Husqvarna 61 rebuild & mild porting

[husqyfan]

I'm doing a rebuild on a model 61. Deleting the base gasket, re-ring, muffler mod, widen the intake and exhaust ports, I'm leaving the transfers alone. This saw has the open port cylinder
And I know it's not best for performance, but I want to use it. My question is: can I "notch"
The piston to get more flow into the transfers or is this better left alone? I have shaded the area red I planned on trimming down. Thank you in advance

 

[eudaimonea]

Hi, i am working on husqvarna 61 as well. Perhaps an option would be this piston? It has windows.

Lets see some pics of the cylinder!

Maybe there is more than one version, since there is more than one piston style

 

[gulity1]

HF I would not think so that area looks to be about as far as I would take it. That is the bottom of the wrist pin I would think that it would fail if too thin, not really an area to be playing with for gains IMO. Some one just did a thread on gains from an OP cylinder in the last couple of days MM maybe I don't remember?? IIRC it was blended out toward the top of the intake and swept toward the exhaust side of the cylinder. Might have been an old thread someone bumped maybe ??

 

[burnses]

I think your on soft ice if you grind away to close to the pin boss...just run a real sharp chain.....good luck

 

[wcorey]

I wouldn't bother with the 61 p&c when there are so many other easily obtainable top ends in that family that can be retrofit, and every one of them is an improvement.
Of a few 272 conversions I've done, first one was a ported $29 chicom kit with a $9 carb on a 61 white top and it's still going strong.
Pretty short money for a big performance gain...

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I built a 61 this winter for a Christmas gift.

Did a polish job and very mild port, along with no base gasket and opened up the muffler.

Ran real nice. That Era of Husqy are kind of low RPM but they have real nice torque.
I set it up with a 20" bar and it pulled that fully buried almost like it was nothing.

 

[husqyfan]

I've had this saw done for a couple weeks. I'm pretty happy with it. Here is a picture of the intake just widened.