No hot start Sears 3.3/Poulan 3300

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Dad's had this saw since new from the early 90's. Beyond being an absolute pain to work on, its an excellent saw and has done very well for our family. Dad feels like it is an ideal power, weight and bar size.

Ive put a bunch of work into the saw and essentially it has the same issue, it will not start hot. We replaced the fuel and impulse lines, which were rubber and only could find tygon, so the tank leaked because the OD was wrong. Figured that fuel near the ignition switch was the cause. Finally put some hondabond around the lines and it is tight now. But still no hot start.

As long as you run it all the way until its dry, it never has a problem. Plenty of fuel getting to the saw. But if you slam fuel into it and try to go back to cutting, it WONT. I'm thinking a coil?
 
If it always starts cold, I would not suspect the coil. Modern coils usually run fine until they quit and then they are finished. When it won't start you have to pull the plug and see if it is wet or dry and that will help determine if it is a fuel issue and at the same time you can test the coil by checking if it will fire the plug. Does it have to cool right down before it will restart? Compression should be checked, often a saw with low compression will start cold but not hot, pulling the muffler off and inspecting the piston for damage is a good first step. How about your hot start procedure, are you trying to start with a closed throttle? Most saws have a method to set the carb for fast idle without the choke being on. When a saw is hot it will often start with the throttle set for idle, but if it doesn't start with 2 or 3 pulls, it isn't going to start unless the throttle is help partially open.
 
Get you some echo 3x5 and 3x6 for the fuel lines, tank vent and impulse line. All I use in these.

IMO really one of the easiest saws I ever worked on.

Could be coil. I also dont see a mention of carb kit or impulse line being redone. IMHO easy things to do.

You got the grey, black blue or black gold?

eline.jpgc33g.jpgc33f.jpgpcoilnos.jpg
 
Black/Blue/Gold. The hondabond around the fuel line seems to have sealed the leak. Saw runs excellent, plenty of power, starts a little slower than I like. I did the impulse line/fuel line and cleaned out the inside of the saw a couple years ago, which did not help it. It runs so well until trying to do a hot start that I cannot see how this would be a carb/fuel issue. Its hard to get to the spark plug quickly to check spark while hot, but will have to be done I guess. I was thinking the coil gap could be off, dad said problem started after he did the fuel lines the first time. (which were also the little tygon lines)
 
So I tried the saw again last night. Started, ran fine. Cut for 5 or 10 minutes, was running awesome. Saw the land owners dog so I thought he was approaching, cut the engine, looked around the back of the truck, didn't see him. Tried the saw was and it was dead as a doornail. More pulling over/trying throttle etc as per old 2 stroke's suggestion which didn't help. Tired the choke, and quickly began to see/smell fuel, either the Hondabond already failed or fuel was running out of the air cleaner. It was getting dark so I didn't get a chance to tinker or investigate further.

RedneckChainsaw, would you want to sell the coil? I think the fuel line issue is ok for the time being.
 
So I tried the saw again last night. Started, ran fine. Cut for 5 or 10 minutes, was running awesome. Saw the land owners dog so I thought he was approaching, cut the engine, looked around the back of the truck, didn't see him. Tried the saw was and it was dead as a doornail. More pulling over/trying throttle etc as per old 2 stroke's suggestion which didn't help. Tired the choke, and quickly began to see/smell fuel, either the Hondabond already failed or fuel was running out of the air cleaner. It was getting dark so I didn't get a chance to tinker or investigate further.

RedneckChainsaw, would you want to sell the coil? I think the fuel line issue is ok for the time being.
This sounds like your saw is flooding. You can try it again by running the saw like you did last night5/10 mins. Shut it off and try to restart. Instead of choking the saw, open the throttle wide open and pull with much vigor.... If no start go ahead and pull the plug to see if its soaking wet with fuel. If it is, with the plug out pull it over several times with a napkin over the plug hole to catch any fuel that might be in the cylinder. Then with a dry spark plug installed try to start it again without choking the saw. If it starts, you're method to restart was wrong to begin with or your metering side of the carb needs attention, possibly both. If it does NOT start, while its hot pull the plug back out and check for blue spark. Probably dont need to mention this but make sure your plug is not carboned up.
This is just a few procedures to start the diagnosis process.
 
In the time it takes to fuel, the saw won't restart again, but I've noticed that firing it right back up seems to work most of the time. I got it to start once flipping the ignition switch on and off but havent gotten it to work after that. The problem is that when I'm cutting I don't have time to dink with the saw, have to get some logs up in the yard to cut on to do some deeper testing.
 
I got a coil from ebay for around $50 shipped with a flywheel. The coil contacts on the saw, were packed level and tight with debris on the coil side. I put the old coil back on and am going to try it first before fully dismissing it. Likely was the issue.
 
The new coil also did not make it start hot. Put the old coil back in. Still no start hot.

Hot compression is 130 psi. Has plenty of fuel, has what looks like plenty of spark with the plug removed and grounded on the outside of the cylinder. But if I pull it over with spark, gas and said compression it does not start. With full choke will make a cloud of fuel smoke but no fire, but without all that (just a normal pull with the switch on to start the saw back up) the cylinder seems to be dry.

I pulled the muffler and it was sparkling clean inside no carbon and the ring, piston and walls I could see looked barely used.

I'm going to let it cool and see if the spark looks any different and if it's flooding while sitting after hot ...

For all normal conditions, suck bang blow, it should run but does not.
 
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