My sob story

[Andymacp9]

I saved up all my pennies last year and bought myself a shiny new 372xp.

Been using it 4 months and I cut out mid cut this week. Took it to my local shop where I bought it and they've told me the cylinder and piston are knackered through scoring on the exhaust side and the rings have seized on the piston. He reckoned it was bad fuel or bad mix.I was quoted £450 to repair it.

We always measure out the mix carefully and try to avoid supermarket petrol.

Anyway I was hoping somone could point me in the direction of a cheaper way of getting it fixed.

Thanks in advance

[H-A]

PM spud, he has success restoring the original cylinder and replacing piston.

 

H-A

[MattyF]

Second that spuds the man! Saved my 395 after seizing when it had the wrong fuel in it.

[Andymacp9]

I've been reading up that he's the man. I'll pm, thanks

[agg221]

The key thing is not just to get it fixed, but to understand why it failed, and hence to be confident that it won't do it again.

 

The possible causes of failure include those you have had quoted, including stale fuel, which either means using fuel left in the tank after a week or two, or fuel left in the can for more than about 4-6weeks (time depends on things like original quality and storage conditions.

 

If it's a fuel issue then you could buy a generic non-OEM pot and piston and stick them on, and it will then work fine. Doing this will cost you about £50 and take less than an hour, however....

 

...there are other causes, such as air leaks, which need to be diagnosed by a pressure/vacuum test. This is where you need specialist kit to do it. There are three people on here who are regularly recommended - Spud, Rich2484 and Gardenkit (if you happen to have occasion to be in Devon).

 

Alec

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

Can you not get an aftermarket pot and piston and fit it yourself? It's an easy job.

[Andymacp9]

Cheers Alec, I've been assured that it's poor fuel/mix. The spark plug was black on one side and biscuity on the other.

That oem seems a very cheap fix. Is it better than the Chinese ones?

[Andymacp9]

Yes that's one plan but I've been reading about cleaning them up as an option

[agg221]

Cheers Alec, I've been assured that it's poor fuel/mix. The spark plug was black on one side and biscuity on the other.

That oem seems a very cheap fix. Is it better than the Chinese ones?

 

My original post said non-OEM, ie cheap Chinese. OEM will cost a -lot- more. There is an intermediate position of trying to recover the pot and using a good quality non-OEM piston such as Meteor. If you can get away with this it will be even cheaper than £50 in parts.

 

Don't automatically write off the cheap Chinese ones. They are variable, rather than consistently bad. If you get a good one they will work fine - I have them on my 066 and 044 and they have both seen some serious work but others have had bad experiences. 044 had failed due to a broken piston ring so it was obvious what was wrong. 066 failed due to a poorly inserted crank seal (done by a dealer) which resulted in an air leak and the wrecking of a second OEM pot and piston inside 10 tanks of fuel. Some companies can be better than others about taking returns on sub-standard pots and pistons as supplied.

 

Alec

[Eddy_t]

Choices of cylinders in preferable order:

OEM

Meteor

Hyway

Other stuff

Chinese

 

Out of interest, what oil do you use? Black and brown suggest that it was rich and not leaking air, so either poor quality oil or stale mix would be at fault

 

 

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