Parting out saw vs repairing - Pioneer P40

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cdahl383

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I recently picked up an old Pioneer P40 chainsaw off of Craigslist for $25. I knew it would likely have some issues being so cheap, but figured it'd still be worth it. The saw appears to be complete, no missing or broken parts, it has spark, has a bar/chain, etc. I did a compression test and it only has about 60psi. I pulled the muffler off and the piston is scored up really bad.

I have not seen any Pioneer NOS pistons/cylinders up on Ebay. The Lil Red Barn has some aftermarket parts for it, but I've read mixed reviews on their stuff. I've never personally used anything from them, so I can't say either way. At a minimum, it will need a piston, rings, clean up the cylinder (or possibly a new cylinder if there is even one around), carb clean/rebuild, fuel lines, filters, new chain, etc. I can see throwing $150-200 at the saw pretty easily and I don't think it's worth that. I would think $150 in running condition would be doing good for a sale price. Maybe I'm wrong, just what I've seen in my area anyway.

Seems like it would make more sense to just part it out. I've never done this before. I've seen guys list individual parts up on Ebay, so I'm assuming I could do something similar. I don't think it would be very hard to turn a profit off of the $25 I have into the saw currently.

I've just recently got into the hobby so I'm not real experienced yet. I have picked up 3-4 saws over the past couple months and fixed them up and got them running again. These were all saws I paid between $35-50 for that weren't running. They had healthy compression, piston/cylinder looked good, needed carb kits, fuel lines, filters, little stuff. Most of the saws I only had to drop $15-50 into and they were up and running again. One buddy told me if the piston/cylinder are shot on an older saw, just part it out as it's not going to be worth it to fix it up, unless it's something of sentimental value like your grandpa's saw or something like that.

Just curious how other more experienced folks approach this?
 

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