Stihl MS500i cylinder and piston

[Wonkydonkey]

What would be a safe time frame to make someone wait before running a saw? I would like to give my guys specifics

I was gonna add to the thread..of previous replies, but I will add my thoughts of warming up saws here.
Everyone has opinions… what works etc…so.mine is . no gloves on and if you can feel heat & heat of warmth to hot on your fingers where they are touching the fins of the cylinder on the pto side . Where the heat of the flywheel exits.. then your good to go..
so a few mins 2 or 3 ticking over..

 

[TINYHULK]

I never would have thought it would have been that long. Gives a lot of food for thought on warming up saws and proper planning on a tree job. What about when you shut it off between cuts? I know that would vary a lot with outside temperature but in a climb job saws get turned off and on ALOT. When would it have been long enough that the saw needs to have a longer idle time before being safe to operate

 

[Nutball]

30 seconds from a cold start should be enough, unless your first cut is a stump cut. It can take 2-3min of cutting to get a saw from cold to peak heat. 30 seconds of idle before shutting it off should be enough cool down time after running it hard. At work I only give them about 5-10sec of warm up/cool down at best. The Stihls easily get 10 seconds because they are tuned so lean, I have to hold the choke halfway between "half choke" and full for 5 seconds or so to get enough fuel flowing for them to run right, which helps them load up on oil.

 

[davidwyby]

If you hold the saw closer to your body it restricts air movement and cooling to warm
up sooner.

 

[TINYHULK]

That’s pretty smart! Off topic but with stihl saws growing in technology, is there any way of obtaining the diagnostic tools for the chainsaws? Is there any benefit to that

 

[huskihl]

That’s pretty smart! Off topic but with stihl saws growing in technology, is there any way of obtaining the diagnostic tools for the chainsaws? Is there any benefit to that

Gotta be a dealer

 

[TINYHULK]

I figured as much. Maybe one day the technology will be available to us like it is for automotive purposes. One day I’ll get my oscilloscope out and see what kind of good wave forms I can find on these 500’s. Might be good info one day for someone

 

[TINYHULK]

Hey guys! Been super busy and honestly very overwhelmed and dealing with anxiety lately. Three 60+ hour weeks and anxiety attacks have made me a vegetable the last couple days. Starting to feel better mentally but earlier this week I tinkered and took apart my bosses 500i. Here’s the pictures of the cylinder and piston. It screams 4 corner seizure with extra damage from prolonged use. My bud question is can I save the cylinder by just using a ball hone like I’ve read about and replace the piston and ring? I can get a whole top end from my local dealer for $350 and install it myself. Just looking for y’all’s professional opinion. I’ll still be sending my 500 to Moparmyway as soon as I can get some life in me to get to a ups store. This is my bosses 500 that I wanted to attempt

 

[huskihl]

It’ll clean up. Either they didn’t let it warm up or they straight gassed it

 

[Nutball]

New piston and rings for sure, and just scotch bright on the cylinder.

 

[Wonkydonkey]

Thanks for the pic's

as others say the cylinder will more than likely clean up, I wouldn’t use a ball hone thou.
As there are other proven ways to target just the areas that need it.
And maybe a bit of acid will help show if any Ali is still present or not.

I’m still trying to figure out how the seizure happened from the pics as I,m no expert…

 

[Moparmyway]

It’ll clean up. Either they didn’t let it warm up or they straight gassed it

Ran as soon as started without warming up, I agree with you there

OR

I'm inclined to think (based on the cylinder transferr, or lack thereof) that this 90+cc saw was run on very little oil (for a 90+cc saw), but there was oil in there.
From what I've seen, if it were straight gassed, that cylinder would look a bit worse than it does

 

[Redfin]

What would be a safe time frame to make someone wait before running a saw? I would like to give my guys specifics

Cylinder fins to warm to keep a finger on. It does not take very long.

 

[TINYHULK]

What would be my targeted method of those areas? Just a green scotch brite pad and working those areas until they are dull in color again?

 

[Nutball]

https://opeforum.com/threads/question-about-mastermind-cylinder-cleanup-method.5169/
Just make sure you clean the cylinder out very well, and do a wipe test in several places like the combustion chamber and transfers and corners with a cotton swab to make sure no abrasive residue is left over.

You have to make sure your guys know how to properly mix gas and oil. I like to put the oil in the can first, then fill so it mixes better, and you don't forget to put oil in. If the can is half full, don't dump a whole bottle in to top off the can or otherwise think more oil won't hurt anything. Someone I was working with did that and all the extra oil displaced enough gas to make everything run like crap, if at all. It made the saws run lean. Make sure they use the correct size bottles for the gas can being filled. At the same time they shouldn't think they can top off a gas can without adding any oil, and don't ever keep regular gas in a container used for saws. I like to combine low cans into one, then fill the empty can.

 

[Maintenance Chief]

Ive seen where someone straight gassed equipment then tried to run mix through it to " fix" it? but when they realized they fubared a 1500.00 saw ,the situation becomes desperate!

 

[TINYHULK]

So when someone runs a saw hard while still cold, how quickly will it cause that damage? Is it one of those, do it once and your screwed deals or is it progressive until the scoring stops it from building compression? Also on my cylinder that would be considered glazing/polishing right? Not transfer? So all I’m trying to do is buff out the shine and give the oil/rings something to adhere to right?

 

[huskihl]

So when someone runs a saw hard while still cold, how quickly will it cause that damage? Is it one of those, do it once and your screwed deals or is it progressive until the scoring stops it from building compression? Also on my cylinder that would be considered glazing/polishing right? Not transfer? So all I’m trying to do is buff out the shine and give the oil/rings something to adhere to right?

No the white vertical stripes are definitely aluminum transfer. Needs to be completely removed

 

[Wonkydonkey]

In these pics, you can the slight aluminium transfer, and the 2nd pic you can see the acid reacting when a little is added with a q tip,

it’s probably better to use the mastermind way to remove it. then I check as I did to make sure it’s all been cleaned up.

 

[Wonkydonkey]

So when someone runs a saw hard while still cold, how quickly will it cause that damage? Is it one of those, do it once and your screwed deals or is it progressive until the scoring stops it from building compression?

i think your find, it’s hard for anyone to really answer this question. As It’s all about heat in the piston and the expansion rate. But once there’s transfer I think it’s down hill and more uses of heat/friction but peeps only realise when the rings get stuck and lack of compression,

I’m sure others have slightly different options, and I think there are many more different scenarios as there are many operators as well all the other different factors (fuel/oil, etc)