Porting an old Husqvarna 357

[davidwyby]

I can make it a little prettier if you'd like.

 

[MAF143]

I can make it a little prettier if you'd like.

The muffler or the truck???

They are both just fine in my eyes, besides, I don't want the wife getting jealous... She's the only pretty thing that matters...

The rest of my parts are supposed to get here today, but we're gonna be out of town. Between my job and twenty other things getting in the way, it's seeming like I never get to work on this saw. And I have several other projects lined up right behind it.

 

[pbillyi69]

i understand.....i resemble that remark, and i work graveyard shift

 

[pbillyi69]

i have three saws that are waiting to be put back together because it took too long for parts to come. i now have all the parts for each one and not sure what i did with them. i may have put them in the boxes with the saws but there is the problem i dont remember. plus three more to take apart and all of the rest of the stuff that never goes away....now its xmas and i have to deal with that too....im never going to get done

 

[MAF143]

We just got back in from our excursion to the city for the day. Checked the mail and enough got here to get the bottom end back together, but the intake boot isn't here yet nor the fuel tank vent parts. I guess I'll get done what I can this evening and re-check the timing to ensure it's where I want it. I'll grab a snack and head for the shop.

 

[MAF143]

I got the bottom end all together and put the timing wheel on it to see where I ended up. I cleaned a lot of carbon out of the exhaust port and off the piston. The exhaust ended up measuring 103* with a duration of 154*. That's higher than I was shooting for after @huskihl 's advice. The squish ended up measuring .027" while it measured .022" prior to cleaning the carbon out of there. I may have gotten a little zealous taking the carbon out of the top of the exhaust port and making sure there was a nice smooth chamfer for the ring to ride. Top of the transfers measured 129* so blowdown moves to 26*, not what I was targeting but that's where I'm at and I'll live with it. I measured the top of the transfers with a ring in the cylinder this time whereas before I had eyeballed it through the exhaust port so this measurement is probably more accurate. The intake ended up at 78* and ignition advance was 6* with the flywheel key trim.

New Caber end gap is .009". That's way better than the .040" of the worn out ring that came out of it.

I can live with this for now and can't wait to get this thing back together and broken in. I'm sure compression will be much better. I'll see how it runs compared to my MS362 that we had compared it to prior to working on it.

Worst part of the day was that uncle Arthur Ritus was visiting today and the special size washer from my crank assy set slipped out of my hand in the shop somewhere and I looked for that thing for a hour and never did find it... I'll have to make another one...

 

[MAF143]

Bummed... My parts were supposedly to be delivered Friday, but they still aren't here on saturday. No chance of them showing up on Sunday.

 

[MAF143]

I've been watching the tracking for my last batch of parts to come in. This morning it said they were in the hands of my mail carrier and should hit my mailbox today. He usually shows up about noon, so about 10 after I started down to the mailbox and as I was walking down he pulled up and delivered the mail... I picked up the pace to get there (it's a ways down the hill to the box) and opened it up and there was a big box. It was a gift of nuts from some friends out west. NO PARTS... I was bummed and was walking slowly back up the hill and was almost to the woods when I heard a car behind me and a horn beep. I thought it was the wife as she was out with friends for breakfast. It was the mailman with a package hanging out the window!!! I told him that better be my parts and sure enough it was. He said he had dropped that one on the seat when he put the nuts in the mailbox and drove off with it there and noticed it when he got to the neighbor's. I told him I had watched the tracking as they traveled the grand tour of most of the eastern half of the US over the last 2-1/2 weeks. He asked what was in the package and I told him chainsaw parts for a saw I was re-building and he looked at me like I was from another planet... He was shocked that someone would re-build one of those little things that he's seen in Walmart. LOL

Still bummed because the last few days of work have been super busy and on top of that, it's date night at our house (and my turn to fix dinner) so there will be NO shop time till tomorrow evening... This is driving me nuts. I had hoped to start breaking it in last weekend...

No telling what's gonna pop up for holiday shopping or whatever to delay this even more... at least all the parts are here now.

 

[MAF143]

I got some time this evening to finish putting this 357XP back together.

Hoping to get some time to do some idling heat cycles on it tomorrow.

It looks like a lot of my stuff with the JB Weld on the cover to fix the cracks. There are few places where I drilled holes and wired it together before putting the JB Weld on. I should have ordered the gray clips to match the "touch up" color scheme. I pulled the cord a few times to make sure it had the "thump, thump" that is should and it's got plenty of compression now since it's plenty oily in there till I get it fired up tomorrow. The sealant should be OK to run it then.



The business end...

 

[cuinrearview]

It's beautiful

 

[Duane(Pa)]

You’re in for a treat!

 

[MAF143]

I did have to trim back the tubes I put on the carb needle jets back in post #91. They were just a touch too long for the cover to go on. I'll have to re-mark them if I get around to it. I'll see how it goes tuning it later today. The super glue didn't hold well on the tube to needle connection so I may not mark them in case the tubes end up turning a little on the jet. They should be OK as I have an adjustment screw driver that fits in there well with this set up. Once the cover is on they shouldn't be able to come off though. The tubes seem to be captured in there pretty well.

 

[MAF143]

I have 3 heat cycles on it so far and next I'll tweak in the high jet. I've only blipped the throttle a little so far just to ensure the low jet is OK.

First run video, sounds good so far.

Here's a pic of it cooling down after the third run. Part of the top fin is missing, second fin had a crack so it put a couple splints on it...

 

[huskihl]

That’ll work great, Monte.

Thank god you didn’t attempt to weld it

 

[MAF143]

That’ll work great, Monte.

Thank god you didn’t attempt to weld it

yeah, that would be a disaster... Aluminum strips and rivets are bench stock at our place. All our four wheelers have plastics that are riveted back together with a web of aluminum strips... LOL I fix stuff however I can with what's laying around the farm. I don't usually care what stuff looks like as long as it works good.

 

[MAF143]

I took it out and put it in some wood and tuned the top end by ear. I limbed and bucked a 10" DBH Wild Cherry that had blown into the upper pasture making sure not to keep it pegged more that 3-4 seconds at a time. I like to break them in gently like that. It is an absolute blast to cut with it, and that was still the 2nd tank of gas...

Being a total novice to this porting stuff, I thought I better check it with the cheapo tach I have so I went over to the neighbor that I cut wood with a lot since I don't have 3 hands to check this easily. He revved it up while I held the tach and the tach went right up to almost 18,000 rpm. That scared me and I thought what a POS cheapo tach so we did it again and it went a little over 18,000 rpm. That scared me enough that I grabbed the tweaker an gave it a quarter turn out on the high jet. It was getting dark so I put the saw back in the truck and figured I would ask you guys if I'm seeing things or what??? I'll play with it some more tomorrow and check it again.

So is 18,000 rpm even a for real thing on a chainsaw or do I need to throw away that POS tach and trust my ears. It sounded great while cutting. 4 stroking till it got into the wood with about 4-6" of bar buried and it would clean right up and scream. Even sinking the single dog and pulling on it didn't slow it down much. Like I said, I'm a rookie at this porting stuff and really liking to learn, but I'm having trouble wrapping my head around that many RPM without a grenade in my face.

Is my tach a complete POS or did I just step through the twilight zone into the world of pro series ported saws? I need to know. 18K???

PS... I will be using the little blue magic starting button on the side of the cylinder. I forgot once and it hurt a little bit...

 

[Wolverine]

Mine has never seen that much rpm. Maybe mid to low 15’s. Dumb question, is it still 4 strokin at 18? My ec346 would a little over 16.

 

[huskihl]

I took it out and put it in some wood and tuned the top end by ear. I limbed and bucked a 10" DBH Wild Cherry that had blown into the upper pasture making sure not to keep it pegged more that 3-4 seconds at a time. I like to break them in gently like that. It is an absolute blast to cut with it, and that was still the 2nd tank of gas...

Being a total novice to this porting stuff, I thought I better check it with the cheapo tach I have so I went over to the neighbor that I cut wood with a lot since I don't have 3 hands to check this easily. He revved it up while I held the tach and the tach went right up to almost 18,000 rpm. That scared me and I thought what a POS cheapo tach so we did it again and it went a little over 18,000 rpm. That scared me enough that I grabbed the tweaker an gave it a quarter turn out on the high jet. It was getting dark so I put the saw back in the truck and figured I would ask you guys if I'm seeing things or what??? I'll play with it some more tomorrow and check it again.

So is 18,000 rpm even a for real thing on a chainsaw or do I need to throw away that POS tach and trust my ears. It sounded great while cutting. 4 stroking till it got into the wood with about 4-6" of bar buried and it would clean right up and scream. Even sinking the single dog and pulling on it didn't slow it down much. Like I said, I'm a rookie at this porting stuff and really liking to learn, but I'm having trouble wrapping my head around that many RPM without a grenade in my face.

Is my tach a complete POS or did I just step through the twilight zone into the world of pro series ported saws? I need to know. 18K???

PS... I will be using the little blue magic starting button on the side of the cylinder. I forgot once and it hurt a little bit...

Got a picture of the tach? I had one of the cheap ones gifted to me and it also read 17K. I knew better so I threw it in the trash

 

[MAF143]

Mine has never seen that much rpm. Maybe mid to low 15’s. Dumb question, is it still 4 strokin at 18? My ec346 would a little over 16.

That's why I'm thinking my tach is lying to me... It sounds as it should and throws a stream of chips like I love to see. I'll sleep on this and play with it tomorrow and try to figure this out. Probably a junker tach. I'll check the tach on my other saws tomorrow. I only used it once before. I'm usually a tune it by ear kinda guy.

I'll try to get the neighbor over for a video of a run-off with the 362 tomorrow. I'll get a video of the 357 too. Maybe my ears are off too...

 

[MAF143]

Got a picture of the tach? I had one of the cheap ones gifted to me and it also read 17K. I knew better so I threw it in the trash

I can't imagine I paid much for this thing. I'll check it on the other saws tomorrow and probably end up chucking it in the junk barrel.


If it says my MS250 is running 15K it's going straight to the landfill... I'm not a fan of Sh** that lies to me!!!