Husqvarna 350

[Benwa]

Would the 353 piston swap make a world of difference on this saw or is it better to keep it stock?

It depends on what era your 350 is. They had different bore sizes through the years. If it's 45mm then the 353 piston is absolutely a worth while swap, along with base gasket delete. Grab a deflector from @Red97 if he still makes them & open up the muffler too. I used this piston on a build with great success.
https://www.wolfcreeksawshop.com/pr...for-husqvarna-350-353-45mm-extra-compression/

 

[JD-E4321]

Yes it would, maybe not a world.. Should bump it up a notch. Do a muff mod too. Maybe a couple gills?

I may have to switch it for a different piston then, the old locust probably wasn’t the best for testing it out but it chugged through good just slow..
after my first modded saw(450P) makes me want to wake them all up… can’t believe how much power was choked off in that muffler…

the muffler that’s on it is completely hollow, no baffles on the inside at all, is that normal for the 350’s ? And would the gills help that much more?

 

[JD-E4321]

The 350 with the bearing cap has by them a good source for leaks. The cap sits with screws located at the bottom of the case under the tank handle.
On earlier 350 it sits with course threaded screws that likes to back out over use, this in addition with that the cap has a bad habit of getting a bit warped towards the case and lets go of the case between the corners.
I just did work on my 350 from 2004, took emorycloth on a flatplate and worked it back in shape again and put finer thread helicoils instead of the courser thread i dont like.
Mine has the flat top piston and 44mm fingerport cylinder, it ran for the most part great and had good compression i got suspicious when it came out of tune
from time to time and loss of power.
The bearing cap was the culprit.
After this and base gasket delete and muffler mod it runs really strong with good power.

Many despice of the plstic case saws, my opinion is that they are higly underappreciated for the great saw that it really is, those who own and runs one know what i mean.

I’ll def look into this, so far it’s seemed to be fine but as I said the saw was given to me so there only may be more problems to come as I keep running it… but hey a free saw is a free saw..

I’m definitely not against plastic case saws, just been fortunate that we’ve had a bunch of old 0 series stihls around that ran flawless for years…
..
Just like the echos I was given, I used to think they were junk saws and throw aways until I ran them and they’re just as underrated as any other.. after actually using them it opened my mind to all saws… I love them all and can’t have enough

 

[JD-E4321]

It depends on what era your 350 is. They had different bore sizes through the years. If it's 45mm then the 353 piston is absolutely a worth while swap, along with base gasket delete. Grab a deflector from @Red97 if he still makes them & open up the muffler too. I used this piston on a build with great success.
https://www.wolfcreeksawshop.com/pr...for-husqvarna-350-353-45mm-extra-compression/

I guess I should have added that in there, it does have the 45L stamped on the top, so the 353 is just a direct swap for that cylinder? And as for sealing the cylinder just rid the base gasket and use a little bit of gasket maker to seal it then?

 

[Benwa]

@JD-E4321 Yup! The flat top 353 piston is a direct swap for the 45mm bore 350. When deleting the base gasket, just use a suitable fuel safe sealant. Yamabond, hondabond, motoseal, threebond 1184, etc. You'll want to double check squish of course, to make sure you have enough clearance to do so. Every saw is different. The 350's I've done have ended up around .018" +/- squish without the base gasket, which is tighter than some may like. We all have our own preferences. You can always cut a thin base gasket out of your material of choice to set the proper squish. There is lots of info out there about it. If you'd rather not get into that aspect of it, although I believe it's well worth it, no worries. Keep the gasket. Just swapping in the 353 piston, especially one with a pop-up dome on it, will make a difference. Especially if you get after opening up the muffler at the same time.
Here's a video on some of the assembly on the last one I did & it hits on some of the points I just described.

If you're already "in the know" for the info mentioned about squish and such, please forgive me & just disregard the video.

 

[JD-E4321]

@JD-E4321 Yup! The flat top 353 piston is a direct swap for the 45mm bore 350. When deleting the base gasket, just use a suitable fuel safe sealant. Yamabond, hondabond, motoseal, threebond 1184, etc. You'll want to double check squish of course, to make sure you have enough clearance to do so. Every saw is different. The 350's I've done have ended up around .018" +/- squish without the base gasket, which is tighter than some may like. We all have our own preferences. You can always cut a thin base gasket out of your material of choice to set the proper squish. There is lots of info out there about it. If you'd rather not get into that aspect of it, although I believe it's well worth it, no worries. Keep the gasket. Just swapping in the 353 piston, especially one with a pop-up dome on it, will make a difference. Especially if you get after opening up the muffler at the same time.
Here's a video on some of the assembly on the last one I did & it hits on some of the points I just described.

If you're already "in the know" for the info mentioned about squish and such, please forgive me & just disregard the video.

Thank you for the good info and video I greatly appreciate it ,I’m open to any and all advice/info. I’m definitely not “in the know” I’ve only done muffler mods and carbs so far haven’t ventured into changing any pistons or anything To hop them up, I’m still at that stage where it’s almost like your a scared kid testing the water not sure how far you want to go, but the more experience I get tearing saws and other equipment apart the more I realize they’re not as bad as what people think. But I still don’t want to do something dumb and really F myself up..