Windthrown

Oooooooh, you are gonna like the results of putting those on your saws. Be sure to re-tune the carbs to richen up the mix after the DP mufflers are fitted though. Otherwise they will run too lean from the increased air flow, overheat and score the cylinders. You do not want to do that. Then enjoy the increase in power. They will eat gas even faster than before though. My 660 is a gas hog.

...and no baffles in the muffler base, as well as larger jetted carb in the Oz 660.

Also, from the German arbor site I got this information (from 7 in Austria): Stihl MS661 (Mtronic and non-Mtronic) chainsaws with serial numbers between 177 367 909 and 177 751 744 have been recalled in Europe. There are no non-Mtronic MS661 sold in the US, but apparently they are being sold in some places in Europe. I am not aware of a similar recall in the states. The recall consists of replacing the cylinder, piston, rings, cylinder gasket and intake boot.

And yes, the 661 is available here on the west coast of the US, finally. Not all dealers stock them yet though, and many have 660s still on the shelves. The 661 has not quite made an appearance in Oz yet. In Oz they have a better 660 than the ones they sell here and they have more power than the 661. US MS660 Power output (kW/bhp) 5.2/7.1 Oz MS660 Power output (kW/bhp) 5.7/7.6 MS 661 cm Power output (kW/bhp) 5.4/7.3

Yah, I know Niko well enough. I also knew his wife before she passed. He reminds me that I have lesser value Amurikan 361 saws all the time as compared to the EU 361s, among other things.

Yah, AS is a window onto the world of the weird these days. Saw builders dominate there now, and not many arbor guys or fallers there any more. I also wanted some feedback from here on stuff available only in the EU and not in the states. I would hang out on the German site more, but I get lost in translation. As I do here on the UK site from time to time... we speak the same language but the words mean different things across the pond. I am Windthrow (w/o the n) on Sawhogs, been there for a while. It gets rather rowdy there and senseless a lot of times.

I now have a new favorite saw! The 026 with a 16 in. PS Picco B&C is the dog's ballacks, as my friend from London would say. That saw is a light saber in maple burl, which I have been cutting into firewood. I cannot split it with a maul with all the the wavy grain, so I have to cut it into stove size splits with a chainsaw. This makes that job a dream. I can see why they rave about the PS/Picco B&C setup on a 261 in Germany. It cuts really fast with the much narrower kerf, and makes a lot fewer noodles and wood chips.

Also comparing rims, the 7 pin Picco rim is quite a bit larger than a 7 pin 3/8 std. rim on the 026. Supposedly they do not have a picco rim for a large spline Stihls here, and guys run 3/8 std. spur sprockets to drive them on larger saws. I cannot imagine running this bar on my 066, or even my 036. Its small stuff.

Oh yes, and the Stihl part numbers for Picco (low profile) bars with large Stihl mounts are: 16" 3003 000 6313 18" 3003 000 6317 20" 3003 000 6321

Ah, the Dark Season as my cousins call it in Norway. Here it is a balmy 61 deg. F. today (16+ C.), the sun is out and it is WARM! My cat is napping in the sun on the porch now. Oh yah, I got a Picco chain loop spun up for my 026 this morning. Turns out that the local Stihl dealer here has a spool of PS Picco Stihl chain and he fitted the 16" bar and P-7 pin rim with a 60, as you predicted. I also got a 55 link loop of the same stuff for my 211. I am gonna have me a fine pair of Piltz HOT SAWZ, minus the Piltz, minus the big rims, and minus the 32" bars. I also got myself another 361 saw in the mail yesterday, so I have some test cutting to do this afternoon.

I sold my Bandit chipper and stopped climbing when I was 52. I still rock and mountain climb for sport (weenie stuff), but no more climbing trees. Bad back & reactions getting too slow.

Saw that on the news here. UK's Mars probe landed but never sent anything back to Earth. The Beagle 2 program/mission manager died last year and never knew what happened to it. We must contact Optimus Prime and warn him about the Decepticons...

Here in Oregon and California redwood is commonly milled and used for outdoor decking and framing and in places that are wet and were wood eating bugs are. The high tannins in the wood are a preservative and more or less a bug deterrent. The deck at my house in California was made of redwood, and was riddled with termites when I sold that place. I lived in a house in central California that was made entirely of redwood, which was a common building material 100 years ago there.

My 441 is stock, and an older non-Mtronic. Depends on the wood, but full comp on the 25 inch bar on the 441. In softer fir/pine/hemlock/cedar I will usually up the rim drive to 8 pin with the 25 too for more chain speed. In hardwood I stay with a 7 pin rim. With a 28 inch bar on the 441 I usually use skip, or semi-skip with a 7 pin rim.

Make the above post 16 inch with 61 links (I cannot edit these posts after 10 minutes here). Piltz has some odd small and large mount Canon Super bars that he makes them for with 61 and 62 links.

You are right though, Picco is also 3/8 itch, so they should be the same number of links. 60... now I need to find someone to sells the new PS Picco full chisel loops other than this Piltz idiot near where I live! He sells 18 inch Picco chains with 61 links! I have to imagine that is because he uses huge rim drives on super long bars. ;(

Hey SawTroll: Thanks. Has the sun come up there this year yet? I have a new old stock 16" picco bar made for an 024. It is a Stihl bar and has the old gear design on the side. It is PN 3003 000 6313. I think Stihl made them for Logosol here, but no one seems to remember. It may have been the other way around. Neither sells them here any more, but there are a few Stihl dealers that have them still in stock in the Midwest (where this one came from). I am setting up my 026 that I got from Lakeside Andy to run picco B&C for limbing. I have a Picco rim for it that I got from a Stihl dealer here years ago. It is marked P-7 and fits the 026 spline. The German site raves about the 261 with the Picco B&C kit. Too bad those kits are not sold here in the states, obviously for liability reasons. People here keep putting these little bars on huge saws.

441-Mtronic is a nice saw. Not as much power as a 461, but either would drive a 25 inch bar (I use a 28 on my 441 here). 461 is not as smooth as the 441 (not spring loaded) but it is way smoother than the 460 was (vibe is about like the 440). 461 gets good reviews from loggers here in the western states, and should be a good choice.

Hello: I have a Stihl 260 and a 16" 3/8 0.050 Picco large mount bar, and I need to know how many links there are in the chain for it. These bars were not sold here in the states on 260 or 261 saws, and were only sold here on the 024 for a short time many years ago. I read that there are Picco bar and chain kits available for the 261 in the EU (not sold here in the states), so I am wondering if anyone knows what size the chain (link count) is in that kit? Thanks in advance...

661s were pulled from the market here and the 660 was put back on the shelves. The 661 is being redesigned and will be re-released in August or September of this year here, according to Stihl USA. Supposedly the cylinders have problems on a lot of those saws.

That is a typical answer here stateside. I have owned Husky saws, including a 395, but I do not line outboard clutch saws for several reasons. I preferred the DP 066, and I am a StihlHead. Which in this part of the US is also a type of salmon I fish for (Steelhead Salmon).

What is a cizzer?

OK, so the MS661 was released and withdrawn, or 'not a-recall' recalled from the US, Germany and the UK late last year and earlier this year. To fill the gap, the MS660 was put back into production and is selling in these markets. The 661 cylinder has supposedly been redesigned for a design flaw that caused the problems in those 661s that failed. Though no one at Stihl has said so directly, some Stihl area reps in the states have said that is the case. At any rate, after the wait, the 661 is nearing its re-release time of August-September in Germany, the UK, the US and Australia. Actually in Australia it will be the first release, as they never saw the 661 down under. Of course that begs the question, do we snap up the last of the new 660s that are out there now, or plonk down the dosh on a new 661 when they come out? Most fallers that I know here that tested the 661 prototypes are waiting for and wanting the new and revised 661. To paraphrase in your English, they say that the 661s are "the dogs b@llocks." I hope I can say that here? Here in the states that term means nothing, but my friends from London say that when they like something. The question is of course if they messed up the first release so bad, why risk buying one? Here in the states, we have the choked up version of the 660, which has 7.0 HP. So the 7.3 HP 661 is a gain over the US 660, but not the 660 that they have in Oz or the older 066 that we had here. My older 066 had 7.6 HP with a dual port muffler cover on it. I am not sure what model 660 you have there in the UK.