I put an AM 346 cylinder on my 350. Decent quality, but the compression was 140. I deleted the gasket and brought it up to nearly 170, but it definitely had more squish than OEM. I would not replace an XP cylinder with AM, but will admit to being a little twitchy when it comes to the Husky 288xp
I have seen some really nice AM kits, but it appears to me that the major weaknesses in them is the squish as well as the quality of the rings.
I had peered into an OEM MS460 cylinder today and didn't see a whole lot of difference in the fit/finish of the Mahle and some of the other kits I have seen that are aftermarket.
The guts of Meteor cylinders as well has Hyway cylinders actually are finished off nicer, in regards to the plating.
The ports of the Mahle looked better. The beveling was more even around the ports, whereas a lot of aftermarkets seem to be somewhat irregular.
Please keep in mind though, that this was a visual comparison and I did not do any measurements whatsoever.
No port timing numbers, no squish, no testing of the plating or anything.
The OEM Mahle cylinders are a known quantity, and there's no doubt about it.
If someone had access to a good used OEM cylinder and picked up a Meteor piston for it there's no way they could go wrong. That is the best choice, and usually the most economical. Good used jugs for most major saws tend to go for $50-$100 a piece. Throw a Meteor piston in the mix and you are looking anywhere between $85-$140 for the whole top end setup. About the same as what a good aftermarket setup goes for.
Sometimes, especially if OEM is a tough find the AM is the only way to go.
But, there is no comparison between the bottom tier kits and the top tier kits. There's a place in the world for the really, really cheap kits, but not on a 288!
Sorry, I'm going with what my brother, and certain members on different web forums tells me. Hopefully, I'm trusting the right ones.
Of course a cylinder can be pretty unuseable stock, be still may perform very well when properly ported. With many AM "brands", you don't even know if you get the same thing the next time - but that does of course not apply to Meteor.
Niko,
As with anything, with some certainty, there will always be junk out there. It all depends on the vendor, and the retailer to keep an eye on the quality of stuff they're selling. There are plenty of examples of garbage cylinder kits out there, but I have also seen some quite nice ones as well....
I have seen a lot of cylinder kits out there, but haven't had the pleasure of testing a large quantity of them. As time allows and saws become available to me there will certainly be builds.
Here's a gratuitous video of a 372 I recently rebuilt and put a Meteor Cylinder kit on.
