Stihl MS271 tear down Issues

[Clake4341]

Good Morning gentleman

I am new to this site but I look forward to reading a lot of your posts. I have a MS271 with a scored piston that needs to be replaced I have ordered all the parts I need Piston,rings,crank shaft bearings and oils seals. I have a question on the seals on the crank there are 2 but they have different part no;s. The service manual refers to them as hard seals and soft seal can anyone explain the difference and what side of the crank they go on   thanks so much  Ron from Canada

[ChrisNewport]

is it a clam shell engine? if it is one set will be for replacement when the engine is dissasembled and the other for when its assembled.

[spudulike]

Yes, it is a clam shell type engine and as Chris said...hard seals for when the engine is stripped down and the soft ones for when you just need to change the seals and don't want to split the lower and upper parts of the engine. 

You can push in the soft ones once the original ones are removed. You will not be able to do this with the hard ones.

[pleasant]

I hope you have check the cylinder block (no separate 'pot' on this engine) for scoring before you have ordered all those parts?

[Clake4341]

I did check also they don't seem to make an aftermarket cylinder but when I tore it down the cylinder looked pretty good the piston was scored and thanks guys for the oil seal info. So I just got all my parts today and it looks like I got the hard seals so as I have everything dis-assembled this should be a piece of cake to repair and put back together God knows I have enough youtubes on doing this I should not have any problems 

thanks again for the quick response

Ron in the cold Canadian north