First rebuild times 2

[poulson01]

Short version of a long story. I have my father in laws 346xp stripped down. He killed it last year about 4 months after a new piston and rings. I lent him my 346xp a couple weeks ago (which I bought because I liked his so much) with a brand new bar and chain on it. I was over the (his) farm and I almost puked when I saw my saw (no pun...) and and the way he was murdering it. BLAH BLAH BLAH.....I cut up about 8 cords of his nasties rather than let him kill my saw anymore. It was running bad and wouldn't rev but after blowing out the filter and adjusting the carb 5 or 6 times as I cut, it's running ok. It had half the compression it had when I lent it to him and the bar was burned and the chain was chipped up and completely blunt. The more I run it, the better it runs, but the damage is done I think. He's not getting his saw back! I'd like to do a nice build on his and then, maybe, do mine. I have a ton of questions, even after reading you guys for the last two days.

Heres some pics.
Those with weak stomachs, please look away!

Intake (see the crack?)​

Exhaust.​

Jug.​

 

[glenn31792]

Move your father in law to the top of your Anvil list.

IN THE FUTURE ONLY LOAN THIS PERSON A ANVIL.



If the top end looks like this - you need to check the bottom end too!

 

[poulson01]

Move your father in law to the top of your Anvil list.

INTHE FUTURE ONLY LOAN THIS PERSON A ANVIL.



If the top end looks like this - you need to check the bottom end too!

Your FIL needs a husky 316.

He'd drop it on his foot!! LOL
I was thinking a Farm Boss or Rancher but the inevitable is me quitting my job and taking over most of the business. I'm afraid he's going to hurt himself one day and the farm will die. That would be a shame (both things).

I have the saw pretty much stripped. I still have to get the flywheel and clutch off but I only have about 20 minutes in it so far.
I see the piston and jug is made by Mahle. I know the name because I drive a suped up Volvo.
The Husky engine looks really slick and I don't think it would take much to get it to run like a Ferrari. I had some questions about cleaning up the ports but a search doesn't bring up much for the 346xp. The intake has a little lump that looks like it could be removed and the exhaust has an angle that looks like it could be blended in better. And the port could be belled out at the muffler. Also, the transfer ports look like they could be sharpened at the crank case end. I don't know how the engine would react to this type of thing and was curious if anyone would be willing to spill their secrets. The rod looks like it's copper plated. What's it made of?
Heres pics of the ports.
You can see the right of the port has some extra material where a cylinder bolt comes close. It might get thin there if that material was removed.

You can see that the top of the exhaust port turns up not so gracefully. It looks like it could be improved easily. You can see that the muffler came loose and beat up the cylinder a bit. He stripped the holes too. There was only one bolt left when I got the saw.

The transfer ports are really cool. It looks like a knife edge between them would help.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. These things run pretty good right out of the box. I wouldn't trade mine. I know there's more power there though.

 

[poulson01]

What's this?​

 

[poulson01]

I cleaned it up but it doesn't look good. That's a nasty scratch and the steel on these cylinders looks like no more then .050 or .060 thick!

 

[poulson01]

Fred concurs as per PM. I think the scratch goes right through the liner into the jug. Theres a guy on Ebay selling cylinder/piston kits. I'll email him and find out what brand he's selling.

 

[joesawer]

The P/C is toast. Baily's and other sponsors here are a reliable source for parts.
Imo, a knife edge on the transfers is not ideal. High velocity air does not like knife edges.
You can make the ports wider, up to 80% of the piston skirt. But be very careful about changing the height of the exhaust port or the bottom of the intake port. There is some power to be had but the 346 is already pretty peaky and it will be easy to mess your saw up.
You can raise the compression, just be careful to maintain your port timing.
You can lighten the piston. A lot of saws really respond to a lighter piston.

 

[Sprig]

The P/C is toast. Baily's and other sponsors here are a reliable source for parts.
Imo, a knife edge on the transfers is not ideal. High velocity air does not like knife edges.
You can make the ports wider, up to 80% of the piston skirt. But be very careful about changing the height of the exhaust port or the bottom of the intake port. There is some power to be had but the 346 is already pretty peaky and it will be easy to mess your saw up.
You can raise the compression, just be careful to maintain your port timing.
You can lighten the piston. A lot of saws really respond to a lighter piston.

Interesting about the knife edge, I had a thought that the thicker piece would help dissipate heat to the outside of the cylider making modding that part not good, but I know only a little and it was only a passing thought.



Serge

 

[poulson01]

So the 346 is back!
I picked up the piston and jug kit from Spike yesterday. Kool, kool guys. Every Husky owner here should throw 'em a bone.
Anyway, I bolted the jug on without the base gasket and measured .014" squish. A little tight for a >14000 rpm saw. I put it back together stock. No porting or anything like that. I want to run it side by side with my saw to see what that extra 5cc is going to do.

The new jug is a lot different then the old 45cc one. you can see the difference just looking at it. When the weather lets up, I'll tune it and run a couple tanks through to get it broke in. I'm sure it's going to rip!

I took a good look at mine while borrowing a muffler bolt and heat shield to get the old mans saw back together. It's not bad at all. The ring must have gotten a bit stuck or something but the piston and jug are fine. After a week of me running it, it kinda' fixed its self.