After the saw had cooled down I got into it trying to figure out the rattle. First I decided to make sure the muffler was on there tight, which it was. I thought maybe the core or baffles were loose inside it so I took the muffler off. Surprise, we have a non-cat muffler with no baffles, just a spark arrestor and deflector on the outlet! I thoroughly anti-seized the bolts and put the muffler back on. Took the clutch cover off and examined this area. The clutch drum and sprocket do have fair amount of play, which seems normal for this setup. Nothing out of the ordinary noted so I put it back together.
I started up the saw and listened to it idle. Now that I think about it, the rattle at idle is probably a combination of pinging noise from the very open muffler design and the clutch and sprocket rattling around. The noise instantly disappears when you accelerate and I can't see or hear anything that is obviously loose. While I was at it, I test fit the 3/8" pitch bar from my CS-400 and it was a perfect fit, the lone difference being the extra oil hole on the tail of the 500P bar. Given that the upper tensioner hole lines up perfectly with the oil slot on the bar plate, it may not even be necessary.
So far I am quite impressed with the 500P. Echo really did not push this saw hard enough, because I would think that anyone who is not terribly brand loyal would easily recognize that this saw is a much better deal than the Stihl and Husky offerings I have talked about.
