by coppice cutter

[Piston Skirt]

12 minutes ago, coppice cutter said:

Nikasil is used as an all encompassing term to cover all forms of nickel silicon coating, none of them are chrome.

 

Chrome was primarily used in 2-stroke racing engines in the 70's (Yamaha were the main users), but iron-liners were still common place as well and from early 80's on most companies were developing their own electro coatings anyway, all of which were vastly superior to chrome.

 

So it seems odd that it's now being put forward as a selling point, then again maybe I'm taking it too literally.

Just as you’ve worded Nikasil (was a registered trademark IIRC), chrome isn’t the same in say a regular cylinder and Yamabiko cylinder. I won’t go deep in this but in the latter one you normally won’t even find regular honing marks.

Both Yamaha and Yamabiko are still using it, actually, and they never stopped so there is no sort of “coming back” because there was never a “going away” - just a serious development over time.

And yes, as i’ve mentioned the iron plating (not lining) is also something Yamabiko has developed in-house and it’s also superior to regular old-school chrome plating.

Edited January 16, 2021 by Piston Skirt