Marco D Capote
New Member
Howdy Folks,
I wanted to say thanks for all the great information here, I've done a lot of searching and digging and have learned a lot. I am a hot-rodder at heart and love to tinker. I got an MS290 a while back because it was available gently used (homeowner used it for cleanup once) and I needed something for firewood gathering. We live in the mountains outside of Boulder, co. and heat with wood predominantly and I am cutting dead standing lodgepole pine that is skinny usually.. After a few seasons of cutting with the 290 I've only basically put a 20" bar on it with the full chisel yellow RS Stihl chain and done the muffler mod and retuned the carb. The muffler mod really helped it and getting rid of the green safety chain was like a revelation. Anyhow, it cuts well but sometimes I get some harder pine that it bogs on a little bit. Rather than upgrade to a pro saw I got to thinking and reading and saw that the 390 P&C is a relatively easy upgrade. I read lots and lots and have decided a Cross performance P&C kit from HL Supply with the Caber rings would be a decent option. It seems like those cylinders or the Hyway ones seem to be the best non OEM option.
Anyhow I did some reading on porting and it looks like MAYBE the cross performance ones are copies from castings that were ported by some folks (one guy maybe) around here. That seems nice. Is that correct?
Also, one of the other bummers about the saw is the shorter bar. 20" was a nice upgrade from 18" but I still have to bend over a bit to cut logs laying on the ground. I was thinking of going to a 25" bar only to get a better reach. I'm not taking trees that are that big. The saw bogs with the 20" bar most of the way in wood, not totally buried.. but again, it covers the diameters of the stuff I am interested in cutting. Anyhow, you probably guessed the next question (which i've read a few threads on) going .325 to 3/8" so I can get a commercially available 25" bar...
As far as the bar and chain go I haven't really seen much other than that Stihl spec'd the 390/391 with 3/8" and in some cases up to a 28" bar and most folks tend to say less than 50cc is a no go for 3/8".
Even though Stihl spec'd the 390 that way I am wondering.... would the MS290 with the 390 P&C kit (and Muffler mod of course) do Ok with that longer bar running 3/8" pitch full chisel chain? What I am thinking is yes, but I have very limited experience here. Also, would it be worth it or needed to learn about and perhaps do some mild porting to the Cross performance 390 kit parts or are they good to go as is. I have read about squared off exhaust ports being bad (rings) and other things but I need to learn a lot here before getting the burrs out of the toolbox to do a little clean up.
I'm thinking the 390 P&C with the MM and a tad longer bar might be a decent formula for what i'm doing. I guess I could sell it and just get a MS362
Thanks a lot and sorry for the long first post..
I wanted to say thanks for all the great information here, I've done a lot of searching and digging and have learned a lot. I am a hot-rodder at heart and love to tinker. I got an MS290 a while back because it was available gently used (homeowner used it for cleanup once) and I needed something for firewood gathering. We live in the mountains outside of Boulder, co. and heat with wood predominantly and I am cutting dead standing lodgepole pine that is skinny usually.. After a few seasons of cutting with the 290 I've only basically put a 20" bar on it with the full chisel yellow RS Stihl chain and done the muffler mod and retuned the carb. The muffler mod really helped it and getting rid of the green safety chain was like a revelation. Anyhow, it cuts well but sometimes I get some harder pine that it bogs on a little bit. Rather than upgrade to a pro saw I got to thinking and reading and saw that the 390 P&C is a relatively easy upgrade. I read lots and lots and have decided a Cross performance P&C kit from HL Supply with the Caber rings would be a decent option. It seems like those cylinders or the Hyway ones seem to be the best non OEM option.
Anyhow I did some reading on porting and it looks like MAYBE the cross performance ones are copies from castings that were ported by some folks (one guy maybe) around here. That seems nice. Is that correct?
Also, one of the other bummers about the saw is the shorter bar. 20" was a nice upgrade from 18" but I still have to bend over a bit to cut logs laying on the ground. I was thinking of going to a 25" bar only to get a better reach. I'm not taking trees that are that big. The saw bogs with the 20" bar most of the way in wood, not totally buried.. but again, it covers the diameters of the stuff I am interested in cutting. Anyhow, you probably guessed the next question (which i've read a few threads on) going .325 to 3/8" so I can get a commercially available 25" bar...
As far as the bar and chain go I haven't really seen much other than that Stihl spec'd the 390/391 with 3/8" and in some cases up to a 28" bar and most folks tend to say less than 50cc is a no go for 3/8".
Even though Stihl spec'd the 390 that way I am wondering.... would the MS290 with the 390 P&C kit (and Muffler mod of course) do Ok with that longer bar running 3/8" pitch full chisel chain? What I am thinking is yes, but I have very limited experience here. Also, would it be worth it or needed to learn about and perhaps do some mild porting to the Cross performance 390 kit parts or are they good to go as is. I have read about squared off exhaust ports being bad (rings) and other things but I need to learn a lot here before getting the burrs out of the toolbox to do a little clean up.
I'm thinking the 390 P&C with the MM and a tad longer bar might be a decent formula for what i'm doing. I guess I could sell it and just get a MS362
Thanks a lot and sorry for the long first post..
