550xp impressions and Oiler fix with pics!

[Brent Nowell]

well I sold the 455 rancher I had for almost 400$ cad to my step brother, it’s not worth that but I threw in a pro bar and 4 chains, xp oil, files guides etc to get him to pay that. I used the money to put toward a new 550xp cause I wanted a really small pro saw, well the 550 is exactly that. Just for firewood and cutting down smaller trees, something I could pick up and go

Pros
Light, like 12 pounds maybe 13 with bar and chain .325@20”
Came with a winter kit, orange screen filter and winter cover for freezing temps
Excellent throttle response
Sight glass for fuel which I find very very useful
Narrow and short framed saw, feels like I have an ms170 all over again.


Cons
Oiler sucks, this was claims to support a 20” but time will tell! We will see how many times I have to re tension the chain or how long this bar lasts after 10 litres of fuel...

Auto tune “learning”
I hope this doesn’t happen all the time but worked great yesterday but today she was bogging terribly in a cut of 12” pine... I think it was trying to adjust fuel... after being patient (5 more cuts of this bogging) it cleared right up.
For a goto saw not very cool, but hopefully this is just at the beginning.

Heat
This little guy gets extremely hot, as in too hot to touch the cover after you shut it off! I also noticed the top handle getting quite hot soaking up heat from the engine. The bar was extremely hot when I was done cutting much hotter than the 455 could ever get it seems!
I think I’m gonna mod the muffler right away I can’t see heat of this magnitude being any good for the hoses and seals...

Anywho onto the first problem and fix
The Oiler hose connection to the bar is of a very poor fit, it barely makes contact with the bar towards the end, and near the clutch it is actually recessed about a 32 behind the Oiler tube/breather cover plate! It was spitting oil down the bar behind the dogs all over, what a waste.
Gonna have to fix that! See pic above!
I cut a piece of cardboard gasket maker just slightly thinner than the hose connection which was 1/16 thick. Tucked it in behind and put the tube back and put cover plate back on.
Oiler no longer pukes and more oil is on the chain, quick and easy fix... too bad it’s like that out of the box.

Any advice for me please give some feedback!

 

[Hornetboy]

Make sure the bar groove is clean. If it's full of gunk, that bar will get super hot.

 

[NSEric]

You can drill the oil hole in the bar a little bigger too, most new bars have smaller than ideal oil holes so they get less oil to make the epa happy.
Theres a thread or two on this.

 

[CR888]

Did the EPA regulate the size of bar oiler holes? Is this really true or just a horse whisper. I always thought the oil pump determined how much oil was pumped onto a bar, not the oiler hole. But maybe I got it wrong...

 

[NSEric]

Sometimes the oil hole in the bar is small enough to restrict oil flow, I don't really know if it was the epa, I cant see them liking oil flying off the chain or the bar manufactures trying to sell more bars but some new bars don't get enough oil due to the small hole.
The oil pumps don't have any pressure to speak of so forcing the oil through a small hole slows down the oils flow.
One bar I adapted to a saw ended up with a larger than normal oil hole, I had to turn the oiler down as I was running out of bar oil before gas so the size of the hole does make a difference.

 

[Brent Nowell]

You can drill the oil hole in the bar a little bigger too, most new bars have smaller than ideal oil holes so they get less oil to make the epa happy.
Theres a thread or two on this.

He problem with that is the .325 chain drivers do not ride low enough to catch oil if the hole is drilled all the way out. The hole is about as big as the farm tough bar but is half blocked off to allow oil to get to the drivers, if you saw the hole you would understand. I’ll try and get a pic of it when I get home.

 

[Brent Nowell]

Hole is plenty big, but drive links have one eighth of space maybe this is why it oils so poorly?

 

[pro94lt]

Take it to the dealer and they'll get you a oil hose that fits correctly. A 550 in properly working order will oil a 20" bar .325 easily. Factory bar? What has mix are you running

 

[Brent Nowell]

Take it to the dealer and they'll get you a oil hose that fits correctly. A 550 in properly working order will oil a 20" bar .325 easily. Factory bar? What has mix are you running

I’ll bring it in next time and see about a properly fitting hose. However the shim now creates a seal for the hose and bar in which there is no waste, you can see the outline of it in the photo so maybe your idea and mine about how much oil should be on a bar are different?

Porter the muffler, the battle on the inside was 1/8 steel and was very hard to cut out with a dremel, it would have been much easier with the proper bit, I tried both types of stones and it didn’t do much in terms of taking off material....

 

[NSEric]

That looks fine honestly.
If you wanted to you could grind the oil hole a bit with a Dremel like this.

 

[aheeejd]

Well thanks for this guys. I have a 550xp, almost 4 years old now & didn't have a problem. Until today I started cutting a good size ash into 16" for firewood & after 3 rounds I cut I noticed the chain smoking. Could clearly see there was no oil. So I tore it apart, cleaned, cleaned bar grove. Put back together & nothing. I read somewhere, put wd40 in opening of oil line & all that did was blast my face with actually a good amount of wd40.

You say cardboard gasket maker, I know I don't have any. I could go to O'Reilly's & get gasket material & am going to try that & drill/dremil that hole. Thanks again for making this thread.

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[Deleted member 117362]

Well thanks for this guys. I have a 550xp, almost 4 years old now & didn't have a problem. Until today I started cutting a good size ash into 16" for firewood & after 3 rounds I cut I noticed the chain smoking. Could clearly see there was no oil. So I tore it apart, cleaned, cleaned bar grove. Put back together & nothing. I read somewhere, put wd40 in opening of oil line & all that did was blast my face with actually a good amount of wd40.

You say cardboard gasket maker, I know I don't have any. I could go to O'Reilly's & get gasket material & am going to try that & drill/dremil that hole. Thanks again for making this thread.

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Did you remove bar and chain, start saw and make sure it is oiling. May be worm gear is bad or clogged oil pick up.

 

[aheeejd]

Did you remove bar and chain, start saw and make sure it is oiling. May be worm gear is bad or clogged oil pick up.

Yes I did, oil dribbled all over the place so I'm hoping this'll work for me

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[aheeejd]

OP, did you use any type of adhesive to lay that strip of gasket material in the little trough or just lay it in there. TIA

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[Brent Nowell]

OP, did you use any type of adhesive to lay that strip of gasket material in the little trough or just lay it in there. TIA

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Just place it in there and stick the rubber manifold in there then your top plate. If your having trouble put the saw on its side or put a dab of grease.

Pretty crappy design as I look back a year later. They should have just stuck with the tried and true 372/395 steel plate instead of this rubber gasket bs.