Mods for MS 170?

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thekid95

thekid95

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Dec 3, 2010
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8
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in Georgia
does anyone know of any mods that can be done to a MS 170 ? im not looking to port the engine or anything but i heeard that maybe a muffler mod will help give it a little more oomph

if anyone knows anthing at all i can do to my saw to make it more powerful i would greatly appreciat it
 
oscar4883

oscar4883

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Does the saw have a fullly adjustable carb? IIRC the 170 has a fixed jet which will be tricky to muffler mod. Once the mod is done you will need to tne the carb and a fixed jet carb may, or may not, be able to handle the change. Best bet is to practice your sharpening skills and get another, bigger, saw down the road.
 
CountryBoy19

CountryBoy19

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Jul 21, 2010
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Southern Indiana
The muffler mod will help it a bit, BUT ( you knew it was coming!) A Carb change will be in order. No worries though it's a cheap upgrade. I got mine for less than $15 on fleabay.

Click this link to some of my problems I had. There's other links in there as well.

http://www.arboristsite.com/chainsaw/131486.htm

This ^^^ You'll need a Walbro WT215 carb. You will have to modify the pulse port in the carb and slightly modify your throttle linkage to get it to work WOT.

I have a muff modded & carb modded 170 and it's pretty awesome for what it is. It's still a small saw, but it will really whip the pants off a stock 170 (my brother has a stock 170).

We use them to cut up brush and limb trees when cutting firewood. IMHO, you can't beat the small, lightweight saws for brush-cutting and limbing. Some people will argue otherwise and say small saws are junk etc. Right before they complain about being tired and having a sore back from cutting brush with a 20lb saw all day long.
 
JDNicol

JDNicol

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Oct 9, 2010
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England
If you do decide to switch out the carbs remember to exchange the end cover of the carb or you'll be sucking in a lot of unfiltered air via compensator passage in airfilter. (Probably mentioned in the other links)
 
CountryBoy19

CountryBoy19

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Jul 21, 2010
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373
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Southern Indiana
Pretty fragile little saw.

Fragile? I respectfully disagree. I've literally beat the crap out of mine and it keeps on ticking. For a while it was my only saw. I cut 20+ cord of firewood in a 2 month period with it, including 4 cords of Hedge. If you maintain it and don't neglect it or operate it improperly it will last quite a while. The only thing I've seen as "fragile" was a bent connecting rod that brad posted, and that was on his heavily modded 180. You can't expect a stock rod to hold up to that much abuse, that would be like building a race engine and putting stock connecting rods in it. You may get by for a while, but sooner or later one of them is going to let go.
 
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