Many years ago I bought an MS 290 to help out a friend. I think it was the second time in my life I didn’t have a saw on my truck. Turned out I liked it. It became my truck saw. Stays on the back 24/7, it’s not even Orange any more. Another friend gave me 3 20” bars from his 390. So I switched over to 3/8 chain and opened up the muffler a little. Now I hand it to friends and they go, oh, a Farm Boss. Then they run it, and go, wow, what did you do to that saw, it runs great. It does run better than the average 290.
Then I bought an MS 170 because they were on sale for $159. It ran great for several years and started losing power. Went by my friends shop and told him it was time for a plug. He asked if I checked the muffler? Duh. Pulled the cover off and it was so carboned up you couldn’t see light through it. Cleaned out, running great again. Few more years went by and it started losing power again. Muffler was clean, so I checked the air filter. It was spotless. But the saw still wasn’t right. Checked the air filter again. Enough Super fine dust was getting by the filter and was sticking to the plastic block before the carb, it was almost blocked. Cleaned it out and running great again.
Im happy with my home owner grade saws. I have 60 or 70 pro saws on the shelves. It’s too hard to keep them running so they just sit and look pretty. My 660 is always at hand. I don’t think I’ll ever buy a new saw again.
Unless I run across a 116 CC Echo 1201.