Farmertec MS390 recent users?

[Definitive Dave]

I have a customer who bought two of these recently.
They have been bulletproof in the past and I recommend (ed) them wholeheartedly, sold a blue bloody billion of them to rave reviews. Fully as good as OEM imho.
Both the kits I sent this customer have air leaks at the threads for the spark plugs. He is applying plenty of torque the plugs as good quality new with the crush washers, and he has noticeable bubbles when tracking down the pressure leak.
Is anyone else seeing this? I am pretty sure these cylinders are from a prior shipment and haven't heard anything else, but on Ebay many customers probably just bolt up the parts and run em, without any testing
These are the "new" modern casting with the FT logo on the base.
I don't have any test bed saws for this model to do any testing, I thought we had a golden product here, but now am worried.
Offered the customer full refund or Meteors in Exchange, but also really concerned about selling any more of these now. We have been ordering them about 50 every 6 weeks or so.

Any local Ohio guys have a 290 on the bench that wouldn't mind tossing on of these on and running a pressure vac test for me?
Dave

 

[idiotwithasaw]

Send one to me I'll do it for Ya. I also have one I bought from you earlier this year that had farmertech stamped on the bottom that I can vac test too to see if this is just a recent issue.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Hmmm... I have to wonder if that could have been the cause of what I ran into with a Farmertec big bore kit I installed on a Stihl 066 Mag in early November. It burned out the piston within two tanks of fuel:


Strangely enough, I installed two of these and the other engine is running like a bandit. Unfortunately, I've already removed it and am replacing it with another brand, but your thread is rather coincidental. I recall measuring 165 psi compression after installation, but that's all I did other than run for awhile and tune it.

 

[Hdtoolmkr765]

I'll send you a 290, 310, or 390 with a toasted top end and you can test away.

 

[merc_man]

Not a stihl but i put a farmertech on my husky 353 and the transfer port caps were installed on the wrong sides. Switched them around and no leaks. Its got at least 15 tanks through it now.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk

 

[RiverRat2]

I was going to get one, earlier this year ??? Glad I waited

 

[67L36Driver]

Bubbles around the spark plug seat. Really a nit pick IMHO.[emoji849]
Not likely to drop the comp. thirty psi.

Seems to me I've seen some evidence of leakage on every saw I changed a plug on.

 

[Definitive Dave]

Bubbles around the spark plug seat. Really a nit pick IMHO.[emoji849]
Not likely to drop the comp. thirty psi.
Seems to me I've seen some evidence of leakage on every saw I changed a plug on.

this didn't occur to me, when I build a saw I pressure and vac test at like 8-10 pounds and if it holds for a few minutes I move on with assembly, the customer seems certainly savvy about saws but I will check, maybe it hold the test but still makes bubbles
I never squirted one with soapy water that didn't have an obvious leak on the gauge.

thanks for all the responses, my major concern is that this is not a one off bad part, in the aftermarket you get a few clunkers amongst the masses
I absolutely encourage folks to get hold of me if they ever have a problem with something they got from me.

Hmmm... I have to wonder if that could have been the cause of what I ran into with a Farmertec big bore kit I installed on a Stihl 066 Mag in early November. It burned out the piston within two tanks of fuel:


Strangely enough, I installed two of these and the other engine is running like a bandit. Unfortunately, I've already removed it and am replacing it with another brand, but your thread is rather coincidental. I recall measuring 165 psi compression after installation, but that's all I did other than run for awhile and tune it.

Two tanks sounds like small air leak, did you give it a pressure and vac before and after install? Best insurance a builder can buy in my humble opinion.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Here is a comparison Pic between the new cylinder I bought and the Farmertec for the 066. The new one is on the left and the Farmertec is on the right.



Note the additional machining on the new kit at the plug opening and at the intake port. Both are shiny (pardon the flash reflection). There is also more machining on the decomp port, not shown here. This is the same Farmertec cylinder kit that failed along with the piston shown above, one way or the other. I think Definitive Dave is on to something.

 

[dall]

i tried a couple of the farmertec cylinders and was not happy with them and have started using nothing but oem cylinders and clean them up best compression i got out of a farmertec cylinder and meteor piston was around 140 the rubber pieces are ok but the cylinders farmertec uses need redone or updated before id use one

 

[RedneckChainsawRepair]

I absolutely encourage folks to get hold of me if they ever have a problem with something they got from me.

Dave I sent a email and PM with my number on another site. Had to stop working on 2 saws today when ran into defective aftermarket parts.

Ran and got a oem part for the one guy and rednecked the other already with my stihl fuel line bypass.

 

[RedneckChainsawRepair]

Good talking with ya Dave.

Go Buckeyes

 

[Definitive Dave]

I checked with the customer and he did a normal press/vac test and they failed hence the bubble test.
Just talked to Kevin on the phone, my cold has me sounding pretty ragged, he either thinks I am Barry White or Kermit the Frog I bet

Here is a comparison Pic between the new cylinder I bought and the Farmertec for the 066. The new one is on the left and the Farmertec is on the right.



Note the additional machining on the new kit at the plug opening and at the intake port. Both are shiny (pardon the flash reflection). There is also more machining on the decomp port, not shown here. This is the same Farmertec cylinder kit that failed along with the piston shown above, one way or the other. I think Definitive Dave is on to something.

.
The plug "seat" is very different on the Farmertecs I have left in stock from the Meteor and those are the only ones I have on hand for this model.

 

[Wood Doctor]

I checked with the customer and he did a normal press/vac test and they failed hence the bubble test.
Just talked to Kevin on the phone, my cold has me sounding pretty ragged, he either thinks I am Barry White or Kermit the Frog I bet.

The plug "seat" is very different on the Farmertecs I have left in stock from the Meteor and those are the only ones I have on hand for this model.

Tomorrow I will be starting the same 066 saw with the different cylinder kit that I just installed. The failed Farmertec kit had huge compression and when first starting, it was a bear just to turn over before it eventually died, even with the decompression valve depressed. The comparison should prove interesting. I will try to report back with results.

 

[fearofpavement]

I've used a lot of the Farmertec cylinders on the 1127 series saws. (I've used their cylinder kits for other saws as well)
I've never had a failure. I did take one 039 back towards a larger Stihl but haven't had time to do forensics on it. It has low compression but the piston looks clean.
I have one customer that's been using an 039 for 3 years cutting firewood to sell and he recently bought another 039 from me.
I've sold a lot of saw with these cylinder kits and as far as I know have only had happy customers.

 

[fearofpavement]

I may have some older cylinder kits in stock from Farmertec as I keep a stock of them. I'll try to dig one out and look at something more recent to see if they're any changes.

 

[Modifiedmark]

Bubbles around the spark plug seat. Really a nit pick IMHO.[emoji849]
Not likely to drop the comp. thirty psi.

Seems to me I've seen some evidence of leakage on every saw I changed a plug on.

What Carl says!!

You know how many times I have had spark plug holes leak with a gasketed spark plug in them when pressure testing? Damn near most of them, I take the washer off the plug and put a o ring on it when testing.

That is another reason if I'm testing a saw without a impulse line, I use a spark plug adapter with a O ring for my testing.

Its mostly the metal gasket leaking, not the spark plug seat anyway.

Dave, tell that bird to put that saw together and run it.

 

[Modifiedmark]

Hmmm... I have to wonder if that could have been the cause of what I ran into with a Farmertec big bore kit I installed on a Stihl 066 Mag in early November. It burned out the piston within two tanks of fuel:


Strangely enough, I installed two of these and the other engine is running like a bandit. Unfortunately, I've already removed it and am replacing it with another brand, but your thread is rather coincidental. I recall measuring 165 psi compression after installation, but that's all I did other than run for awhile and tune it.

A leaking sparkplug gasket didn't do that.

You got a leak someplace else or a lean tune on that one.

 

[tickhound93]

I just bought a ms390 farmertec branded cylinder from you Dave, I put it on a customer saw and pressure/vac tested evdything was good, I was very lmeased with the quality. Had no complaints about it yet.

 

[clemsonfor]

Is the new stuff when hultz started branding all their stuff in farmertec packages , it use to not be in them.