THAT WAS A AWESOME THREAD!!!! THANK YOU! I don't deal in a lot of hard woods, around here we get alot of cottonwood, locust, and Chinese elm, mostly nusance trees people want removed. They are usually huge, and have a ton of nail, and other assorted iron matter in them from either nailing the old fence to them or Little Jonny and his Buddy's trying to build a tree house in them. The worst and nastiest among them has to be willow, hard as a rock, and the wood tends to heave closed behind your bar, and will literally lock your bar and chain in the tree. I hate the stuff, and have seen more then one 372 go to saw heaven, because of this. Overheat the saw so bad the main bearings sieze, a determined and stupid lot who think the 372 is invincible. I have made good money cutting willow, but I have never approached one with anything smaller then my 288, and I always bring two saws, run one while the other cools.
I was just looking to give my 288 a little more grunt, but It is a winder too, and while I like strokers(gives me a idea of what to do with all the 2100 parts I got laying around) I was just looking to get a little more with a simple piston and cylinder change, I am really beginning to think the best way to go would be to use a 395 cylinder, and rig up a cable throttle set up, I hear the 395 has improved transfers that will help keep top end, problem is the 395 also uses I think a 42 mm stroke, I THINK. This is why I am here to find someone who has really built this kind of thing, I want it to say 288 on the side, and run with the big, big boys!
