What should be the next AM kit saw?

[afleetcommand]

not me! very nice..

 

[Simondo]

Thats a corker Steve. Having the parts swap thread on OPE at least gives a chance to find or be put onto spares. I have a few part saw breakers over here ..but .. as Bob pointed out earlier " saws in circulation" will attract AM part makers. Getting hard to find 200 group for sale in general compared to 5 yrs ago i think. Its getting the same with these ....! Deep pockets if you find one worth having without major work.

 

[Spike60]

That would be a good show, no doubt about it. I'm close to wrapping up my 2100 project myself, look forward to seeing how it runs.

Lot's of power; just hang on and enjoy it. Lot's of compression and no deco on those saws. Like starting your truck with a rope.

 

[Tor R]

Thats a corker Steve. Having the parts swap thread on OPE at least gives a chance to find or be put onto spares. I have a few part saw breakers over here ..but .. as Bob pointed out earlier " saws in circulation" will attract AM part makers. Getting hard to find 200 group for sale in general compared to 5 yrs ago i think. Its getting the same with these ....! Deep pockets if you find one worth having without major work.

View attachment 57254

the smaller 2xx serie saws like 242 and 254 is more or less history, they did sold extremely many 254's here so I would think Husky still have interest to provide us with parts.
I think Husky has miscalculated the interest for 242, when we bought those Tecomec top end kits, the seller sold 8 kits the first day.

Those 346 XPG's are still very populare here, probleby the easist saw to sell.
One I know bought a NOS 346 XPG for just a few weeks ago, paid 700£.

 

[Simondo]

the smaller 2xx serie saws like 242 and 254 is more or less history, they did sold extremely many 254's here so I would think Husky still have interest to provide us with parts.
I think Husky has miscalculated the interest for 242, when we bought those Tecomec top end kits, the seller sold 8 kits the first day.

Those 346 XPG's are still very populare here, probleby the easist saw to sell.
One I know bought a NOS 346 XPG for just a few weeks ago, paid 700£.

Those were "DEEP" pockets that the buyer had for that 346 Tor !
The 346 has a place still as a ground saw for the tree work guys , lots are used by the chipper and for smaller take down . Some of there owners wont let them go just yet and get the 550 ...it means the ones that i "Mostly " see for sale are very tired. At least some parts for the NE are out there OEM and some ok AM stuff.

 

[Tor R]

Those were "DEEP" pockets that the buyer had for that 346 Tor !
The 346 has a place still as a ground saw for the tree work guys , lots are used by the chipper and for smaller take down . Some of there owners wont let them go just yet and get the 550 ...it means the ones that i "Mostly " see for sale are very tired. At least some parts for the NE are out there OEM and some ok AM stuff.

the guy who bought it already has a few 550 XPG and one of the new Stihl MS 261.
Same lad who bought and sold my OE, later he came and wanted to buy it back again, I said forget it.
Eventually he found a nos NE and paid 700£.

 

[Spike60]

One thing Walt and I discovered when building our Jonsered 920/930 saws is that any carcass, no matter how ratty it may look, should be snagged as a parts saw. They all have something useful on them. Only way we could have completed some of those builds, and it has helped with some customer saws as well.

Doing Jonny 900's certainly makes the parts situation on the 200 series Huskys seem not all that bad. But it will obviously get worse. And even when AM companies step in, they seldom cover the variations that took place during a saw's model run. 254? Which starter pulley? Which air conductor? Which clutch drum? Which oil gear?

One part I'd seriously like to see for 272's is the later style pleated air filter. (hose clamp type like on a 395). These are NLA from husky and I don't know of any AM option. I see more 272's with that filter than the early 262/268 style.

 

[Stump Shot]

My problem is I'll build a saw from the absolutely worst parts saw you've ever laid eyes on. A couple I did this winter I started with a good crankshaft, the other a good crankcase and go from there. Maybe I should just see if there is an opening on the Doctor Phil Show.
Yes to the 254 conundrum, the one I pictured earlier in the thread was an old style, and is a new style now, complete with air injection. Not an easy or fast thing to do for sure. But this was a special case, the guy just loved that saw and wanted it no matter what.
As far as 272 filtration goes, while I've yet to see the NLA filter set up here, I've ran out of the other style as well, so now I'm down to using 266/288 style drilling and tapping a hole in the case for the carb intake adapter. By the time I buy all the pieces from Husqvarna for the filter system, it's just not cost effective for a firewood saw build. Maybe I'll try incorporating some frog skins into the next one as it does defeat the purpose of the "cleaner" 272 system.

 

[Tor R]

Amen to what Bob said.
We all forget that there are several Husky/Jonsered models we can pick parts from.
I dont like Husky 44 much, but I grab them all, why? well, they share the same PTO bearing as we use on 242.
Peeps are desperate for the 262 3 shoe clutch, but forget that 357/560 in general has the same PTO threads, just saying there is a lot of options out there....

Here is where I feel AM companies sometime fails.

242 piston (the one to left is 42 special, the one in middle is Meteor 242, the one to the right is a new 242 oem piston)

 

[Simondo]

This may be old news to some ..but.. take a look at the "NEW" cylinders that Meteor are doing...pistons to !

 

[Spike60]

Amen to what Bob said.
We all forget that there are several Husky/Jonsered models we can pick parts from.
I dont like Husky 44 much, but I grab them all, why? well, they share the same PTO bearing as we use on 242.
Peeps are desperate for the 262 3 shoe clutch, but forget that 357/560 in general has the same PTO threads, just saying there is a lot of options out there....

Here is where I feel AM companies sometime fails.
View attachment 57400
242 piston (the one to left is 42 special, the one in middle is Meteor 242, the one to the right is a new 242 oem piston)

That is a noticable difference. And that is from one of the more respected "premium" AM suppliers. And it further illustrates the point I made earlier. From a performance standpoint, that piston may miss the mark, but the saw will run. Might run more like a 42 Special than a 242XP, but a running saw is better than a dead saw.

 

[Onan18]

That is a noticable difference. And that is from one of the more respected "premium" AM suppliers. And it further illustrates the point I made earlier. From a performance standpoint, that piston may miss the mark, but the saw will run. Might run more like a 42 Special than a 242XP, but a running saw is better than a dead saw.

Exactly!

 

[Simondo]

That is a noticable difference. And that is from one of the more respected "premium" AM suppliers. And it further illustrates the point I made earlier. From a performance standpoint, that piston may miss the mark, but the saw will run. Might run more like a 42 Special than a 242XP, but a running saw is better than a dead saw.

I Know some dont approve but with a 242 xp I felt it was better to go windowed Golf rather than the Meteor I could get at the time....used Caber ring instead though. I did try the Meteor and the golf ...it was close but felt the nearer to OEM shaped Golf had the edge. Out of interest ...no big difference "I" could tell now i have tested the Golf and Meteor in a 42 sp ...

Amen to what Bob said.
We all forget that there are several Husky/Jonsered models we can pick parts from.
I dont like Husky 44 much, but I grab them all, why? well, they share the same PTO bearing as we use on 242.
Peeps are desperate for the 262 3 shoe clutch, but forget that 357/560 in general has the same PTO threads, just saying there is a lot of options out there....

Here is where I feel AM companies sometime fails.
View attachment 57400
242 piston (the one to left is 42 special, the one in middle is Meteor 242, the one to the right is a new 242 oem piston)

 

[Tor R]

That is a noticable difference. And that is from one of the more respected "premium" AM suppliers. And it further illustrates the point I made earlier. From a performance standpoint, that piston may miss the mark, but the saw will run. Might run more like a 42 Special than a 242XP, but a running saw is better than a dead saw.

That Meteor 242 piston has piston crown 0.030" lower compared to OEM

I bought the Meteor 242 piston to use it in a 42 special, when it goes to 242 I always buy OEM piston.

If I hadnt ported the 42 special I could probleby used Meteor piston, removed the gasket and survived with less compression and different timings, ie more rpm less torque. Luckily I know my dealer has a couple old stock 42 pistons so that is probleby the solution for me.
I could of course drop the jug by 0.030" and use the Meteor piston, but that is not a good solution on long run, Meteor failed big time with their 242 piston in my book!

If it was for 242 it would had given less compression, different transfer & exhaust timing and less intake, a 42 special would probleby outcut it easily.

 

[Spike60]

Simon, I've also had good luck with Golf pistons. Along with Espian and VEC; 2 other brands that "aren't cool". Yet the only options for saws like 49SP's and 920's. Have a golf in an 820 Jonny that has seen a lot of use.

Better sometimes to go with personal experience and not worry about who does or doesn't approve. I think a lot of good or bad comments on these sites are merely guys repeating what others have posted. I'd bet 3/4 of posts that are negative about Golf pistons are from guys who've never even seen one.

 

[Simondo]

Simon, I've also had good luck with Golf pistons. Along with Espian and VEC; 2 other brands that "aren't cool". Yet the only options for saws like 49SP's and 920's. Have a golf in an 820 Jonny that has seen a lot of use.

Better sometimes to go with personal experience and not worry about who does or doesn't approve. I think a lot of good or bad comments on these sites are merely guys repeating what others have posted. I'd bet 3/4 of posts that are negative about Golf pistons are from guys who've never even seen one.

The thing I find is Bob , that there are options open in the US that are not readily available in the UK (Iv not even seen "Espian and VEC). Getting things shipped is often a chunk of change and if its a customer saw...costly and time consuming ! . I did the Golf trial on.. "at the time ".. what was my own 242 , then ran it for a while with no issue showing up. Now Im not going to say the saw was as good as it may have been with a OEM piston ..But...at least the golf measurements seemed to be "Real Close" ...close enough for me with a caber ring and its OEM cylinder on it anyhow.
I have owned a few new 242 xp's back in the day but making comparisons from the rebuilt saw can be so darn subjective!.. but it did feel and revved better than one of my mildly worked on 42 specials.

 

[Stump Shot]

Pistons, this is one segment where the AM can actually improve the performance over OEM.(but not always) and it may be necessary to have a little bit of mix and match thrown in. I'm kinda like Tuco in the movie "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" when he was in the gun shop and took a bunch of parts from different guns to make the one he liked. Being very affordable I like to get as many different offerings as I can, the more the merrier. Gaskets as well no two makers have the exact same thickness a lot of Hyway have been used recently. Speaking of Hyway, last one of their pistons I dealt with was spot on compared to OEM in a 272. A Meteor while windowed unlike the original ran totally awesome(and I really mean that, not just saying it) in a 266. A Golf in an 036 worked well as well as FarmerTec which also specked out perfectly to OEM. Even a couple of "white box" specials were better than nothing. I will say this is the road I like to travel on the least, and is now my last resort. There are a couple of pistons from this category on the shelf here that will never get used as there were issues at the time of builds. But if a guy came in with a dead saw, and I could have him out the door in a few hours with a running saw, is why I keep them here. So in summary you just never know where the next "great" part will come from, and it's not necessarily going to be from one of the better makers. Meteor, Cross, FarmerTec, Golf, Hyway, Mako and Tecomec pistons all have the capability to beat a Mahle in performance if you're not afraid to try and possibly fail and try again. Failure can't be first measured without a goal in mind, a dead saw revival is the easiest to accomplish, with Stock OEM level the next and better than or Hi performance the hardest to achieve, but the rewards the greatest. So when you really get down to it, it's not that much different than anything else in life, you'll get out of it, just as much as you put into it. The builder is a bigger variable than the parts being used when you cut through all the mud. SS

 

[Tor R]

I Know some dont approve but with a 242 xp I felt it was better to go windowed Golf rather than the Meteor I could get at the time....used Caber ring instead though. I did try the Meteor and the golf ...it was close but felt the nearer to OEM shaped Golf had the edge. Out of interest ...no big difference "I" could tell now i have tested the Golf and Meteor in a 42 sp ...

View attachment 57736 View attachment 57737

I'm not afraid using Golf pistons Simon, I've heard good things about them from Magnus.
I dont know whatever Meteor tryed to develop with their 242 piston, but it is so far away from a 242 piston that its possible to be

 

[Simondo]

I'm not afraid using Golf pistons Simon, I've heard good things about them from Magnus.
I dont know whatever Meteor tryed to develop with their 242 piston, but it is so far away from a 242 piston that its possible to be

What they had in mind and "What" they used for a "Datum" I cant even guess at Tor ...I have to think they measured ...Something , just no 242 xp we know !! The piston i bought a while back was fine in the 42 though.

 

[Stump Shot]

Maybe if the pattern is trending across the board in case of the 242 Meteor piston and not a one time event, your findings should be brought to them. Those folks can't fix what they don't know is broken.