365 special, Good saw to mod?

[gsxblaze]

Hey all, I've had some good luck lately getting a couple of my old cheap/parts saws running again, my 345, 254xp are running well again. I also have a good working 371 xp.

I had a guy give me this old 365 special a few weeks back, bottom end was stuck, managed to free it up and it turns nice and freely but what you see is what you get. Thinking about making it a learning project and rebuilding from what I have here, just trying to decide, stock or upgraded? I have 3 good runner saws now for basic firewood, 345 for limbing, 254 for felling and 371 for bucking. Would adding a stock 65cc to my line be worth it, or sounds do they make a good platform for a fun saw? Looking at maybe adding a 52mm jug/piston and modded muffler. Thoughts?

 

[NSEric]

A cheap/easy hop up is to use a 272 52mm piston in the am 52mm jug and sand the squish band down or make it a pop up so it fits. The 272 piston is taller and fixes the low compression the am jugs have.
There's a good chance it will need crank bearings. If you want to try it without changing the bearings do it with a cheap top end on it.

 

[gsxblaze]

A cheap/easy hop up is to use a 272 52mm piston in the am 52mm jug and sand the squish band down or make it a pop up so it fits. The 272 piston is taller and fixes the low compression the am jugs have.
There's a good chance it will need crank bearings. If you want to try it without changing the bearings do it with a cheap top end on it.

Was thinking about doing a complete tear down and replacing the crank bearings but didn't know if I could get away without doing it or not. Thought maybe if I cleaned out the bottom end and filled/let it soak in some mix oil for a bit it might be fine. Seems to roll over quite freely now that I freed it up but might do it anyway, if for nothing else than the learning experience. I've always been into tinkering with things but never dove into complete rebuilds, would almost like to make a hobby/side hustle working on stuff like this so might be worth it just to learn the process.

I found a Chinese 52mm jug/piston kit from Amazon for $50. Thinking that would make it cheap enough go to try out. I know I've read they can be pretty poorly built but cheap enough for a learning project I guess. Been pricing up all the missing bits and would like to keep costs down on the build.

Bigger jug and modded muffler, anything else I should look at for squeezing more out of the rig?

 

[sean donato]

Don't buy aftermarket garbage, a 372xp top end will bolt right on. The 365 was the 372xp semi pro version.

 

[NSEric]

OEM top end kits cost more than the saw is worth in canada lol.
There's a time and place for aftermarket parts, cheap, beat up, common old saws are not worth spending much money on IMO.

 

[sean donato]

Then throw the saw out and buy a new one. Problem solved. There are very,very few that produce the power oem does.

 

[Maintenance supervisor]

372xp top end should bolt right on , not 272xp.
I've had pretty good luck with the 52mm big bore kit from farmertech.

 

[Maintenance supervisor]

Was thinking about doing a complete tear down and replacing the crank bearings but didn't know if I could get away without doing it or not. Thought maybe if I cleaned out the bottom end and filled/let it soak in some mix oil for a bit it might be fine. Seems to roll over quite freely now that I freed it up but might do it anyway, if for nothing else than the learning experience. I've always been into tinkering with things but never dove into complete rebuilds, would almost like to make a hobby/side hustle working on stuff like this so might be worth it just to learn the process.

I found a Chinese 52mm jug/piston kit from Amazon for $50. Thinking that would make it cheap enough go to try out. I know I've read they can be pretty poorly built but cheap enough for a learning project I guess. Been pricing up all the missing bits and would like to keep costs down on the build.

Bigger jug and modded muffler, anything else I should look at for squeezing more out of the rig?

Side hustles are overrated and not the place to "try out " cheap Aftermarket parts. For personal use , hell yeah ! Try out parts "unknown" parts ; not something you're going to pawn off on someone else.

 

[gsxblaze]

Side hustles are overrated and not the place to "try out " cheap Aftermarket parts. For personal use , hell yeah ! Try out parts "unknown" parts ; not something you're going to pawn off on someone else.

Side hustle/hobby comes after learning the craft. Learning with cheap aftermarket makes it easier to convince the wife to open up the wallet a bit more. Just looking to learn to fix and rebuild these things and down the road may pick up the odd broken saws and fix/resell em

 

[Maintenance supervisor]

Sure, its fun to fix stuff and I know I really took to saws because of the simplicity and use.
I have a selection of saws that are blend of oem and aftermarket, but it's important to never mislead anyone in the sale of said equipment as being 100% OEM.