A Puzzle

[Agrarian]

What problem did I find when I removed this Mahle cylinder from a Husky 242xp? Other than cleaning the loose crud off in a parts cleaner, this is how it looked when I removed it. I have no history on the saw but there was some minor aluminum transfer near the exhaust port.

 

[old-cat]

That's ugly. You need to make it true flat again.

 

[Agrarian]

That's ugly. You need to make it true flat again.

Nope, not the real problem. The cylinder is flat and all original.

 

[tallfarmboy]

Someone didn't clean the old base gasket off before installing a new one... Probably caused an air leak that caused the aluminum transfer on the exhaust port.

 

[Chris-PA]

Based on the witness marks, the old gasket was backwards (unless the gasket has a notch on both sides)?

 

[Agrarian]

Based on the witness marks, the old gasket was backwards (unless the gasket has a notch on both sides)?

Sorry, that's not it. The gasket is symmetrical and can be placed either way.

 

[Agrarian]

Someone didn't clean the old base gasket off before installing a new one... Probably caused an air leak that caused the aluminum transfer on the exhaust port.

No, the gasket was intact, oriented correctly and both surfaces appeared to be properly cleaned.

 

[tallfarmboy]

Broken or loose cylinder bolt?

 

[Agrarian]

Broken or loose cylinder bolt?

I'll give it to you - congrats!

I was tearing this down for a complete overhaul this week after getting it as a project saw about 6 months ago. At first I thought the bolt had fallen out when I was removing the cylinder and maybe stuck to the clutch magnet or fallen when I was blowing it out. But then I saw the bolt hole was completely clogged with crap, like the rest of the saw so it had not been in there for quite some time. This pattern above the gasket was more telling. I am surprised that this saw could run at all, given the leak that must have been there. And I am surprised that there was not more damage to the cylinder/piston from running lean.

I don't have pictures of it but a 238se I was working on had another interesting problem. Someone had taken the carb off to do some work and when they reassembled it, the gasket between the cylinder and the intake manifold had moved when they were installing it. The gasket was held on with just one carb screw but had rotated down about 45 degrees so that the upper part of the gasket was directly in the middle of the intake passage and the rest was hanging out below the manifold. The upper piece of the gasket had long ago been sucked into the engine and spit out because I didn't find it in the crankcase.

Interesting the things you find!

 

[redfin]

I just got a poulan 2.3 top handle. The cylinder bolts were loose when I tore into it at home but it did fire at the opss house when I bought it. I found that very strange.

 

[hotshot]

Good catch in timing. I got a 3700 Poulan in that had one manifold bolt barely in, and the other one was gone, buried in saw cake on top of the crankcase. No damage done which is surprising.

The seller said it ran "funny" and was hard to start...seriously?

They're all just petrol powered hand tools, run 'em until they go up in smoke or die, and then go buy another one.