Stihl 361 oiling trouble

[George Of The Jungle]

I'm using a stihl 361 as my main mid sized saw for a couple of years and have never felt it oils enough. I'm forever cleaning it and the bar, trying to get rid of any crud that might stop the flow of oil, and it works at first but pretty soon it's clear theres no oil getting to the chain, resulting in the bar and chain getting seriously hot (even to the point of warping the orignal stihl bar, which was replaced with an oregon). i think the heat build up causes the chain to go blunt quicker too.

 

i have the oil screw turned to full, and there's about half an inch depth of oil when the petrol runs out. when i run it with the side plate and bar off, the oil bleeds out nicely.

 

i now seem to spend almost as much time maintaining the thing as i do cutting! anyone got any ideas!?!?? or had similar problems??

[18 stoner]

You mean half an inch left in the tank?

 

I would say if you only have half an inch of oil left in it when the fuel has run out its putting lots of oil out!

 

According to stihl, the eco matic system should use one tank of oil to two tanks of fuel under normal use.

 

Crazy, i know, but i have been there!

[Ben90]

Does oil appear anywhere else? Like under the guide bar? Check to see if it's flinging off the end of the bar, or if the oil holes on the saw and the guide bar are lined up to eachother.

[dangerous brian]

Replace the oilying mech simple job we had the same probs with ours a while back but now sorted.

[bob]

what oil you using????

and what size bar?

[Al Smith]

A tank of oil for a tank of fuel was about what the older saw used and they oiled well before the saw manufacturers started making wimpy oiling systems .

 

If you are running motor oil for lube ,therein lies the problem .Use some oil that has a good tackifing base ,regular chainsaw bar oil . If the oil does not contain a tacking agent it just throws the lubrication right off the chain and bar .

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

T9 has had exactly this problem - drains power...

[josharb87]

if the bars getting hot and warping, are you sure youre tensioning the chain right?

[Andy Collins]

Take off the bar and chain, leave off the side cover and make sure you have oil flowing ok. If yes, make sure the oiling holes in the bar are clear. Run a groove cleaner down the bar on both sides from the nose sprocket towards the saw end of the bar to ensure no crud has built up in the bar. This is a common oversight amongst saw owners. Replace bar and chain, tighten, then fire up saw to see if there is a spray of oil from the bar end.

If no oil is coming from tank to bar feed, drain oil tank and flush out with petrol, sometimes you get detritus enter the oil tank when filling. If oil still doesnt flow try cutting a nylon bristle and pushing it up the oil feed passage, in case any detritus is blocking it. With most saws I've found it usually is the simplest causes of oiling failure.

[stoxs]

we are using veg chain oil and we find the stihl saws struggle to get the oil to the tip of the bar, this oil is much thinner and less stickiy than normal chail oil.

If it wasn`t oiling at all you will soon know, usually the chain goes slack very slack or it will sieze solid.