James Miller
Addicted to ArboristSite
Shirks. Do you know some of those guys? I know Ralph. He was one of the guys that went in early and took down selected trees before the rest were taken down for the mill.
Production saws are created and sold with two built in "fudge factors".....one is the production fudge factor which allows for a certain amount of variability in the supplied parts from batch to batch and year to year and yet they all bolt up and the saw runs. Things like port width and squish have designed in allowances and are not terribly close to the edge. Then there is the operator "fudge factor" which allows the saw to run pretty decent a bit out of tune, on a wild array of mix ratios and qualities of oil and fuel as well as good to poor chain condition. All of this detunes the saw and creates a "governor effect" that allows the saw to continue function under the extremes of neglect, abuse and idiocy. Porting and other performance work eliminates the production "fudge factor" and instead of a simply bolted up saw motor out of stock parts a well built saw is assembled with strict attention to the individual parts, taking them out way closer the edge to get the most power from the motor as practical, depending on the intended use of the saw. Invariably this means the saw will have a very precise tuning pattern.....again depending on how advanced the port job is. The more power the saw is built to make the finer the tune, fuel type, oil type and mix ratio that the saw was tuned to must be maintained. Now the operator "fudge factor" is out the window as well.....there is no built in governor.......you have to be the governor and have to understand what the saw needs when it needs it and be sure it gets it. This is not for everyone......just like 600 horse street cars, and 200 mph motorcycles. The dealer as a general rule is going to sell the stock saw to anyone who has a fist full of money and can't have an idiot ruining a new saw and his and the saws reputation so you get things like carb limiters. As long as the operator can assume the responsibilities of maintaining a ported work saw there is no reason for it to fail before a stocker.....and if he's real good at his job it'll probably last longer than the stocker run by a poor operator.....
Stihl snowin' Randy.......Had a couple feet on the ground but that all went away last week.....bare ground. Gonna snow nearly steady for the next week....just 2-3" a day but after 5 days that's a foot to 15".....only a couple more months of this.....then it's mud season!!!
Actually was talking to a local woodbooger this afternoon at my shop.....he said that after this thaw we had, there's no frost in the ground....only twitching two to three tree length spruce to a trip with the skidder trying not to tear up the ground....short twitch....go light...go often...and this is after two weeks around the first of the year when it was 10-15 below zero every night and only +2-3 during the day.....but we had a couple feet of snow on the ground preventing the cold to drive deep.
"All of this detunes the saw and creates a "governor effect" that allows the saw to continue function under the extremes of neglect, abuse and idiocy."
All so true, but I still hate having my insignificant little quirks called out so publically...
Mark
"All of this detunes the saw and creates a "governor effect" that allows the saw to continue function under the extremes of neglect, abuse and idiocy."
All so true, but I still hate having my insignificant little quirks called out so publically...
Mark
Many possibilities here. Could be any number of standard chainsaw problems, porting aside. Air leak, dying coil, dirty or ethanol fuel, corroded carb, and clogged tank vent all come to mind.
More related to porting, a lot of people put a different carb in a ported 346. A Walbro HDA 199 from a Husky 357xp or 359 was/is very commonly used.
But the Walbro 199 series were notorious for being difficult to tune and had a flap issue that required a rebuilt with an alternate kit (the “Tree Monkey Fix”). Check to see if you have that carb (if it still has a primer bulb you probably don’t).
The HDA 191 was its replacement, but I know less about that carb. Both are more finicky than the stock Zama carb that was originally on the saw.
In any case, tread lightly. I would avoid running this saw much until you have it sorted. Damage happens fast at 15,000 rpms and something is definitely wrong.
Afraid I can’t recommend a good tech in your area. Good luck and let us know what you find.
Very good post generally, but a small mess-up with a detail: The HDA 191 wasn't the replacement of the 199, it was the version for heated saws, used at the same time. Their replacement for both was the Zama C3-EL42 (from fall 2008).
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