RIDE-RED 350r
Here For The Long Haul!
- Local time
- 2:08 PM
- User ID
- 839
- Joined
- Feb 8, 2016
- Messages
- 3,228
- Reaction score
- 12,760
- Location
- Blossvale NY
Well, my 2002 346xp overhaul went very well and the saw has been working great for me up in the bucket truck. It is now my go-to saw when limbing down a tree and because that saw is back in service my ground crew has a good reliable 550xp to use when they need to cut something. You may ask why I would pick an old 346 over a new 550..well.... why would I pick my '78 Chevy K-10 over the '06 Silverado?? Anyway, before the 346 was brought back into service the ground crew was stuck with a pair of ms290 Stihls that have been kind of troublesome for us...
Anyway, we had yet another saw that was remanded to the shelf due to unreliability, an old 394xp. The chief complaint was that when it was laid on it's side to flush off a large roadside maple stalk, it would quit and refuse to re-fire. So I told the boss that given the age and hours on the saw, a crank bearing-up overhaul would probably be prudent. I ran a compression check and it came in a somewhat anemic 130psi.
2 days ago, I was given the green light to go ahead and pull the top end to assess what exactly would be needed. I found that the piston was scored pretty good, one ring was stuck, and some aluminum transfer was present in the cylinder. I found the smoking gun for the reason the piston sustained damage, one of the two intake flange bolts was MISSING! I don't know how or why one of those bolts would be missing, but I'll be a monkey's uncle if that isn't the reason for the piston damage and the reason the saw became unreliable.
So I made up a slotted mandrel out of a 1/4" bolt, wrapped 2' of sand paper strip up in it, chucked it up into our pneumatic die grinder, and gave it the Mastermind treatment. The design of the lower transfers on the 394 cylinder made it a little more difficult to clean all of the aluminum transfer out, but I got it. But in the process, some of the port window edges got a little extra "beveling"... I don't think it will be a problem though...
So now, I have ordered a new Metoer 394 spec piston, bearings, seals, gaskets, carb kit, and intake spacer. Parts came in at under $150 total, not to bad for resurrecting a badass 394!
Here are a couple of pics of the cylinder after I cleaned it...You can see where the sandpaper took some material away from the port edge... I think I might bring that cylinder home and dress that up a bit.
Anyway, we had yet another saw that was remanded to the shelf due to unreliability, an old 394xp. The chief complaint was that when it was laid on it's side to flush off a large roadside maple stalk, it would quit and refuse to re-fire. So I told the boss that given the age and hours on the saw, a crank bearing-up overhaul would probably be prudent. I ran a compression check and it came in a somewhat anemic 130psi.
2 days ago, I was given the green light to go ahead and pull the top end to assess what exactly would be needed. I found that the piston was scored pretty good, one ring was stuck, and some aluminum transfer was present in the cylinder. I found the smoking gun for the reason the piston sustained damage, one of the two intake flange bolts was MISSING! I don't know how or why one of those bolts would be missing, but I'll be a monkey's uncle if that isn't the reason for the piston damage and the reason the saw became unreliable.
So I made up a slotted mandrel out of a 1/4" bolt, wrapped 2' of sand paper strip up in it, chucked it up into our pneumatic die grinder, and gave it the Mastermind treatment. The design of the lower transfers on the 394 cylinder made it a little more difficult to clean all of the aluminum transfer out, but I got it. But in the process, some of the port window edges got a little extra "beveling"... I don't think it will be a problem though...
So now, I have ordered a new Metoer 394 spec piston, bearings, seals, gaskets, carb kit, and intake spacer. Parts came in at under $150 total, not to bad for resurrecting a badass 394!
Here are a couple of pics of the cylinder after I cleaned it...You can see where the sandpaper took some material away from the port edge... I think I might bring that cylinder home and dress that up a bit.
