I've owned this saw since I was 18. The last time I loaned it to a friend, it came back only half running and not idling (this was about 15yrs ago). It would start right up cold, and run well until it got good and warm, and then it lost tons of power, and wouldn't idle at all. I assumed they'd run straight gas in it, and at that point in my life it went in a box, without the slightest troubleshooting (I'd already had trouble getting parts in the past, and I wasn't online then).
Fast forward to now, and I decided to tear into it and see what might be the issue...
Turns out, the coil wire had gotten displaced and was getting into the flywheel. Evidently it just needed that little bit of heat to make it really short out.
Anyways, I've decided to go through it anyway, and as of today all the parts I need to bring it back to top notch are in the mail on the way. Currently it's got a Mahle P+C. I don't know if that was factory back then or not, but the casting/ports look way better than what I've seen on current Sthil stuff. Both P+C are still in really good shape, and I plan to just lightly hone it and install a new set of rings, which leads me to my dilemma...
It should have room to do a base gasket delete (will be measured when I put the piston back on the rod, as the pin is a heat/press fit).
Assuming I can get at least .020 of squish without the base gasket, will this be something worth doing? This thing won't be anything other than a play saw, but I'd like to get whatever I can out of it without going crazy.
The next question would be, if I do a base gasket delete, do I bring the exhaust port up to match the original timing? I won't be able to bring the transfers up with the exhaust, as I don't have anything that I can get into the cylinder with. This would leave me with a decent amount of extra blow down, but on this saw I don't know what that alone might do to the powerband. It's been years since I've run this thing, but I remember loving how much low grunt it had, and if I can get a little more while I'm in there great, but I definitely don't want to do anything to hurt the grunt...
For background, I've done a bunch of port work on 2stroke bikes and 4 wheelers years ago, just not on saws, so I'm confident in my ability to do the layout/grinding work, but I don't have a 90 head small enough to do the transfers and I don't want to ruin this cylinder because the alternatives are either crappy or very expensive.
I know the safe thing is to leave it alone... But I don't want to leave any easy power on the table if it's there for the taking either...
So... What would y'all do?