poulan 36cc vs 42cc epa sticker cylinder question

[kevin711]

I have a few different poulan saws. Some say 36cc on the epa sticker and some say 42cc.

I want to replace the piston and cylinder in a poulan 2050 that has a 36cc sticker on it but the only kits I can find are 41.1mm. Am I missing something? Wouldnt that be 42cc and shouldn't the epa sticker say 42cc and not 36cc? Or am I looking at the wrong kits?

Anyone know if I get the 41.1mm piston/cylinder kit would it fit a poulan 2050 made in 1999?

Help! I'm learning...
-Kevin

 

[kevin711]

Heres a picture of the sticker.

 

[Leonard Meehan]

Hi Keven. I ran into the same thing a while back. Some suppliers call the 41.1 mm piston a 42mm
You might want to take it apart and measure the piston and check the cylinder. You might be able to just change the rings.
A fresh set of rings usually brings it back to close to new. A very handy tool is a caliper from harbor tool for 8 bucks. It also converts MM to inches. This will give you the exact size of the piston and cylinder. Here is a link to a parts diagram https://www.appliancepartspros.com/shield-cylinder-crankshaft-parts-for-poulan-2050-type-6.html

 

[Leonard Meehan]

This is copied from another post with credit given. I don't know how to link to the posts yet.

Posted by chris-ps

You won't really know until you look at the EPA tag on the back. It will either be 36cc or 42cc, because after a while they just put 42cc engines in all saws of that family. It was cheaper that way. I had a Craftsman that said 40cc on the side but it was 42cc.

Posted by Oddjobz

I just found this thread and found it interesting since I've just rebuilt a bunch of these......

All of these saws are based on the Partner 350 and 351.
I've taken apart, and swapped parts between the Craftsman, Poulans, Poulan Pros and Jonsereds.
They all either have the 38mm or the 41.1mm piston and cylinders and they are all interchangeable.
PP220, 260 2150 2050, 2137 etc etc etc..........

If you want to upgrade any of these saws....especially the Poulans, pull out the exhaust restricter....yes that little metal
piece of junk in the exhaust port and dremel away the lip. You can also take 1/32 off the bottom and top and 1/16 to each side.

The intake can be opened up a bit also, plus you can take 1/32 or so on the bakelite carb mount.......

Note that there are 41.1mm dual ring pistons available too......yes it will fit in the poulans.

 

[kevin711]

Hi Keven. I ran into the same thing a while back. Some suppliers call the 41.1 mm piston a 42mm
You might want to take it apart and measure the piston and check the cylinder. You might be able to just change the rings.
A fresh set of rings usually brings it back to close to new. A very handy tool is a caliper from harbor tool for 8 bucks. It also converts MM to inches. This will give you the exact size of the piston and cylinder. Here is a link to a parts diagram https://www.appliancepartspros.com/shield-cylinder-crankshaft-parts-for-poulan-2050-type-6.html

I actually have a really nice caliper that I can use to measure the piston, but from what I get from that other post I can just put in the 42cc piston and cylinder and it should work just fine even if it was 38mm to start with?

 

[Old2stroke]

Don't waste time changing rings on these green body bottom of the line Poulans, they don't have chrome plated cylinders and wear rapidly to the point where new rings won't help. The complete P/C kits are cheap and they upgrade to plated cylinders and the 42cc kit will fit on any of them, they all use the same crankshaft. Be careful with Poulan Pros, they are all strato cylinders and use a totally different carb so if you are rebuilding one of them you have to get a kit that's meant for a strato engine.

 

[kevin711]

Don't waste time changing rings on these green body bottom of the line Poulans, they don't have chrome plated cylinders and wear rapidly to the point where new rings won't help. The complete P/C kits are cheap and they upgrade to plated cylinders and the 42cc kit will fit on any of them, they all use the same crankshaft. Be careful with Poulan Pros, they are all strato cylinders and use a totally different carb so if you are rebuilding one of them you have to get a kit that's meant for a strato engine.

Thanks for the info. I'll update the site on my progress once I get further along. This has helped tremendously!

 

[MacAttack]

Don't waste time changing rings on these green body bottom of the line Poulans, they don't have chrome plated cylinders and wear rapidly to the point where new rings won't help. The complete P/C kits are cheap and they upgrade to plated cylinders and the 42cc kit will fit on any of them, they all use the same crankshaft. Be careful with Poulan Pros, they are all strato cylinders and use a totally different carb so if you are rebuilding one of them you have to get a kit that's meant for a strato engine.

Are you saying they have bare aluminum cylinder walls?

 

[Old2stroke]

Yes, that is the main difference between the cheapest of the Poulans and the Poulan Pros. They have a non-plated cylinder and a chrome plated piston, whereas the Poulan Pros have a conventional chromed cylinder and non-plated piston. Other differences are the PPs have AV mounts and the cheaper ones don't, as already mentioned the PPs have strato engine and the others don't. I personally prefer the non-strato saws as they aren't as fusy to tune and for a light duty saw that you aren't going to be using for hours at a time, the lack of AV isn't a big deal.

 

[MacAttack]

Yes, that is the main difference between the cheapest of the Poulans and the Poulan Pros. They have a non-plated cylinder and a chrome plated piston, whereas the Poulan Pros have a conventional chromed cylinder and non-plated piston. Other differences are the PPs have AV mounts and the cheaper ones don't, as already mentioned the PPs have strato engine and the others don't. I personally prefer the non-strato saws as they aren't as fusy to tune and for a light duty saw that you aren't going to be using for hours at a time, the lack of AV isn't a big deal.

That's insane... what good does a plated piston do when it still has rings on it? How would a bare aluminum cylinder hold up at all?

 

[Old2stroke]

These bottom feeder saws are made to a price point and a plated piston is cheaper then a plated cylinder. Surprisingly, if the owner uses a 30:1 mix of synthetic oil, makes sure the carb is adjusted properly and is careful to use them for light duty the way they were intended, they can last a long time. Unfortunately, most of these saws are purchased at box stores and come with a "factory setting" for the carb that is usually too lean and the saws self destruct by seizing long before the cylinder wears out.
This use of a non-plated cylinder is not that uncommon, I believe the Mini Mac in your signature photo is another and they seems to last a long time.

 

[MacAttack]

These bottom feeder saws are made to a price point and a plated piston is cheaper then a plated cylinder. Surprisingly, if the owner uses a 30:1 mix of synthetic oil, makes sure the carb is adjusted properly and is careful to use them for light duty the way they were intended, they can last a long time. Unfortunately, most of these saws are purchased at box stores and come with a "factory setting" for the carb that is usually too lean and the saws self destruct by seizing long before the cylinder wears out.
This use of a non-plated cylinder is not that uncommon, I believe the Mini Mac in your signature photo is another and they seems to last a long time.

I couldn't say with 100% certainty but the information I've been able to find indicates the mini macs had chrome lined cylinders. I know my mini mac 30 has a LOT of hours on it with no loss of compression or power. I read something once about, i seem to recall a Ford racing engine, having bare aluminum cylinders since they didn't have to last very long.

So does a Poulan Pro like the one i have have a lined cylinder?

 

[Old2stroke]

Yes, all Poulan Pros have a chrome plated cylinder and they are also all strato engine saws. I have some Mini Mac 110 cylinders in my junk box and I'll see if I can find them and check the cylinder, of course they will be early models and there may have been a production change for later saws.
Years ago GM made a 4 cyl aluminum engine with no plating, just a hard silicone surface treatment of some sort (forget the model). They replaced a lot of engines and quickly abandoned the process.

 

[Chris-PA]

Poulan Pros are not all strato, only the later ones. Prior to that only Poulan Pros were chromed cylinder/bare piston. All the others were bare cylinder/chromed piston. The latter work fine as lind as no foreign debris get in the cylinder - carbon or dirt, etc. Fortunately they have very good filters. I have a higly modified one with no plated bore and it runs great and has held up well.

If you can find an older PP260 engine that would be your best choice. The Chinese engines on eBay will probably work but they will likely have excessive squish clearance and who knows what plating.

 

[Old2stroke]

Poulan Pros are not all strato, only the later ones. Prior to that only Poulan Pros were chromed cylinder/bare piston. All the others were bare cylinder/chromed piston. The latter work fine as lind as no foreign debris get in the cylinder - carbon or dirt, etc. Fortunately they have very good filters. I have a higly modified one with no plated bore and it runs great and has held up well.

If you can find an older PP260 engine that would be your best choice. The Chinese engines on eBay will probably work but they will likely have excessive squish clearance and who knows what plating.

Good to know about the early PPs not being strato engines, any idea when the change was made? I have installed about a dozen Chinese top end kits and they have all had excellent chrome plating on the cylinder and good piston fit with proper ring end gap. Variable squish could be a problem.

 

[kevin711]

Good to know about the early PPs not being strato engines, any idea when the change was made? I have installed about a dozen Chinese top end kits and they have all had excellent chrome plating on the cylinder and good piston fit with proper ring end gap. Variable squish could be a problem.

Are all the chinese kits chromed or do you need to search for a specific kind? I can find tons of 41.1mm kits but none of them specify if they are plated or not.

 

[kevin711]

Good to know about the early PPs not being strato engines, any idea when the change was made? I have installed about a dozen Chinese top end kits and they have all had excellent chrome plating on the cylinder and good piston fit with proper ring end gap. Variable squish could be a problem.

My poulan pro 260 had a 2002 sticker on it and was not strato.

 

[Old2stroke]

Yeah, its always a problem trying to find additional info on kits from China. You might try sending a question to the seller and see if you get an answer that's believable.
Might be only one factory that is churning them out and all the ebay sellers are getting them from the same place.

 

[Chris-PA]

Good to know about the early PPs not being strato engines, any idea when the change was made? I have installed about a dozen Chinese top end kits and they have all had excellent chrome plating on the cylinder and good piston fit with proper ring end gap. Variable squish could be a problem.

I don't recall when the change over was if I ever knew for sure. The whole line went to 42cc strato designs with an inboard clutch, but those are not chrome plated. I recently got one from a friend who needed money and thought I might mod it, but the they moved the bar maybe 5/8" to the right (and I swear it's angled), and I could not make two cuts match with the thing if I had to. I'm giving it to a guy I work with. But the PP260 is one of my favorite saws, and very easy to handle.

 

[kevin711]

On the right side of the pic I attached, there are two things I believe are called circlips? I'm not sure, but if I have a 36cc poulan I'm upgrading to 42cc do I need to have these replaced as well? What are they for?