Jetbird
ArboristSite Lurker
Hi all, I' m a newb. I've been reading this site for a couple months now. I just finished my first port job. I started by purchasing a used husky 359 on ebay, for $250 delivered. Arrived in good condition, appears to have seen little use. Serial number tells me it's a 2002 model. Unlimited ignition coil (black), cat muffler, crappy wahlboro carb.
The first step was a muffler mod, using the husky deflector and screen screwed to the side of the muffler as in the post "one way to skin a cat". My solution to keeping the screws from loosening up and falling out was to use hex-head self-drilling #10 sheet metal screws. I cut a strip out of a tin soup can about 1/2" wide and a few inches long, and put the screws through the strip. The strip fits over the deflector. I bent the corners of the strip up against the flats of my sheet metal screws to prevent the screws from backing out.
Next I bought a new partition and bellows, and new fuel line, filter, and impulse line b/c old fuel line was cracked, and new spark plug. I didn't get the zama carb since my wahlboro hda 175 seems fine for now. If my idle gets rough I will change the carb. One note on the fuel line installation: to get the line through the hole in the tank from the outside is easy, but you can't reach it from
the inside of the tank to pull it through. It's hard to get the line started into the hole from the inside of the tank because you can't reach in there. My solution was to use a bit of florist's wire (soft iron wire about .020" thick) which i poked through the leading edge of the new line, then wrapped it back on itself to secure the wire to the hose. It was then very simple to thread the wire through from the tank side to the outside and use the wire to pull it through.
I checked my squish, which was .039", more on that later.
I took off the jug and measured my piston skirts. I decided to widen my ports to 65% of bore diameter. Bore diameter is 1.85" so 65% is 1.203".
My grinding equipment was a Foredom flex shaft grinder with some double cut carbide bits about 1/8" in diameter and some stones about 1/4" in diameter. The stones were orange in color and made by dremel for sharpening chainsaw chain. I found that the stones loaded up very quickly, so I tried some beeswax as a lubricant. That just loaded my stones up with wax. I tried bacon grease from the fridge and that worked really good, keeping the stones and burrs from loading up. I did all my shaping with my carbides, and used my stones to smooth everything out.
I started with the intake port, which I was able to open only slightly while staying within my 1.2" limit. I widened at the cylinder wall first, trying to keep the sides of the port straight up and down. My 1.2" was reached just by grinding until the bevel on the sides was gone. I checked the width of my port with a pair of dividers. The other end of the intake port up against the intake boot/bellows I left alone since it was already matched to the bellows and widening it further at this end would do no good. I then ground the sides straight from the cylinder wall to the flange where it meets the bellows. I then reestablished a slight bevel with a round stone and following up with sandpaper.
Next came the exhaust port. I was able to remove a lot more material here, so I marked my 1.2" on my cylinder walls with masking tape. I also made a gauge from a piece of card stock just to double check myself as I went along, in case my tape slipped or something. Again I started at the cylinder wall, widening out to my 1.2" and keeping the sides of my port straight up and down. Then I widened the exhaust port at the muffler flange by the same amount that I widened it at the cylinder wall. Next I ground the walls of the port straight from cylinder side to flange side. I reestablished my bevel with a round stone and sandpaper.
I put a piece of paper over my muffler flange and ran my dirty finger over it. This made the outline of my port and my bolt holes show up on the paper. I then cut out the bolt holes and port outline and used my paper template to port match my muffler heat shield, gasket, and muffler. I used my carbides for all this, then cleaned up with stones and sandpaper. The muffler was a bit of slow going because I had to cut through two thicknesses of sheet metal around the port since it was reinforced from the inside. This took awhile because the reinforcing piece was bent 90 degrees to the muffler's mating surface to make a lip about 1/8" high, making the muffler more rigid in this area.
Once all my grinding was done, I cleaned the jug and muffler in my parts washer and blew it out. I then boiled both parts in soapy water for 10 minutes to get out all the filings. I found still more filings inside, so I sprayed them out with carb cleaner and blew out with compressed air, repeating this several times until I was satisfied they were clean.
Next I bolted on the jug with a soda can gasket and checked my squish with a piece of electrical solder through the spark plug hole. It read .030", so I took the soda can out and just put it together with yamabond 4. Squish came out to .025" with the bolts torqued down, so I was happy.
Next day I fired it up, and it ran like a bat out of hell. Oh yeah. I cut down a 6" ash and the thing didn't slow down at all.
My buddy showed up with his 68 cc homelite super xl from about 35 years ago. We cut down a 16" ash and bucked it up, cutting some cookies along the way. We didn't use a stopwatch, but in the bigger stuff we seemed almost even. In the little stuff of course I smoked him with my faster chain speed. Anyways, I am very happy with my saw. Thanks to all, could not have done it without all the great info on this forum!
The first step was a muffler mod, using the husky deflector and screen screwed to the side of the muffler as in the post "one way to skin a cat". My solution to keeping the screws from loosening up and falling out was to use hex-head self-drilling #10 sheet metal screws. I cut a strip out of a tin soup can about 1/2" wide and a few inches long, and put the screws through the strip. The strip fits over the deflector. I bent the corners of the strip up against the flats of my sheet metal screws to prevent the screws from backing out.
Next I bought a new partition and bellows, and new fuel line, filter, and impulse line b/c old fuel line was cracked, and new spark plug. I didn't get the zama carb since my wahlboro hda 175 seems fine for now. If my idle gets rough I will change the carb. One note on the fuel line installation: to get the line through the hole in the tank from the outside is easy, but you can't reach it from
the inside of the tank to pull it through. It's hard to get the line started into the hole from the inside of the tank because you can't reach in there. My solution was to use a bit of florist's wire (soft iron wire about .020" thick) which i poked through the leading edge of the new line, then wrapped it back on itself to secure the wire to the hose. It was then very simple to thread the wire through from the tank side to the outside and use the wire to pull it through.
I checked my squish, which was .039", more on that later.
I took off the jug and measured my piston skirts. I decided to widen my ports to 65% of bore diameter. Bore diameter is 1.85" so 65% is 1.203".
My grinding equipment was a Foredom flex shaft grinder with some double cut carbide bits about 1/8" in diameter and some stones about 1/4" in diameter. The stones were orange in color and made by dremel for sharpening chainsaw chain. I found that the stones loaded up very quickly, so I tried some beeswax as a lubricant. That just loaded my stones up with wax. I tried bacon grease from the fridge and that worked really good, keeping the stones and burrs from loading up. I did all my shaping with my carbides, and used my stones to smooth everything out.
I started with the intake port, which I was able to open only slightly while staying within my 1.2" limit. I widened at the cylinder wall first, trying to keep the sides of the port straight up and down. My 1.2" was reached just by grinding until the bevel on the sides was gone. I checked the width of my port with a pair of dividers. The other end of the intake port up against the intake boot/bellows I left alone since it was already matched to the bellows and widening it further at this end would do no good. I then ground the sides straight from the cylinder wall to the flange where it meets the bellows. I then reestablished a slight bevel with a round stone and following up with sandpaper.
Next came the exhaust port. I was able to remove a lot more material here, so I marked my 1.2" on my cylinder walls with masking tape. I also made a gauge from a piece of card stock just to double check myself as I went along, in case my tape slipped or something. Again I started at the cylinder wall, widening out to my 1.2" and keeping the sides of my port straight up and down. Then I widened the exhaust port at the muffler flange by the same amount that I widened it at the cylinder wall. Next I ground the walls of the port straight from cylinder side to flange side. I reestablished my bevel with a round stone and sandpaper.
I put a piece of paper over my muffler flange and ran my dirty finger over it. This made the outline of my port and my bolt holes show up on the paper. I then cut out the bolt holes and port outline and used my paper template to port match my muffler heat shield, gasket, and muffler. I used my carbides for all this, then cleaned up with stones and sandpaper. The muffler was a bit of slow going because I had to cut through two thicknesses of sheet metal around the port since it was reinforced from the inside. This took awhile because the reinforcing piece was bent 90 degrees to the muffler's mating surface to make a lip about 1/8" high, making the muffler more rigid in this area.
Once all my grinding was done, I cleaned the jug and muffler in my parts washer and blew it out. I then boiled both parts in soapy water for 10 minutes to get out all the filings. I found still more filings inside, so I sprayed them out with carb cleaner and blew out with compressed air, repeating this several times until I was satisfied they were clean.
Next I bolted on the jug with a soda can gasket and checked my squish with a piece of electrical solder through the spark plug hole. It read .030", so I took the soda can out and just put it together with yamabond 4. Squish came out to .025" with the bolts torqued down, so I was happy.
Next day I fired it up, and it ran like a bat out of hell. Oh yeah. I cut down a 6" ash and the thing didn't slow down at all.
My buddy showed up with his 68 cc homelite super xl from about 35 years ago. We cut down a 16" ash and bucked it up, cutting some cookies along the way. We didn't use a stopwatch, but in the bigger stuff we seemed almost even. In the little stuff of course I smoked him with my faster chain speed. Anyways, I am very happy with my saw. Thanks to all, could not have done it without all the great info on this forum!
Welcome to the forum!
