I discovered that Meteor is now offering a cylinder kit for the 025/MS250 (Meteor #CC1793). As my ancient 025 has a few score marks in the cylinder thanks to some cracked rubber I decided to try it out. The kit came with cylinder, crankcase, piston, rings, pin and circlips.
I'm happy to report that the castings were clean and true with no extraneous flash. I've seen reviews of other brand kits for this saw reporting issues with the ports and oil pump support, but this fit like OEM. The ground screw hole was tapped, the clamshell screw holes were not. The original Stihl self-tappers went in quite nicely. The cylinder finish was a nice light hone, diameter and taper were all less than 0.0005". As installed, compression was 120 psi before running (ie: with a thin film of oil still on the cylinder wall). I'll try to remember to update the number when I've run a couple of tanks of fuel through it.
As a bonus, the displacement is slightly increased. The old 025 had a 42mm diameter piston, this comes with the 42.5mm diameter MS250 piston. I've only had time (and available wood) to take a few cuts, but it certainly feels more powerful than before. But to be honest, that probably more to do with me having got used to the scored cylinder than the extra 1 CC.
The biggest problem was finding someone who carried this particular kit. After contacting numerous North American dealers, the only place I could find that would sell me one was an eBay vendor in Israel. (Israel? Seriously? I thought that place was all desert -- how do they wear out chainsaws there of all places?). At $125, it was certainly more than the various Chinese options (as little as $20 on eBay), but a darn sight less than from Stihl. Heck, the Stihl dealer charged me $12 just for the fuel line!
I'm happy to report that the castings were clean and true with no extraneous flash. I've seen reviews of other brand kits for this saw reporting issues with the ports and oil pump support, but this fit like OEM. The ground screw hole was tapped, the clamshell screw holes were not. The original Stihl self-tappers went in quite nicely. The cylinder finish was a nice light hone, diameter and taper were all less than 0.0005". As installed, compression was 120 psi before running (ie: with a thin film of oil still on the cylinder wall). I'll try to remember to update the number when I've run a couple of tanks of fuel through it.
As a bonus, the displacement is slightly increased. The old 025 had a 42mm diameter piston, this comes with the 42.5mm diameter MS250 piston. I've only had time (and available wood) to take a few cuts, but it certainly feels more powerful than before. But to be honest, that probably more to do with me having got used to the scored cylinder than the extra 1 CC.
The biggest problem was finding someone who carried this particular kit. After contacting numerous North American dealers, the only place I could find that would sell me one was an eBay vendor in Israel. (Israel? Seriously? I thought that place was all desert -- how do they wear out chainsaws there of all places?). At $125, it was certainly more than the various Chinese options (as little as $20 on eBay), but a darn sight less than from Stihl. Heck, the Stihl dealer charged me $12 just for the fuel line!
