Can Stihl even make a cylinder???

With the recent discovery of some Stihl manufactured production saw cylinders that exhibited some amount of degradation of quality, I thought some inspection was in order.

The saw in question in my personal MS660.

Manufactured in 02/2007 and purchased in 12/2007.

The saw was shipped with a cylinder made by Stihl.

The saw has six tanks of gas on it and was run with tuning that had a clear four-stroke out of the wood.

The cylinder was photographed so that the interested here could have a broader knowledge base.



Please feel free to comment.

A little rough on the casting, but I would run the piss out of it.......

more pics...

Honkie said:

A little rough on the casting, but I would run the piss out of it.......

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:agree2:

Last ones...

I'm not holding it my hands or anything, but it appears to be fine, no shift or flaking, If they were all like that, we'd need something else to bit@h about lol

FATGUY said:

I'm not holding it my hands or anything, but it appears to be fine, no shift or flaking, If they were all like that, we'd need something else to bit@h about lol

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There is a small pore in the plating below one of the lower transfers. The port edges all look very good, and the ports look very similiar to the cylinders from my 044 and 028. The combustion chamber is completely smooth. The machining has been done well.

I like the combustion chamber. Actually sort of hemispherical with a squish band on it.

There is not a thing wrong with that cylinder. I see all the paranoids are gonna start pullin' top ends now...

Gary

GASoline71 said:

There is not a thing wrong with that cylinder. I see all the paranoids are gonna start pullin' top ends now...

Gary

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Yep it looks OK to me!

GASoline71 said:

There is not a thing wrong with that cylinder. I see all the paranoids are gonna start pullin' top ends now...

Gary

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Not paranoid...pulled it to show others, not myself. It will get ported, so I'm fine with it.

I know... but now others are already starting "panic" threads...

Just cuz you port it makes it better? If it is so flawed why even risk usin' that cylinder...

Gary

GASoline71 said:

I know... but now others are already starting "panic" threads...

Just cuz you port it makes it better? If it is so flawed why even risk usin' that cylinder...

Gary

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The cylinder isn't flawed, the ports just need to be "blueprinted."

The factory has done a good job with this tube, I will take it the rest of the way home...

Aiight... now we's on the same page...

Gary

some of this seams like it is getting carried away. most of you guys are pulling cylinders from good running saws to start grinding on them anyways. there have been no reports of failure yet. once that happens you might get my attention.

That cylinder would not make me unhappy at all.

So I guess the decline didn't start until 2008...opcorn:

edisto said:

That cylinder would not make me unhappy at all.

So I guess the decline didn't start until 2008...opcorn:

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That might be, but this cylinder shows that Stihl knows how to cast quality cylinders.

I have not put a degree wheel on it yet, so I don't know if the timing is the best Stihl has to offer.

All that being said, even if this cylinder was to spend its life stock, it would be fine.

Good gosh that saw is under-used. get out there and run some gas through it.

That one don't look bad, but it's a little before the dates where the problems seem to have started too.

Tzed250 said:

That might be, but this cylinder shows that Stihl knows how to cast quality cylinders.

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I would never have doubted that they know how...quite honestly, I was surprised to find out they weren't.

I agree with you that the cylinder you have would run for as long as it should from the looks of it.

timberwolf said:

Good gosh that saw is under-used. get out there and run some gas through it.

That one don't look bad, but it's a little before the dates where the problems seem to have started too.

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I agree 100%!!! Up until last week it was 6 days a week 10 hours a day at work. Been that way for about 18 months, but the mines are slowing down so maybe I will get some time behind the handle on this one.

The date thing seems significant. I can't help but think that Stihl has gone lowest bidder on the tubes that will be going on the saws that will be obsolete soon. If so, that is a shame. As far as functionality the ugly castings seem fine, but Stihl should be holding the line right up until the end for each and every model.