Steve_Ranger

Right, finally got some free time to get back to work on this saw. Going to replace the piston and cylinder with. HUSQVARNA 357 46MM CYLINDER KIT NISIC COATED 1YR WARRANTY FOR PROFFESIONAL USERS | eBay Seems to be the best quality I can find bar buying a stock Husqvarna one. The original burnt up on the exhaust port side. If the plastic clamp on the intake manifold had worn out, would this cause this to happen? I was reading about a metal clamp alternate for the intake manifold that was released by Husqvarna. Is it worth fitting one of these anyway? The only problem is that I can only find them for sale in the US.

I did have the throttle half open now yea . The Gunson compression tester arrived today and the rebuilt 357 with chinese cylinder was pulling 145psi so not brilliant, but its alright for how infrequently I use it. As to the 357 on my bench, I showed the cylinder to a friend of mine who's good with engines and he reckons its a write-off as there is both scoring into the cylinder as well as deposits raising the surface. Does anyone know of any decent aftermarket 357 cylinders? From some searches on google and eBay all I can find are either the stock Husqvarna ones for ~ £150 or chinese rip-offs for ~£45-55.

I think the psi reading might be wrong. It was on the 6th pull that I checked, but from watching the needle this time, it rises to 120psi on around the 4th pull then drops to 105psi so I reckon the gauge is faulty as this was the same case when I tried my 1 year old Stihl saw that has had little use. I'll have a go at cleaning the bore. Am I right in saying you usually use muratic acid?

Afaik the saw doesn't have a decomp as they hole has been plugged with a bolt. I got a reading of 105psi from 6 pulls as this was when the needle stopped going up. I'm not 100% how good the gauge is as yet again it was a cheap jobbie from eBay. So the "scores" on the cylinder are not into the cylinder, but just metal that has been deposited on the surface of the cylinder? If that's the case I'll get some muratic acid and give it a go.

Right, I just checked the compression of my 357 and it pulled 105psi in 3 tests . I still have the original cylinder, but its pretty badly scored, I'll try and get a photo of it tomorrow. Do you have any suggestions what I could do to improve the compression? Would getting a decent branded ring do the trick? The saw starts fine and I haven't noticed it struggle at all, it seemed to go through 12" oak pretty when I tested it after the rebuild, but I haven't used a working 357 before. I've only got the 346 or 372 to compare it to. I'm definitely going to recommend a decent branded cylinder and piston to my boss! I like the look of the meteor. The cylinder on the "to repair" saw isn't too badly scored. Is it relatively straight forward to repair?

Ok thanks, would this tach do the job? Chainsaw Tachometer Hour Meter Stihl Husqvarna Jonsered Echo 2/4 Stroke Engines | eBay Do you have a rough idea how much a good aftermarket piston and cylinder would be/any idea where to get hold of one? I take it that the cylinder I've put in is a chinese kit? The quality seemed pretty decent, same design as the original, just a bit shinier. Is the main difference the coating of the cylinder?

I recently acquired a broken Husqvarna 357xp from work as it had been deemed too expensive to repair. A volunteer had pinched the bar and attempted to free it by giving it full bore which ended in a blown head gasket and a badly scored cylinder/piston. As it only gets occasional use by me, I opted for a non-original kit from eBay. (HUSQVARNA 357/357XP/359 CYLINDER AND PISTON ASSEMBLY 47MM WITH GASKETS NEW | eBay) The original piston was a 45mm bore, but this replacement kit is 47mm. I have already adjusted the idle as it was cutting out when idling. My question is, do I need to adjust the H + L on the carb to take into account the bigger bore? Another question, what's the general opinion on these aftermarket kits? I'm rebuilding another 357xp at work which died in the same way and am considering whether to get this or the original, but its ~ £50 vs £150! The saw that's waiting on new parts would likely see a fair amount of use as we use the saws from Oct to March. It would likely be running a 15" bar and cutting Sycamore/Ash most of the time so the saw wouldn't be under heavy load all the time, but it would be used at least twice a week for a full day of cutting.

Thanks for the replies, sorry I haven't replied sooner. After buying a compression tester, it turns out that the brushcutter was only pulling 90psi. Managed to get the stubborn head bolts out and there are no signs of scoring so I'm going to try and replace the piston rings. AFAIK the carb is fine as it is getting fuel into the cylinder and there is a good blue spark (spark plug gap correct). Cheers.

Is it possible to move this thread to the Maintenance help section please? Didn't notice that (first time on site).

Hi, Sorry for posting this in the chainsaw forum, but I didn't know where else to put it. I have a problem with my Stihl FS 400 Brushcutter as it is refusing to start. It will fire on the choke, but with the choke off there are no signs of life despite having a good spark. So far I have: -replaced fuel line and filter -new spark plug -stripped carb, cleaned and rebuilt with a carb kit I have looked through the intake and exhaust ports and the cylinder walls and piston don't show any scoring. I tried to get the cylinder head bolts off, but 2 of the 4 are on very tight and I've already sheared 4 T25 bits trying to budge them (after giving them a tap and squirting a bit of GT85 down there). It feels like the engine still has good compression, but I do not own a compression tester so I can not rule this out. Does anyone have any idea what may be causing this/experienced it before? From reading other posts about faulty FS400's some people suggested it could be due to another problem with a jet in the carb although I have blasted carb cleaner down all the jets and they do not appear to be blocked. Also, the carb only has a single adjustment screw which I believe is for the idle, would fiddling with that make a difference? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Cheers.