Stihl 088 flooding

[RajS]

I'm loosing sleep over this, looking for a bit of help.

088 was my milling saw, a strong runner, till I broke the crank shaft last year, this year replaced the crank, seals, gasket and bearings. P+C looked great. Saw together and fired up and idled great for all of 30 seconds then died. Now it floods. Carb held 7psi all day and pops off at 14psi. Turned down the jets, cleaned the carb, rebuilt the carb, bent the needle valve arm down to no avail. Still floods. Cylinder builds 140psi cold. I did leave the spark plug and air filter off for a weekend and got it started, smoking and chugging away for about 10 seconds, it cleared up and I adjusted the carb a little high to keep it idling, started and stopped a few times no problems. I put the top cover on and it went back to flooding.
Carbs are not available in my area, Southern Ontario, Canada.

Am I missing something?

 

[RI Chevy]

Might be time for a carb kit.
Maybe bad tank vent? Fuel line loose or cracked? Carb linkage holding choke open?

 

[SOS Ridgerider]

I moved your thread to the general chainsaw page, where it'll see more traffic.

 

[RajS]

Thanks for the move.

Might be time for a carb kit.
Maybe bad tank vent? Fuel line loose or cracked? Carb linkage holding choke open?

I did the pressure and pop off test through the fuel line, held 7psi no problem and carb popped off at 14psi.
Vent is pretty simple, it appears to work, I did try starting the 088 on it's side with the fuel cap loosened, still flooded. Carb kit installed two times over, and choke linkage works, no hold ups, usually on the 088 when the carb is taken off and reinstalled the impulse line is routed under the throttle arm, and that gets held up, but that is not the case here.

 

[RI Chevy]

OK. Your ahead of what I was thinking here.

 

[Lee H]

Is your air filter new and or aftermarket? I had my neighbors Stihl 028 i did a fuel line,
carb kit and new aftermarket air filter. Ran fine with air filter off. Put filter on and ran
fine. Put top cover on and ran rich. I found an oem filter and all was good. Still not sure
exactly what the issue was.

 

[Hinerman]

@tree monkey
@Stihlbro
@mdavlee

Oh hell, why not, @Mastermind

 

[RajS]

Is your air filter new and or aftermarket? I had my neighbors Stihl 028 i did a fuel line,
carb kit and new aftermarket air filter. Ran fine with air filter off. Put filter on and ran
fine. Put top cover on and ran rich. I found an oem filter and all was good. Still not sure
exactly what the issue was.

Clean Stihl filter, same issue on or off.

 

[Moparmyway]

Where did you set the metering arm lever height ?

 

[Mastermind]

@tree monkey
@Stihlbro
@mdavlee

Oh hell, why not, @Mastermind

Present.

 

[RajS]

Where did you set the metering arm lever height ?

It's just a few thou proud of the surface. I bent it up a few more thou and bent it down a few more thou, I even put the gasket on first and then the diaphragm.

 

[Lightning Performance]

It's just a few thou proud of the surface. I bent it up a few more thou and bent it down a few more thou, I even put the gasket on first and then the diaphragm.

Hey man... I remember how bummed you were last year when that thing dumped the crank on you.
Did you look and see if the seat was lose or scratched? They always drive me nuts with flooding while sitting till the next start. Check the needle for damage if it is a rubber tip kind.
GL

 

[Bilge Rat]

Check the order of the gaskets on both sides of the carb.
If they are not in the right place/order the card will flood.

 

[RajS]

I did visual check the seat and tip, and did replace the needle anyways. It did hold 7psi no problems.

 

[RajS]

Check the order of the gaskets on both sides of the carb.
If they are not in the right place/order the card will flood.

Installed correctly on the valve side, I tried both ways on the diaphragm side.

 

[RajS]

Sitting here thinking of the saw and my build, of course the GF thinks I am thinking of other girls, anyway, I was thinking, there was no arrow on the piston, so I put forward the engraved numbers, is it possible the piston is backwards??

 

[Mastermind]

I did visual check the seat and tip, and did replace the needle anyways. It did hold 7psi no problems.

It needs to hold 15psi in my opinion.

 

[mdavlee]

It needs to hold 15psi in my opinion.

Sounds like it’s a bit low to me as well. Some carbs pop off near 30 on oem saws but 16-20 seems to be right where you want them

 

[Lightning Performance]

22 seems average to me in oem Stihl saws 60-90cc
My old saws are lower near 16 if that helps idk. Old reed valve saws 60-80 cc
I can check the 084 saws here next week, no time right now. They run perfect.

Try a friends carb if you can get your hands on one. I'm considering buying the AM carb then clean and test it for a spare just in case.

 

[RajS]

I have no friends and even less who have an 088.

088 workshop manual says pressure test to 5.8 psi, a service manual I have for different stihls say 7psi.