Got Stihlsqvarnsred ?

[Stratostreak]

Greetings.
I'm not on the site much so hopefully I don't make to many mistakes...here we go:

Curious about your Stihlsqvarnsred story...

Decades ago (1985) as a teenage boy, I heard a Husqvarna & Jonsered dealer mention that a 490 Jonsered top end installed on a Husqvarna Rancher 50 would make more usable torque/power in the cut than either of the aforementioned saws on their own.
I've also read tidbits of this on the net years ago, where guys in the US were doing this at dealerships, and the notariety was at a level that the big guys at Husky and Jonsered demanded that this practice, within the bounds of dealerships, be stopped.

Husqvarna 50 Magnum Rancher was the name I remember.

I've done something similar on my 1982 Husqvarna 50 Rancher at a time when I was unable to find a piston for a Jonsered 490 top end, so I used a Stihl 028 piston, and machined it to have enough room to clear the top of the chamber and left a pop up on the top of the piston, resulting in extreme compression.

I've cut 30+ full cord with this saw, 3/8 full comp 20" bar. I put new crank bearings in when I did the build and have had no issues. It screams very high rpms...I have no tach but am planning to buy one before I gear up for this fall's cutting season for the primary curiosity of knowing how many rpms it's been turning!

I chose to build this saw because I had more time than money, and wanted to make something comparable to a 346xp but didn't want to spend the money to get that kind of power in a lightweight traditional design.

I've since obtained a new aftermarket 490 piston but have refrained from installing it and rather chose to keep running the Stihl 028 piston so as to keep the old girl true to her name and legend in this neck of the woods...we refer to her as The One and Only

STIHLSQVARNSRED

I'm curious to read any more lore on the Husqvarna 50 Magnum Rancher or the likes of another Stihlsqvarnsred story.
Have a great day~

 

[pioneerguy600]

I installed an 028 piston in a Partner 500 5-6 years back, it need a bit of skirt clearancing to clear the crank throws but ended up with enough squish at top so no machining was necessary, it runs nice but I don`t think it performs as well as a stock piston did.

 

[82F100SWB]

This little guy is a recent, not quite done yet build. Partner 5000/Jonny 490 jug top end, and I may have played some games with the crank and crankcase volume... It still needs a base cut to tighten up the squish, and it's currently a very mild port job, but it's getting there....

 

[Cricket]

I once made one saw out of an old Mini-Mac, and a Mac... 120, maybe? Some little tiny thing I got free/cheap. Zero safety features, but it cut like a mad thing, and was great for limbing. Disappeared in a move at some point.