Stihlmill
ArboristSite Lurker
Not to sound ignorant but isn't using sandpaper like running a stone hone through the cylinder? Doesn't sandpaper hurt the cylinder wall? I just took an MS290 apart tonight and that cylinder has a lot of transfer on the cylinder walls. A new cylinder would render the price to fix the saw at just about what he could have bought a new one for... I'll gladly try the sandpaper on my cylinder because it's really not that bad and I'm almost certain I could slap it back on with no work at all and it would be fine but I have a bit of an OCD thing where I probably wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I didn't clean it up.Porting is an art form, it can be anything from mild to way radical. I have done many and can dial in the engine to work best with the size and variety of wood being cut. For some its RPM and for others its torque, smaller trees and liming its speed that gets the work done, for bigger wood or hardwood a torque saw fits the bill better. As for modifications other than porting a few are opening up the muffler, dual port the muffler, bore the carb or switch to a bigger carb and intake boot, bigger diameter fuel line and pickup filter, advance the timing so the engine fires a bit sooner and sometimes I swap on a bigger cylinder and piston, the 44.7 mm is an easy swap.
I have never been a fan of using acid in a cylinder, metalworking sandpaper starting at 320 grit and working toward finer grit as most aluminum is removed until the cylinder is nearly cleaned, then finish up with brown Scotchbrite is a safe means, a bit slow for me but a safe bet for most.
Mustang, I also have an 028WB and never really liked it that much. Not really sure why. It doesn't run for s#!+ now but I did let it sit for many many years. Probably needs the carb cleaned at the very least. I put a new bar and chain on and it cuts like a hot knife through warm butter even as terrible as it runs currently but my 026s always seemed to scream a lot more. Maybe the exhaust is blocked. I had the 026 I'm fixing now, another 026 and that 028 when I was a kid and obviously didn't know what I do now about them and recently the saw bug bit me in the a$$ and I'm into them pretty good so I suspect I'll get to that one after the 2 026s and the 039 are done. I've only ever gotten rid of one stihl saw I had, it was an older 032, and won't get rid of another. I have 10 now and will probably get more. The 026 pro I just got I really really like. At the moment it's between the 048 and the pro as my favorites. I want an 038 mag, maybe an ms362 and ms440 and an 064 and/or an 066 yet at least.