based on hard experience I recommend you not wait too long ordering your new piston. parts for old saws have been known to suddenly become unobtainable through poulan, sears and other parts outlets.Thanks for the manual! I also uploaded several manuals in a posting a few messages higher up in this thread.
I'm going to persist with the fuel line simply because I started... but the piston (and therefore probably the cylinder) is/are scarred.
I got 100 pressure using an inexpensive car compression tester. I'm guessing a healthy engine would give 120 or higher right?
I may just decide to put this machine to one side until I've built up some more expertise on other equipment..
and then decide if I want to pay the cost for parts.. at least those parts ARE available.. at a price.
Not sure why I think this might be interesting to anyone.. but here's a picture of the trashed piston looking through the exhaust port.
I guess when you've seen one you've seen them all.
should go ahead and pull the cylinder so you can see if it can be cleaned up before you order parts.
just be VERY methodical - pictures, plastic bags, small boxes, etc. - when disassembling the saw. makes reassembly much easier if you have a how-to record and your parts are easily at hand.
another hard learned lesson here.