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Deleted member 149229
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It’s marked on the body of the saw above the access holes.
Echo CS-490 DEAD after 11.5 months?
- Thread starter Listen Up Sonny
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You don't void the warranty by removing the caps, new ones cost around 70 cents, if you need warranty work just put new ones on the saw. Bad fuel gums up the carb which causes the saw to run lean which burns up the piston . there are other reasons why a saw would run lean like a air leak or clogged or broken fuel line but very little chance of that on a 11 month old Echo. As mentioned learn how to tune a saw then you will recognize right away when its running lean and quit running it immediately and fix the problem. Most saws are marked by the adjusting screws H L T going from memory I think the low is on the bottom left, the high on the bottom right and the T which controls the engine speed is on top.. I highly recommend a muff modd on a 490 which requires opening the deflector up , you would need to buy that new if warranty work was need also. To muff modd take the deflector off pull the tube out of the muff and make the hole in the deflector way bigger. Echo clogs up the muff on purpose to get by EPA regs, Steve
smokey7
jack of a lot ace of a few
Any chance this is just a tuning problem that took a while to cause damage? As in the tune slowly started to score the piston and the tune was causing the bogging and stalling. In my minds eye i wonder if since its said its lightly scored if one couldn't tune it properly provided the rings are not pinned down my melted aluminum and run it. I have worked on several saws that were lightly scored and some have been heavily scored still running todsy.
Not to likely it was a tuning problem from the start as it ran good for 11 month then started bogging and running lean. If tuned bad from the start it would have run bad right away. Steve
smokey7
jack of a lot ace of a few
Unless it was tuned on the edge.
OP: whatever you choose to do, you'll need to confirm the cause of this problem to make sure you're not doing anything wrong. Based on what you've said, it doesn't look like you are. But are you really willing to bet another several hundred dollars on a new saw that you are? I guess only you can make that decision. Either way, I have two suggestions.
First, pay the $40 and have your trusted small engine guy take a look. If you two are good buddies, maybe he'll be able to let you watch his examination or at least walk you through everything he saw, explain the reasons for his observations and answer any questions you may have. You say you trust him, so based on what he tells you, go with that.
Second, you can try and diagnose this stuff yourself. Youtube and Google are your friends (as well as this site) and you can learn a lot. For example, my go-to youtube teacher is Steve's Small Engine Saloon. He even has a post explaining the difference possible causes of piston scoring on chainsaws:
First, pay the $40 and have your trusted small engine guy take a look. If you two are good buddies, maybe he'll be able to let you watch his examination or at least walk you through everything he saw, explain the reasons for his observations and answer any questions you may have. You say you trust him, so based on what he tells you, go with that.
Second, you can try and diagnose this stuff yourself. Youtube and Google are your friends (as well as this site) and you can learn a lot. For example, my go-to youtube teacher is Steve's Small Engine Saloon. He even has a post explaining the difference possible causes of piston scoring on chainsaws:
SmellyPirateHooker
ArboristSite Guru
With my 620 it came way lean from the factory. Not sure that it was enough to kill the motor over time, but enough that after 1/4 cut i pulled the caps and retuned.
Brent Nowell
Addicted to ArboristSite
Wow, this is a very sad and pathetic customer relation story on echo’s behalf.
A guy buys and uses their product under the directions of the manual, it blows up and they claim it was ‘bad gas’ and it’s not thier problem.
Unbelievable!
What a cop out, a terrible excuse to save company money.
What’s next? Your chain wasn’t sharp enough do warranty is void?
Saw dust was found around the flywheel thus it overheated?
How about you took out the spark arrester and that’s a modification and no warranty.
Oh wait we just noticed that your saw wasn’t tuned right and you should have known this and it’s not under warranty...
Really???? Isn’t that the dealer and or echos job, a lot of people really only know what the manual tells them and they can’t be blamed for anything beyond it!
A guy buys and uses their product under the directions of the manual, it blows up and they claim it was ‘bad gas’ and it’s not thier problem.
Unbelievable!
What a cop out, a terrible excuse to save company money.
What’s next? Your chain wasn’t sharp enough do warranty is void?
Saw dust was found around the flywheel thus it overheated?
How about you took out the spark arrester and that’s a modification and no warranty.
Oh wait we just noticed that your saw wasn’t tuned right and you should have known this and it’s not under warranty...
Really???? Isn’t that the dealer and or echos job, a lot of people really only know what the manual tells them and they can’t be blamed for anything beyond it!
Bobby Kirbos
Scrounger of Cellulose Based BTUs
A "dealer" would have tuned it properly before passing it to the customer. From Home Depot, you take the box off the shelf, pay for it, unbox it, fuel it up, and let it rip.
I have a feeling that this is not a new problem. One of my local Echo dealers has a sign on their door "We will not service any equipment purchased from a big box store".
Don't blame Echo for the factory lean tuning. Thank the militant environuts who pressured the EPA to impose these ridiculous regulations - on something that neither the EPA nor the environuts know anything about.
Part of it is due to poor communication on the dealer/repair shop. My echo dealer told me that removing the guard on a string trimmer voided the echo warranty because (and I'm paraphrasing), "the change in balance of the machine could cause damage to engine. Echo's tools are carefully designed to take every part into consideration, so when one is removed, it can throw everything out of whack and damage the engine."
What he's saying is flat out wrong. Removing the guard on a string trimmer doesn't damage the engine. What's damaging the engine is the guard no longer being able to keep the string line the appropriate length and when the string gets too long, it can put excessive strain on the engine. So it's running a string trimmer with too high a load on the engine via an overly long string that voids the warranty, not removing the guard. But that's not what the Echo guy told me.
I told him Echo has a horrible reputation online with regards to honoring the warranty. He said everything online must be true. I told him that I read about more people complaining about Echo's warranty than Husqvarna or Stihl's. He had no response.
SmellyPirateHooker
ArboristSite Guru
It's all smoke and mirrors.
I'm pretty sure there's enough echo saws out there that never had an issue to say they build a durable saw. It was their highest selling point for years. My 620 came off the dealer shelf (also a Stihl dealer) and went through their prep before they handed it to me. Before first startup I checked screw positions and the H was maxed with cap on. It was still lean. You really have to ask yourself where you want to be in this "food chain". I mean if you have a tree service and many saws with backups then I can see relying on a dealer. Saw acts up, put it away and pull out another. Even makes sense financially because time is money. Other then that you fall into 2 categories the way I see it. The first being someone who can tune, trouble shoot and fix it themselves and the other being people who should buy auto tune and rely heavily on the dealer. Personally I can't imagine running any 2 stoke engine (other then maybe a Detroit) without truly knowing what's going on with it. I don't care what tool or what brand, if all you hear is a running engine you are eventually going to have a bad day. This is also why I never lend out even my shittiest saws, even to my most mechanically incline friends. I loan myself out and I do the cutting.
I'm pretty sure there's enough echo saws out there that never had an issue to say they build a durable saw. It was their highest selling point for years. My 620 came off the dealer shelf (also a Stihl dealer) and went through their prep before they handed it to me. Before first startup I checked screw positions and the H was maxed with cap on. It was still lean. You really have to ask yourself where you want to be in this "food chain". I mean if you have a tree service and many saws with backups then I can see relying on a dealer. Saw acts up, put it away and pull out another. Even makes sense financially because time is money. Other then that you fall into 2 categories the way I see it. The first being someone who can tune, trouble shoot and fix it themselves and the other being people who should buy auto tune and rely heavily on the dealer. Personally I can't imagine running any 2 stoke engine (other then maybe a Detroit) without truly knowing what's going on with it. I don't care what tool or what brand, if all you hear is a running engine you are eventually going to have a bad day. This is also why I never lend out even my shittiest saws, even to my most mechanically incline friends. I loan myself out and I do the cutting.
cuinrearview
Red saw lover
This is a question that should be answered. I've yet to have an echo on the bench to get to try, but if I wasn't "saw savvy" and relied on a dealer for all service I would be hesitant to go get one after reading this thread. Unless i had a dealer i could trust.
And as far as echos being the most consistently lean saws from the factory, i have to disagree. The Dolmar 5100s holds that title. I'm pretty sure everyone of those, if ran at the advertised 14.5k, would burn up.
KenJax Tree
Terraphobic
He may have the sign but if they’re an authorized dealer for whatever you bought he has to service it.
If Echo is the only company with overly lean machines, then yes, we can blame Echo. I'm not saying this is the case, but if it were, and no other company had the issue that Echo saws had, then Echo would fully deserve the blame.
So in essence it's EPA's fault for forcing the hand of saw makers to comply.
I agree with going through your local dealer for all your 2 cycle needs incase an issue like this should arise....a reputable dealer would have re-tuned after initial break in.
I personally disregard EPA restrictions and muffler mod everything.
I got a shoe box full of restrictor tubes. Lol
I agree with going through your local dealer for all your 2 cycle needs incase an issue like this should arise....a reputable dealer would have re-tuned after initial break in.
I personally disregard EPA restrictions and muffler mod everything.
I got a shoe box full of restrictor tubes. Lol
Brent Nowell
Addicted to ArboristSite
I am blaming echo because they are not warrantying their product. If the dealer made a mistake in the tune that should not be the customers fault, that’s something that echo should cover. They can sort out their own issues internally in regards to the dealer and corporate in terms of moneys lost, don’t let the customer pay for an internal mistake
Analyst Man
ArboristSite Guru
A saw that requires 50/1 fuel mix will run hotter and leaner if you use 32/1 mix??? I've never heard that, isn't it the other way around?
cuinrearview
Red saw lover
Less gas in the mix/air=more lean. Often confused with oil to gas in the pre-mix. A lean fuel to air mix will burn hotter.
I'm confused as well. A 50:1 fuel/oil mix is made up of about 98.04% fuel. But a 32:1 fuel/oil mix is only made up of about 96.97% fuel. Doesn't this mean the 50:1 mix is richer than the 32:1 mix?
Analyst Man
ArboristSite Guru
Well I must admit this is a new unheard of concept to me. If this is true, why do so many reccomend breaking in a new 50/1 engine with 40/1 mix? And isn't leanness controlled by the air/fuel mixture screw? 14 parts air to 1 part gas + oil is optimum in any 2 cycle engine. But the gas to oil ratios are determined by engine tollerances.
