Ollie_M

Check you got spark,and don’t spend money on a 180

185psi compression cold, she runs pretty strong IMG_2737.mov

Just checked ring gap - came in snug at .25mm so just under 10 thou 👌 looking forward to getting it back together - was the most powerful saw id ran when I got it and I was impressed then but not difficult after running a Stihl ms250 as a ‘big saw’ i bought the last 2 oem rings for ls engineers when I made an order, will keep them in the parts bin possibly for a pop up piston one day

Throttle open, normally make sure no choke but you don’t have one

cheers for that, had cylinder off today, base gasket was .45mm so will be nice a comfortable squish gap - got some hylomar blue of a mate which should be good as doesnt set so can take my time. i think max allowable ring gap is 1mm? didnt get the feeler gauges out but was very small gap when ring put it bore so should be ok, def was less than half a mm yeah that makes sense, baffle already drilled out but crocky's dual exit is very tempting when i removed the carb i found the rubber partition was folded and trapped under carb on left side (flywheel side), replacated by my finger. this may have been something to do with why this saw was being outran by a 038 super... as was very obvious that there was less fuel mixture entering through the left side of the cylinder/ tranfer port with it being almost clean compared to the golden brown colour of the right hand side. pictures of the removed fins from transfer cover below as i forgot to photograph the bore.

So just stripping the saw down ready to remove cylinder to do the transfer covers and am thinking I’ll do a base gasket delete and a ring replacement whilst I’m in there so just after a bit of advice as first time doing it. firstly, I’m looking at replacing the rings whilst I’m in there as can’t be bad idea to do them, comp is 150psi cold, piston is absolutely immaculate on exhaust side with machine marks still visible zero scratches whatsoever. No ‘special ‘ tools needed to replace the rings is there? Secondly I measured the squish currently at .95mm and I understand it wants to be just above .51mm - assuming gasket thickness from factory is consistent am I looking at needing no gasket just a sealant (recommendations please) or will I need some sort of gasket? lastly, saw has limited coil and I’ve tuned it so that it cleans up instantly when put on load and goes straight back to four stroking when unloading mid cut (as I understand to be correct) - however I’m about 1/16 if a turn off the upper adjustment limiter so thinking I’ll need to remove limiters as more fuel will be needed after mods? Is that correct? many thanks in advance for advice given

Yeah perfect, I like to use syringes for measuring out oil to mix aswell. the 5ml syringes seem the perfect amount to get a saw to fire off and run without flooding. syrings also quite handy for priming a bar - use it to run oil down the groove and into the nose sprocket

thats basically what a little fuel in the bore or in the carb does, i like to use a 5ml calpol type syringe and just pop it into the carb before putting air filter back on, runs a little longer than putting direct into cylinder

Ollie (@tdi_ollie) • Instagram reel WWW.INSTAGRAM.COM 0 likes, 0 comments - tdi_ollieApril 22, 2024 on : "#chainsaw #stihlchainsaw #chainsawrepair #stihl038 #treework #felling". speaks for itself really, cheers for the help guys runs lovely and going back to my mate who i sold it to for him to torture again 🤦‍♂️ out of interest what would someone charge for diagnosis then replacement of crank seals?

running working 550xp's are on ebay in and around £400 so you might get a hundred quid for it i would say

I’ve heard there’s Stihl tools to help with alignment when putting the new seals in. Are they worth getting? If so what’s the part number?

i dont do arb work but dad a car mechanic, im an agricultural mechanic. £150 on a pair of either laceup or dealer caterpillar safety boots and we usually change em after two years as by then the inner soles have worn down to the metal safety plates on the heal so not as comfy for all day wearing - work pays for replacements. however the soles are perfectly fine and generally all in decent shape other than fabric/leather loss over the steel toe. i personally see no need to spend anymore money or change. the only reason to not get some would be if you wanted high top laceups for a bit more ankle support...

best thing i done was put a saw back together without tightening down the spark plug, was awfully confused when i went to start it and it suddenly had no compression.... took far longer than i'd like to admit for me to check the plug was tight and figure out what id done

what do people recommend for a splitting axe? or possibly a cheap splitter, have a tractor so could go hydraulic if anyone knows of any cheap ones that work? currently been sectioning rounds up with saw then splitting using an old 4lb elwell felling axe - done the job but always kind of wished for a nice splitting axe looking forward to suggestions

not a proffesional but im assuming your using a quality oil? amsoil, motorex, motul etc

fill the tank right up then try run it on its side straight away, if it runs then then its the pickup body not falling to the bottom

talking to myself here but clutch side crank seals backordered everywhere 🙄 got them on order from ls engineers hopefully doesnt take too long

Clutch side seal out no problem, drilled 2 2mm holes and started to screw in, pliers under the head of the screw 2 hits on the handle end of pliers for each screw and it popped out. Happy days although don’t think the rubber part is supposed to be separate 🤣 flywheel side I’m not sure what to do really, no space to get a screw in really so not very sure what to do? edit: well after some digging I found a screw small enough, and it popped straight out 👍

What’d be your recommended way to pierce it and lever it out? I was thinking a fairly stout 90 degree pick through a drilled hole but without knowing how much space there is to play with behind metal it’s not something I’m going to try in a hurry oh and fair play on the diagnosis!

Actually bought this and finally got round to pressure testing, blocked it all and couldn’t get saw to hold any pressure whatsoever (yes did confirm tool was holding pressure and my adapters were) in the end I put my air compressor on it and very quickly came to conclusion clutch side crank seal is shot to bits. oh I can also turn the saw over by hand on just the flywheel with everything blocked off - can hear the air being pushed out the seals just need to get some new seals ordered and figure out how to get old seals out.

Impulse line and intake boot checked all ok, cylinder is tight, will give it a good clean and check for physical cracks as I know it’s had hard use. It’s an old saw that sat for a good 10 years so I feel crank seals are a good possibility, for an air leak this bad the seals would be visibly buggered I would’ve thought? Don’t really want to spend out for a mityvac for how often I’ll use it but if I can’t visually find this air leak I may just have to get it.

idle screw is adjusted so theres very little gap, i forgot to say which might be quite key is that if i choke it once it starts it will idle at a somewhat normal speed - something i find real weird as it obviously restricts air flow significantly but i dont get what it does differently to the throttle valve

Carb is at factory settings. I can suck fuel up through the line no problem, doesnt seem cracked. Don’t have the kit to do a crankcase pressure test, is there a kit someone would recommend I buy?

On choke it’ll take about 10 pulls before it pops, choke off it’ll then start and instantly take off to what sounds like about 10,000 rpm or definitely up there. I’ve cleaned the carb through with carb cleaner, split the rear handle off and checked the pulse line and intake boot neither are split which rules out air leak I think? The only thing I find weird is when I take the fuel line off the carb you don’t get that little squirt of petrol coming out you would normally get. So my only idea is to get a carb rebuild and see if that helps. any suggestions and help would be greatly appreciated