Overworking a chainsaw.

[MacAttack]

A lot of good advice here... I think keeping the chain sharp and the tension adjusted correctly, along with good ethanol-free gas and good oil, keeping it in the optimal RPM range, keep the fan and cooling fins clean and clear, and keeping the carb tuned correctly are my main things.

 

[Lightning Performance]

No such thing as overworking a chainsaw. Clogged filters and improper use like lugging is the main cause of overheating or dull chains being pushed. I run 40 - 60" bars in 100°F whether with zero issues except boiling bar oil in the tank. Yup it will boil right off the bar studs. Same saws running this year with no ill effects.
Fuel is usually the other issue that kills powerheads or the guy tuning every last drop of top end out of it, big mistake.

These are plastic fuel tank saws not aluminum tank handles. Aluminum fuel tanks boil fuel right off.

 

[Lightning Performance]

A lot of good advice here... I think keeping the chain sharp and the tension adjusted correctly, along with good ethanol-free gas and good oil, keeping it in the optimal RPM range, keep the fan and cooling fins clean and clear, and keeping the carb tuned correctly are my main things.

K.I.S.S.

 

[VinceGU05]

Okay, so the best answer from all of you guys was vinceGU05! Every guy I meet wants a 36inch bar and chain on a saw that doesn't have anywhere close to the power it takes to pull that much chain! Now, I'm going to tell you the real reason that kills chainsaws! If you go back in time and take a look at all the chainsaws that were made, they all had a stinger exaust pipe that allowed the exaust gasses to flow out and away from the saw! A chainsaw was designed to disapate heat being made of magnesium that transfers heat very well! Take a look at all the crap that they put in the exaust pipe these days trying to save the planet! You cannot restrict the exaust of a 2-stroke! The piston is traveling too fast and when you have an explosion of fuel, as soon as it cracks the exaust port open as the piston is traveling down, you now have super heated exaust gasses rushing out at twice the speed of sound! Now, you put a spark arrestor in front of that super heated spent charge, and let's throw in a couple of Baffles to slow it down and a directional change before squeezed out of a narrowed down hole to get out of the saw and you have a heat issue! Because as the piston is traveling back down the cylinder it sucks those hot gasses back into the exaust port and down the transfer ports! And with all that crap restricting it's path you have a piston firing another and another back to back with no rest from the heat! And as Tyrrell says, And there's your dinner!

yay!!! so what did i win?

 

[Pjohnson]

That applies to ANY internal combustion engine, your car or truck or chainsaw or lawnmower, anything with an ICE. You really should allow the internal components to reach a thermal equilibrium. I do that with every ICE I own. They last a lot longer that way. I never free rev a cold engine either. I let them idle for a minute or so, first.

In addition to warm up i like to let them cool down at idle for a bit after wide open throttle.

 

[Sidecarflip]

Probably why I've never had to replace a turbo charger on any of my big diesel tractors or my diesel pickup truck. I always base idle them after working them in the field for a minute or 3 depending on how hard I run them.. Saws too. Turb charged engines tend to 'coke' up the ceramic bearings on the hot side of the turbo charger, leading to shaft failure and then the compressor wheel gets sucked into the engine and it's...Rebuild time. Seen that plenty working on big truck diesel motors at the Western Star dealer I retired from.

 

[northmanlogging]

to answer the original question, you absolutely can overwork a saw, with the right fuel, sharp chain, and a "normal" length bar. But you have to really try hard to do it, milling comes to mind, forcing a small saw to cut large wood and trying to "force" the chain through the wood.

However its real easy to not overwork a saw, sharp chain, and let it do the work, them FELLING SPIKES are there for FELLING timber, not to provide leverage for bucking rounds, so if you have a sharp chain with properly set rakers the saw will self feed regardless of bar length.
Then to be extra careful let it idle a few seconds during extra long cuts and between long cuts, them air cooled motors cool off pretty fast.

As for getting them hot enough to melt the plastic around the clutch, remember the crank seal is just behind the clutch drum, if its hot enough to melt the case plastic... its hot enough to melt the seal, and poof you have a saw thats just ran extra lean and extra hot

An overtightened chain can cause more engine heat, but more likely the sprocket nose will self destruct before the engine has an issue

 

[Gord404]

Imo - the right size saw for the wood you are cutting seems to solve a lot of problems. I have a 51,372xp and a 390 xp for my fiewood saws

 

[rngrchad]

Had a few hundred stumps I was asked to cut ahead of a Fae pt175 masticator operator to help get through a clear cut quicker. Eventually the masticator head wasn’t enough and had to rent a stump head. running 3 gallons of gas a day through my 394xp for 3 days pulling stump duty with a 42” bar and the saw only overheated one time in 3 days, which I’m certain was a result of the exhaust gases being deflected off the stump bark back at the power head for over 10 minutes straight. This is harder work on a saw than milling. Guess the fact is you almost can’t run a saw too hard unless like others have said, it’s got a dull chain, filthy power head covered in debris, bad air filter, bad fuel, or bad carb tune. This saws are ment to run WOT in the cut.

 

[Lightning Performance]

Had a few hundred stumps I was asked to cut ahead of a Fae pt175 masticator operator to help get through a clear cut quicker. Eventually the masticator head wasn’t enough and had to rent a stump head. running 3 gallons of gas a day through my 394xp for 3 days pulling stump duty with a 42” bar and the saw only overheated one time in 3 days, which I’m certain was a result of the exhaust gases being deflected off the stump bark back at the power head for over 10 minutes straight. This is harder work on a saw than milling. Guess the fact is you almost can’t run a saw too hard unless like others have said, it’s got a dull chain, filthy power head covered in debris, bad air filter, bad fuel, or bad carb tune. This saws are ment to run WOT in the cut.

Run a saw flat out on the mill for full tank of gas. My ported 660 goes 14-15 minutes with a 3ft mill 40" roller GB full comp 404 never lifting with a winch. If it runs longer the chain is dull. It will boil bar oil off the bar studs in the tank running pure virgin canola oil. Cutting stumps might be harder on it if you're breathing exhaust but not cutting. That is ported and being moved to a 60" bar with more compression and more testing.

 

[rngrchad]

Run a saw flat out on the mill for full tank of gas. My ported 660 goes 14-15 minutes with a 3ft mill 40" roller GB full comp 404 never lifting with a winch. If it runs longer the chain is dull. It will boil bar oil off the bar studs in the tank running pure virgin canola oil. Cutting stumps might be harder on it if you're breathing exhaust but not cutting. That is ported and being moved to a 60" bar with more compression and more testing.

Thats a good setup sound like it. The tip being buried for me in alot of these stumps seems to increase the work load alot more than being able to get the sprocket tip daylighted so to speak. So long as I could keep the sprocket tip daylighted teh saw didn't seem to get near as warm, but soon as a had a stump wider than teh 42" bar length after about 10 minutes i could tell saw was warmer than usually but never shut off melted or smelled funny. Just hot af to be up against working through the cut *dunno* saw richened to 11,500 no load out of the cut which was as slow as i could get it to go without fooling with the carb caps.