All Things 288XP

[markds2]

@markds2 I Was going to ask, once you received your low top if you'd Be interested in selling your high top. Then I looked at your profile and seen that your in New Zealand, and sead Better luck next time.....
BTY- Great Looking 288 !!!
Still trying to make a 288 'G' high top full wrap

I'd love to send it over to you . But...it is actually in quite poor condition with a number of cracks that have been epoxyed up. Thanks for the compliment too. I have a soft spot for the 2 Series Huskys. I've always had Sthils but when I used a 288 I knew I had to get one!

 

[XP_Slinger]

I'd love to send it over to you . But...it is actually in quite poor condition with a number of cracks that have been epoxyed up. Thanks for the compliment too. I have a soft spot for the 2 Series Huskys. I've always had Sthils but when I used a 288 I knew I had to get one!

HOORAY 288! Just something about them.

 

[00wyk]

In case y'all missed it when I put it in the ported saw vid thread:

It's had the intake massaged, lower xfers opened a bit, and minor exhaust work, with major muffler work. Nothing too drastic. I mostly wanted it to be a torque monster that was reliable that anyone on the estate could use, assuming they could handle it.

 

[XP_Slinger]

In case y'all missed it when I put it in the ported saw vid thread:

It's had the intake massaged, lower xfers opened a bit, and minor exhaust work, with major muffler work. Nothing too drastic. I mostly wanted it to be a torque monster that was reliable that anyone on the estate could use, assuming they could handle it.

Sounds good man. You looked frustrated when you put it down. Something not right?

 

[00wyk]

Sounds good man. You looked frustrated when you put it down. Something not right?

I made a huge mistake. The original manifold/intake gasket tore as I removed it previously. I didn't have one handy and was expecting to replace it before this vid. It makes little difference on the running side of things, but it sets the carb almost 2mm closer to the cylinder without that gasket and will likely eventually start to melt the plastic manifold. This means the silly arm of the 288 throttle 'linkage' won't correctly lever against the rather strong return spring on the NOS tillitson. SO if you lift it, which causes the handle to flex a bit when you have 32 inches of bar on it, the throttle won't activate much of the time. Sorta frustrating. It took a lot of takes before the throttle started to behave which is why ya see me panting at the beginning of the 288 part if you look. I had to restart it half a dozen times as I tried to sort it out. It's something you never would have noticed until you put the bar on. But entirely my fault. I am making a new one from scratch at the moment to sort it out.

In other news - that freaking thing pulls like a freight train. It's a meteor jug and piston. Sort of has a high exhaust, but it was good size, so I only just cleaned it up, added some timing and width to the intake, and removed the lower xfer lips.Didn't mess with the uppers. So it's sort of like it's half ported. I didn't want a high strung machine to leave on an estate where anyone could use it. I just wanted it to kill big oaks without bogging. It pulls great straight from off idle. Loud AF tho. That is it's first cut, too. SHe's not even got a tank through her yet.

In the vid it is running semi chisel vs the full chisel the ported 044 is running. With an 8 pin rim, even with about 2000rpm less in the wood, it is right there with the 044 in this smallish piece of oak. The semi chisel also seems to drag more wood out of the kerf than full chisel when it's fully seasoned. What the vid doesn't convey is the massive difference in how the 288 pulls me in to the wood vs the 044. The 288 just want to pull and pull by comparison.

 

[XP_Slinger]

I made a huge mistake. The original manifold/intake gasket tore as I removed it previously. I didn't have one handy and was expecting to replace it before this vid. It makes little difference on the running side of things, but it sets the carb almost 2mm closer to the cylinder without that gasket and will likely eventually start to melt the plastic manifold. This means the silly arm of the 288 throttle 'linkage' won't correctly lever against the rather strong return spring on the NOS tillitson. SO if you lift it, which causes the handle to flex a bit when you have 32 inches of bar on it, the throttle won't activate much of the time. Sorta frustrating. It took a lot of takes before the throttle started to behave which is why ya see me panting at the beginning of the 288 part if you look. I had to restart it half a dozen times as I tried to sort it out. It's something you never would have noticed until you put the bar on. But entirely my fault. I am making a new one from scratch at the moment to sort it out.

In other news - that freaking thing pulls like a freight train. It's a meteor jug and piston. Sort of has a high exhaust, but it was good size, so I only just cleaned it up, added some timing and width to the intake, and removed the lower xfer lips.Didn't mess with the uppers. So it's sort of like it's half ported. I didn't want a high strung machine to leave on an estate where anyone could use it. I just wanted it to kill big oaks without bogging. It pulls great straight from off idle. Loud AF tho. That is it's first cut, too. SHe's not even got a tank through her yet.

In the vid it is running semi chisel vs the full chisel the ported 044 is running. With an 8 pin rim, even with about 2000rpm less in the wood, it is right there with the 044 in this smallish piece of oak. The semi chisel also seems to drag more wood out of the kerf than full chisel when it's fully seasoned. What the vid doesn't convey is the massive difference in how the 288 pulls me in to the wood vs the 044. The 288 just want to pull and pull by comparison.

That does sound frustrating. Hope you get it sorted out so you can enjoy it.

I know I’ve said it several times over the last couple years but I’m getting the itch to port my 288. Builds like yours get me to thinking. Reason I haven’t yet is I truly have no complaints the way it is with just BGD and MM. Decisions decisions

 

[00wyk]

That does sound frustrating. Hope you get it sorted out so you can enjoy it.

I know I’ve said it several times over the last couple years but I’m getting the itch to port my 288. Builds like yours get me to thinking. Reason I haven’t yet is I truly have no complaints the way it is with just BGD and MM. Decisions decisions

One of the reasons I ported it conservatively is I wanted it to last - this isn't a toy. This thing has to cut bazillions of board feet, and it has to do it for firewood. That means ringing up huge pieces of oak all day every day for production.

A 288 makes great power with an exhaust mod. It has boatloads of intake and carb, and the air intakes are nonrestrictive even on the low top. When it was a ported 281, no one other than myself could really start it. It was also destroying starters with 210 psi compression. So I added the meteor cylinder with decomp, and left the gasket in. The saw you see in the vid there has a .045 squish and no ignition advance. As it sits now it's 170psi or so. I doubt it needed the porting, but since I had the cylinder in my hand, I had to fiddle with it some or I would have been telling myself 'what if it had 2* more intake instead'. The saw in the vid has 2* more intake, so no need to ask the question. It lives by a river at the bottom of the Comeraghs. So the air is always cool and dense. I find this makes all saws run well. High compression isn't a necessity here. The Echo at the beginning is actually fairly strong for it's displacement. It just had to contend with this thing:

That 288 chewing thru it as though it almost wasn't there actually says a lot. That was the hardest piece of oak I ever cut. It's been sitting at the bottom of the pile for 6 years.

 

[CJ Brown]

One of the reasons I ported it conservatively is I wanted it to last - this isn't a toy. This thing has to cut bazillions of board feet, and it has to do it for firewood. That means ringing up huge pieces of oak all day every day for production.

A 288 makes great power with an exhaust mod. It has boatloads of intake and carb, and the air intakes are nonrestrictive even on the low top. When it was a ported 281, no one other than myself could really start it. It was also destroying starters with 210 psi compression. So I added the meteor cylinder with decomp, and left the gasket in. The saw you see in the vid there has a .045 squish and no ignition advance. As it sits now it's 170psi or so. I doubt it needed the porting, but since I had the cylinder in my hand, I had to fiddle with it some or I would have been telling myself 'what if it had 2* more intake instead'. The saw in the vid has 2* more intake, so no need to ask the question. It lives by a river at the bottom of the Comeraghs. So the air is always cool and dense. I find this makes all saws run well. High compression isn't a necessity here. The Echo at the beginning is actually fairly strong for it's displacement. It just had to contend with this thing:

That 288 chewing thru it as though it almost wasn't there actually says a lot. That was the hardest piece of oak I ever cut. It's been sitting at the bottom of the pile for 6 years.

Love the beautiful pictures. Can't wait to get back into my 288 - soon I hope!

 

[Johnmn]

Bump for a great saw and thread!

 

[justoldsaws]

Finally got me a 288, I have a 281 and just love it, it has become my favourite saw, cant wait to run the 288 and see how it goes.

 

[markds2]

Here's a question for those that know 288's well. What can I expect for compression on a stock 288 with a Mahle decomp cylinder, new Meteor and Caber and with a base gasket delete? It feels down a little on compression to the early non decomp KS 288 I had, but still pulls 180psi on the gauge.

 

[00wyk]

K&S assumed when they made the 281 and 288 top ends that every user would be built like an inside linebacker. Mahle made them for mere mortals.

 

[XP_Slinger]

Here's a question for those that know 288's well. What can I expect for compression on a stock 288 with a Mahle decomp cylinder, new Meteor and Caber and with a base gasket delete? It feels down a little on compression to the early non decomp KS 288 I had, but still pulls 180psi on the gauge.

That sounds about perfect.

 

[markds2]

That sounds about perfect.

I must say that the KS 288 was fairly astounding and kind of converted me to 2 Series huskys, but the Mahle decomp 288 doesn't seem to quite have the same sparkle. Does that sort of line up with your experience? Maybe an extra port in the muffler will help (completely stock at the moment with the screen).

 

[XP_Slinger]

I must say that the KS 288 was fairly astounding and kind of converted me to 2 Series huskys, but the Mahle decomp 288 doesn't seem to quite have the same sparkle. Does that sort of line up with your experience? Maybe an extra port in the muffler will help (completely stock at the moment with the screen).

I’ve not had much experience with the older cylinders. But from what I have experienced my new production KS seems to be even with or maybe a little snappier than a couple of the older cylinders I’ve run. Both MAHLE and KS.

You may have a cylinder with lower exhaust or some other porting difference than your other KS.

 

[justoldsaws]

My new to me 288, came up ok after a quick clean, piston and cylinder looks great.
First pic is how it came to me.

 

[markds2]

I’ve not had much experience with the older cylinders. But from what I have experienced my new production KS seems to be even with or maybe a little snappier than a couple of the older cylinders I’ve run. Both MAHLE and KS.

You may have a cylinder with lower exhaust or some other porting difference than your other KS.

Yes Ok, my KS was an'89 300 Anniversary edition with no decomp so one of the very early ones that apparently are meant to the best of all. Never put a degree wheel on it so sorry I don't know the numbers.

 

[markds2]

Just rebuilt the top end on this tidy 288xp for a very good friend of mine. Interesting thing was that he sent it to the local dealer for a service and a tune. It came back with a new sparkplug, air filter and fuel filter and tuned extremely lean and hard to start. After a little bit of running it did this:

I had a little used genuine piston sitting there and a Caber so after bit of time, a rebuilt carby and a general going over here's the saw:

 

[XP_Slinger]

Yes Ok, my KS was an'89 300 Anniversary edition with no decomp so one of the very early ones that apparently are meant to the best of all. Never put a degree wheel on it so sorry I don't know the numbers.

No worries on the numbers man. They all run a little different, that’s just part of it I guess. There are more than a few builders around here that could give your 288 attitude like you’ve never experienced if you want to get that smile back

 

[00wyk]

Is that heat scoring from the clutch?

Don't worry about snappy - 288's are for long bars and big wood, not cants. It either can or it can't.