365 chinese used saws find for project

[goatchin]

Been hawking for a 365->372 project saw and found a buy on fb of two 365's and a parts box of a blown 365 xtorque (actual Husqvarna serial tag). I figured for price would work to patch up my old 372 of odd parts and then to be base for 365 build up project.

Met the guy (he got the saws on trade for a snowmobile) and I look over parts box and looks as figured. I look over the saw that currently runs and holds its weight on recoil cord and flip it around to check for bar tensioner location and notice the serial tag is all sorts of funky compared to my 372 tag. I look at recoil again and they have Husqvarna spelled way off and different font. Look at other saw that is non runner but mostly complete and its the same way on serial tag but no other badges anywhere. I tell him i'll still take them but for 100 less of asking price because of being a Chinese pile of parts.

From my search I see that a common failure of Chinese saws is crank bearings/cranks and plastic blemishes. I haven't checked the carbs yet for brand "names". I already figured on putting money into the project on upgrade parts to 372 range, but what should I check into while elbow deep and put genuine in? Saws haven been around awhile, but orange color is obviously darker than the husky orange

 

[Griffdog1]

This is a tough one as you can buy the whole farmertec kit for not much money and then you are at least starting with new parts. The general consensus seems to be that if you build these saws yourself you can build a good saw but to be wary of preassembled saws as it is likely to be the quality of the build rather than the quality of the parts that is the let down. I would however put some decent crank bearings in either from husky or take the husky part number to a bearing supplier.

I keep saying I am going to build one of these up, but I have a couple of 372 bottom ends where I will use the Husky cases and crank and if at all possible the Mahle cylinder. Everything else is cheap and easy to get after market. I am not sure that I would have gone down your route. I don't think I could be bothered cleaning up a used Chinese saw. I would however consider using the best bits of the running saw to build up the husky cases. It does seem to me that if you are going to go Chinese you might as well go for the big bore 52mm kit which means that you are likely not going to use that much of the chinese stuff that you actually have unless the plastics are in great condition (hey are so cheap to buy that I would not stuff around with substandard pieces). You can get a very good saw if you are willing to mix and match the parts between a husky core and Chinese bits and pieces. That's what I am doing on this one.

 

[goatchin]

When using a true-blue Husqvarna 365 stock carb, will it "flow enough" for the big bore? removing limiters of course I'd presume

 

[Griffdog1]

I think the standard Walbro carb will be fine. Keep your eye out however for an original mahle 50mm jug however that can be acid washed and redeemed and throw in a meteor piston and caber rings. With some mild porting this will I think run better than the big bore kit.

 

[jd548esco72]

i've been running a 372 that is 100% china parts for some time now-- and so far no problems with bearings crankshaft or anything. lately been running it @ 50 to one mix and still no problems. (knock on wood)

i would much rather have the china bearings than the plastic pinned bearings that a lot of the 372s & X-torqs got. OEM is generally better except when they pull a turkey like those plastic retainers--

i do worry about the china rubber stuff--but so far it is holding up well enough--

i also have a ms-440 i built a year or two before the 372-- it is still going strong-- it is about 4 years old i suspect-- it is about 80% china -- like the short block and most of the rubber

china parts can vary quite a bit -- but so far i haven't seen anybody swarmed by bad parts on china builds --

if the china stuff looks OK -- go ahead and use it-- less you have some known good OEM stuff laying around --

i suspect you could get really good service out of a china made saw-- if you tore it down and majored it every so often--

 

[Griffdog1]

I have a couple of early 372 sets of cases and would always grab any original mahle cylinder that I could. I am not against doing a whole Chinese saw but it has not been cost effective for me when I can still get rebuildable original saws cheaply.
This weekend I brought both a perfect low use Dolmar 6400 and a Stihl 036 for considerably less than a Chinese kit would cost as an example.
The 660 kits do make sense from a bang for buck point of view as an original one of these is always expensive and the kit is not really any more costly than one of the smaller ones.

 

[jd548esco72]

yea i hear you-- i went 100% china on this 372 just to test the china made parts --after hearing so much bar mouthing on the internet about um--

if you have good OEM stuff no reason not to use it---

 

[goatchin]

My goal with this project is to teach myself how to bearings and case split, then get the top ends back to par.

I think in box of parts there is a good oem 365 X-torque cylinder but bad piston. That may go on Chinese case and get a 372 top end for genuine 365 case.

 

[goatchin]

The oem walbro doesn't resemble this at all. This is a pic of the China carb in both saws. Any ideas of what brand they copied for this?

Walbro from oem is a rwj 050 stamped on side (rwj-5)?? I haven't taken out a China carb to see if any other stamps for indications.

 

[jd548esco72]

yea their carbs are not like OEM-- the first one i tried was really flunky-- their so cheap though that i had a couple spares-- th4e second one i put on seems to run fine-- i got a few spares to that one if it goes bonkers--

all fleet command did a couple videos of china 372s where he compared carbs on you tube--