Piston Failure??? Stihl MS362s

[Sam R]

Maybe these guys heard that running jet fuel through a saw makes it run better.

 

[Canyon Angler]

It takes a tremendous amount of heat, applied fast, to melt aluminum like that. Somebody running nitrous with double-pumper dual quads?

That tree crew might want to look for the guy who wears one of these outfits to work:

 

[blsnelling]

362 is a pretty new saw in NA, isn't it?

No. It's been here for quite a few years.

 

[HarleyT]

What does the distributor rep say about the failures?

 

[MrWizard]

What does the distributor rep say about the failures?

He says operator error

 

[ericm979]

He says operator error

He's probably seen more dead engines than anyone. Does he have an idea how the operator did it?

 

[HarleyT]

I say operator error as well.
More precisely, straight gas/lack of lubrication.

 

[HarleyT]

The distributor is the one who makes the call. The pics/piston are the evidence exhibits.
The input from the customer is "hearsay" evidence.
I have heard some huge whopper lies told to me by Baptist deacons, the logic is, "well this is business"......

 

[ericm979]

Lack of oil doesn't cause that massive detonation in the first set of pics.

 

[Sam R]

Lack of oil doesn't cause that massive detonation in the first set of pics.

I'd almost attribute to a combination of factors, like lack of airflow & straight or improperly mixed gas. Water in the tank, crappy oil, blocked fins or flywheel air intake somehow being blocked - like say, by a jacket that's allowed to lay against it.

 

[DSW]

Yeah, those are some pretty aggressive failures. Not your typical light scoring that we've all seen plenty of.

 

[dmb2613]

They get real hot when the exhaust is blocked

 

[belgian]

He says operator error

If they straight gassed one saw, it may be called operator error. If they straight gass the number involved, it is called "deliberately destroying" them.

a whole different story then.

 

[blsnelling]

I wonder if you have a defective coil that advanced the timing. The flywheel could have slipped as well. Has it been off.

 

[MrWizard]

I wonder if you have a defective coil that advanced the timing. The flywheel could have slipped as well. Has it been off.

Is this something common in non-Mtronic versions? The Stihl rep asked me about them being Mtronics, but they aren't. So maybe we'll do some testing to look into this. I have one of these latest failures Rebuilt already, everything checks outs.

 

[MrWizard]

If they straight gassed one saw, it may be called operator error. If they straight gass the number involved, it is called "deliberately destroying" them.

a whole different story then.

I agree, just want to keep thinking they would never do something like that. I mean why would they? That's what we are trying to figure out now.

 

[John Lyngdal]

Watching this as I'm curious how someone can destroy a piston to such a degree.
To paraphrase a quote by Albert Einstein, the difference between brilliance and stupidity, is there are limits to brilliance.
I'm thinking that someone is defining a new point on that continuum.
John

 

[SteveSr]

I agree, just want to keep thinking they would never do something like that. I mean why would they? That's what we are trying to figure out now.

I don't know if this has already been covered but did these failures all happen with the same operator or were there multiple operators involved?

 

[MrWizard]

I don't know if this has already been covered but did these failures all happen with the same operator or were there multiple operators involved?

Steve, I was assured they were by separate operators, more experienced operators as the rebuilds went on. Come to find out one issue with this, when I asked the gentleman I dealt with first on the subject that the user had 5+years experience and was one of his most experienced. His boss, actually told me they had saw men there with over 10+years experience

 

[MrWizard]

I don't know if this has already been covered but did these failures all happen with the same operator or were there multiple operators involved?

I for one appreciate honesty and transparency. The reason I've put so much effort into this issue is I have 10 years experience and our Silver Tech has almost 3 years experience working on chainsaws. Reputation is a big thing in this industry.