Craps-poulan tuning

[benz66]

A couple years ago the neighbor must have gotten tired of me praising my little 015. He went out an bought a 170. A few months ago he asked if I wanted his old craps-poulan. He said it quit running/wouldn't start. That makes 3 poulans I own for "free." 40cc, the sticker says epa 2002 so it is too lean/cold blooded. Today I decided to see if I could diagnose it. It had obviously had "mixed fuel" in it. (gasoline/ethanol/water) The tank was dry (yay!) I put some fuel in it, and pulled the cord a few times, and it started! Very cold blooded (as expected). When I tried to cut logs with it it was very gutless. If I but the bar and chain on my 015, I doubt it would have been any different. I have a Poulan Pro 305 (Pre-smog crap) and the difference is night and day. The 305 will cut at least twice as fast.

Details:
Model: 358.350800 (or maybe .350860?)
Serial: 02246D201168
Series: 2PWE80424CY

Question: How do I get this dog to hunt?
All my other saws are old, with real tuning screws you turn with a screwdriver. I ordered a set of goofball epa tuning screwdrivers. I am guessing the first step is to give it more fuel. The second step is to take off the muffler and see what can be done to make it flow better. I may do this tomorrow while I am waiting for the goofy tuning screw drivers.

I doubt if this saw has 5 hours run time. It was probably bought just before Katrina hit, or right after. I think it can be turned into a decent saw.

My second question is about the chain. I didn't file it, but the engine didn't have guts enough to pull the chain as is. A properly filed chain would have just stalled it sooner. Are the crapsman OE chains ok, or should I just go buy a new chain? I have always hand filed my chains. I will file this one tomorrow. Probably just needs a filing and the depth gauges are probably too high. (intentionally so it cuts slow, so nobody sued sears)

Any other suggestions? I am mostly cutting popple (aspen) with some hard maple and norway pine so I think filing the depth gauges for softwood will be ok, if I get the engine to run well enough it has some guts to pull the chain.

Thanks to all. I have gleaned a lot of good info here.

I cut a trailer load of firewood and loaded it this afternoon in 3 hours. Yeah, I probably would have gotten more when I was 17, but most of this was hauled about 50 ft to the trailer. And 17 was 53 yrs ago. Most was cut with the 015. The vertical rounds were cut with the craps-poulan.

 

[J D]

I'd start with a compression test/pull muffler & inspect piston to make sure you're not wasting your time. After that check air filter, fuel filter, carb clean/kit, then tune

 

[scottr]

If this craftsman is the 358.350800 vertical cylinder with the aluminized rear outlet muffler then I would remove the muffler and look at the outlet under the louverd plate .
Very restricted 1/4" diameter (0.049 square inch) outlet .

 

[maowwg]

I'd start with a compression test/pull muffler & inspect piston to make sure you're not wasting your time. After that check air filter, fuel filter, carb clean/kit, then tune

 

[benz66]

I'd start with a compression test/pull muffler & inspect piston to make sure you're not wasting your time. After that check air filter, fuel filter, carb clean/kit, then tune

Thanks. The compression seems good. the saw looks near new. I doubt it has 5 hours runtime. The fuel filter was clean. It probably was used to do some cleanup after katrina, and then put away with fuel. Will check air filter, but it is probably clean, as long as it has not turned to mush...

 

[benz66]

If this craftsman is the 358.350800 vertical cylinder with the aluminized rear outlet muffler then I would remove the muffler and look at the outlet under the louverd plate .
Very restricted 1/4" diameter (0.049 square inch) outlet .

The muffler is black and faces forward, toward the tip of the bar. So the next to last digit must be a 6 or 8. 880 or 860. It had a small scratch so that digit was not clear to read. I will pull the muffler and have a look. Thanks

On the 800, can the restriction be fixed by modifying the muffler, or is a a problem in the cylinder?

 

[cookies]

rebuild the carb or try a couple chinese carbs, i've seen chinese carbs wake up poulans and the 435/440 huskys. once you get it snappy and pullsin a cut then start opening muffler exit holes and playing with flywheel advancing. poulan fuel hoses are also know to fail when disturbed so be ready to replace them.

 

[scottr]

The muffler is black and faces forward, toward the tip of the bar. So the next to last digit must be a 6 or 8. 880 or 860. It had a small scratch so that digit was not clear to read. I will pull the muffler and have a look. Thanks

On the 800, can the restriction be fixed by modifying the muffler, or is a a problem in the cylinder?

A muffler mod will help the aluminized muffler and the black muffler .
The black muffler has two small louvers that can be easily opened .
The 800 saw is a pre strato saw that is happy with a muffler mod .

 

[maowwg]

I’ve spent an unreasonable amount of time playing with poulans. If I’m not mistaken your Craftsman doesn’t have antivibe springs. If I wanted to get utility from your Craftsman I would fix it up and sell it and buy a non strato Craftsman or Poulan with anti vibe springs. Strato Poulans and saws without antivibe are certainly useful but limited. A soft spring antivibe non-strato saw is platform where you can get much more utility for your efforts to tune and modify mufflers and juice performance. Bottom like- Fix up a Poulan saw that’s more pleasant to run.

 

[benz66]

rebuild the carb or try a couple chinese carbs, i've seen chinese carbs wake up poulans and the 435/440 huskys. once you get it snappy and pullsin a cut then start opening muffler exit holes and playing with flywheel advancing. poulan fuel hoses are also know to fail when disturbed so be ready to replace them.

Thanks! I wondered if will benefit from a chinese carb. I fixed a string trimmer by just sticking on a cheap fleabay carb, and it had real screws to adjust! a real bonus! We had already cut slots in the original epagoofy screws. Any suggestions of what size, type, or model carb to look for, or just search for 40cc poulan carb?

I had not heard of flywheel advance. Will have to look into that after I get some of the other things done.

Yeah, the fuel hoses are almost an annual maintenance thing. seems like by now someone would be making viton hoses for saws and other small engines. Or at least something that stands ups to both petroleum and alcohol.

 

[jellyroll]

Tygon lines work well in those.
The saw might be old enough to just have plastic limiters that can be trimmed

 

[benz66]

I’ve spent an unreasonable amount of time playing with poulans. If I’m not mistaken your Craftsman doesn’t have antivibe springs. If I wanted to get utility from your Craftsman I would fix it up and sell it and buy a non strato Craftsman or Poulan with anti vibe springs. Strato Poulans and saws without antivibe are certainly useful but limited. A soft spring antivibe non-strato saw is platform where you can get much more utility for your efforts to tune and modify mufflers and juice performance. Bottom like- Fix up a Poulan saw that’s more pleasant to run.

Thank you! My PP 305 appears to have a dead coil. Once it is running again, if I get the crapsman running right, I will sell the crapsman. It just turned out to be handy while the other one is down. I have a bigger PP I keep down south for the next hurricane cleanup. Both PPs were new sometime in the 90s, before eps foolishness. The big one has springs. The craps-poulan has antivibe handles.

 

[thompsoncustom]

antivibe or no antivibe is a personal thing I have poulans both ways and don't notice any difference when cutting.

How far do you want to turn it up and how much work do you want to put into it? Muffler mod first, timing can be advanced but keyway is part of the flywheel so has to be ground on or out, porting can make it a whole different animal but youll need a bigger carb to get more air in pretty quickly. Compression helps a ton too but is harder to do in a calm shell your looking at making your own popup or bringing the cylinder down while raising the bearing pockets. Brazing a popup isn't to hard.

 

[benz66]

antivibe or no antivibe is a personal thing I have poulans both ways and don't notice any difference when cutting.

How far do you want to turn it up and how much work do you want to put into it? Muffler mod first, timing can be advanced but keyway is part of the flywheel so has to be ground on or out, porting can make it a whole different animal but youll need a bigger carb to get more air in pretty quickly. Compression helps a ton too but is harder to do in a calm shell your looking at making your own popup or bringing the cylinder down while raising the bearing pockets. Brazing a popup isn't to hard.

HOW MUCH? Probably just basics to make it cut reasonably well. carb/muffler and making sure the chain is right. Probably not porting or trying to raise compression. It came out of the factory as a dog, and I just want the dog to hunt. Not to race.

As for timing, Mercedes Benz used to sell offset woodruff keys for cam timing. An offset key might be an easy way to advance the timing a bit. I probably won't be lucky enough that it would use the same woodruff keys as MB, but one could be made to fit.

I have more hours with no antivibe. No big deal to me.

 

[thompsoncustom]

you would have to cut a keyway slot in the flywheel because the one you have I'm pretty sure is cast with the flywheel and not removable.

 

[J D]

For the timing just take a triangular file & shave 0.010" - 0.020" off the leading edge of the cast key, then refit the flywheel rotated as far forward as possible (I think I got that right, no doubt someone will correct me if I backwards'd it).
I'd start with the muffler though... a simple MM on a clean well tuned saw with a good sharp chain will generally provide you the best "bang for buck" boost. Everything you do after that tends to be more effort for less reward

 

[farmguywithasaw]

Turning the flywheel the same direction as when it is running will advance the time as the magnets “get there sooner” turning against rotation will retard the timing as the magnets show up “late”

 

[Okie]

You might want to get that Sickly Poulan/Crapsman going as is before doing lots of mods first. You can use your model number and find a $15 carb and maybe a tune up kit included that has a spark plug, fuel lines, new air filter and carb adjust tool with free shipping..

A normal Poulan will run and cut when OEM. (not bog in the cut with a dull chain) Why sharpen the chain or buy a new chain if it bogs with a dull chain. (assuming the chain brake is not ON)

To me modding a Crapsman/Poulan $150 chainsaw is kinda in same category as training a shetland pony for the Kentucky derby or trying to make a silk purse out of a sows ear.

AND I'm not a Poulan/Crapsman fan. (but have blisters from playing with them)
It's also a good thing to have about 3 of them as donor saws when trying to make repairs to one.

 

[benz66]

Okie; I swore off crapsman about 1973. I am not a poulan fan. I didn't buy any of the 3 I have. But they have all started and run, so each serves some purpose. I inherited 2, and a neighbor gave me the crapsman.

Now, back to the topic: This morning I finally got back to this thing. The port into the muffler is maybe 1" by ~1/2" so plenty there. The muffler had 2 tiny louvers facing the engine for exhaust. I took a screwdriver and opened these up 2 1/2 of 3 times what they were. Adjusting the carb didn't seem to improve anything, but I turned up the main until RPM slowed, then turned it back a bit until the full throttle RPM came back up.


The chain as 2 safety (depth gauge) links for every cutter link. I never encountered one of those "safety" chains before, but not surprising, knowing how sears operated. I ground down those safety links and filed the cutters. I made one cut in a 8" log here, and it cut like a hot knife through butter. I plan to go out this afternoon to see if it cuts the logs as well.

I wanted to get a good chain, but won't make it to the saw shop for a while. So If it cuts ok, I may not bother with a real chain. Heading south for the winter pretty soon anyway.

 

[Okie]

I do the same thing with those links for myself. I do not do it for other people.
It really brings those safety chains alive.