HeatingWithWood
ArboristSite Lurker
Hello All, first post here. I've been a lurker for a few years and finally became motivated to join when my MS150 was rendered useless. I finally took a week off work and couldn't wait to get into the woods with my pro chainsaws that have been such a joy to use in recent years. My neighbor gave me permission to clean up an oak blow-down on his property. I fired up the ms150 to go to town on the limbs. Primed and fired up on the second pull after sitting in the shop all Spring and Summer.
I got to work and the saw it was running just like normal. After cutting for a good 45 minutes on the tank of gas that sat in there for several months things all of a sudden went south. I finally had to give up on it after it simply had no power. I couldn't cut with it anymore. I'd play with the throttle and if I monkeyed with it just right it would stop gargling and spin up full speed but as soon as it got into the wood it became obvious there was no power behind it. It wouldn't stall. I'd let off the throttle and it went back to a normal sounding idle.
I picked up my MS362 fired it up with fuel roughly the same age and spent the next few hours finishing up the job. The 362 went strong after several tank refills and never developed any issues. I have a 1.25 gallon No Spill gas can for my mix that has never touched ethanol fuel. I use Stihl HP Ultra 2 cycle engine oil and I also add a measured splash of Klotz octane boost just to keep my fuel stable and keep my saws on a healthy diet.
At this point here's what I have checked:
* Air filter has been removed and blown out (it wasn't really that bad)
* Removed the carburetor, took off the four screws on the one side and the one screw on the other side. I used compressed air on each of the tubes. I did not see any evidence of crud gunking any of that up. I wiped it all down and put it back together. I dumped out the gas in the saw and mixed up a fresh gallon and re-fueled.
* I removed the fuel filter to inspect it. Looked perfect. Compressed air freely passed with no indication of gunk.
* I removed the spark plug and inspected it. It looked fine.
* Since I had the spark plug out I pulled the pull string to move the piston out of the way to inspect the cylinder with my flashlight. The cylinder appeared to have a clean shiny mirror finish.
* Finally I bought a new spark plug and installed it.
After each of these steps I re-assembled the saw and fired it up to see if it made any difference. None of this made any difference. The saw cranks up and idles perfectly. As soon as you squeeze the throttle the chain does not move much and it just coughs and gargles. Let off the throttle and it happily sits there and idles.
Lastly, I fiddled with the full range on each of the carb adjustments and none of that did the trick. I should mention that I used this saw quite a bit last year and it ran perfectly all year. I have not modded it at all. And I didn't change the carb settings at all from how it came from the factory. I simply purchased it and used it as-is last year with no issues.
Hopefully after reading this several of you know exactly how I screwed up and ruined my saw or at least have a hint at what may be my issue. What do you guys think?
I got to work and the saw it was running just like normal. After cutting for a good 45 minutes on the tank of gas that sat in there for several months things all of a sudden went south. I finally had to give up on it after it simply had no power. I couldn't cut with it anymore. I'd play with the throttle and if I monkeyed with it just right it would stop gargling and spin up full speed but as soon as it got into the wood it became obvious there was no power behind it. It wouldn't stall. I'd let off the throttle and it went back to a normal sounding idle.
I picked up my MS362 fired it up with fuel roughly the same age and spent the next few hours finishing up the job. The 362 went strong after several tank refills and never developed any issues. I have a 1.25 gallon No Spill gas can for my mix that has never touched ethanol fuel. I use Stihl HP Ultra 2 cycle engine oil and I also add a measured splash of Klotz octane boost just to keep my fuel stable and keep my saws on a healthy diet.
At this point here's what I have checked:
* Air filter has been removed and blown out (it wasn't really that bad)
* Removed the carburetor, took off the four screws on the one side and the one screw on the other side. I used compressed air on each of the tubes. I did not see any evidence of crud gunking any of that up. I wiped it all down and put it back together. I dumped out the gas in the saw and mixed up a fresh gallon and re-fueled.
* I removed the fuel filter to inspect it. Looked perfect. Compressed air freely passed with no indication of gunk.
* I removed the spark plug and inspected it. It looked fine.
* Since I had the spark plug out I pulled the pull string to move the piston out of the way to inspect the cylinder with my flashlight. The cylinder appeared to have a clean shiny mirror finish.
* Finally I bought a new spark plug and installed it.
After each of these steps I re-assembled the saw and fired it up to see if it made any difference. None of this made any difference. The saw cranks up and idles perfectly. As soon as you squeeze the throttle the chain does not move much and it just coughs and gargles. Let off the throttle and it happily sits there and idles.
Lastly, I fiddled with the full range on each of the carb adjustments and none of that did the trick. I should mention that I used this saw quite a bit last year and it ran perfectly all year. I have not modded it at all. And I didn't change the carb settings at all from how it came from the factory. I simply purchased it and used it as-is last year with no issues.
Hopefully after reading this several of you know exactly how I screwed up and ruined my saw or at least have a hint at what may be my issue. What do you guys think?
