Should I rebuild my 395XP

[funloven]

I have a 395xp that i bought secondhand of a large sawmill.
It looks like it has done a lotof work. It goes allright but think it might be a little lazy.
My Qustion is should i rebuild it or wait till it dies. Is there a easy way to now if it is in need of a rebuild
Thanks

 

[Guido Salvage]

What is the compression? Have you pulled the muffler to look at the condition of the P&C? If you plan to keep the saw and are going to rebuild it anyway I would go ahead and do it now before you have a failure.

 

[funloven]

What should the compresion be.
I have a freind thats a mechenic i will get him to check it for me.
Should i just do rings or order a piston and ring. anything else to replace while where in there?

 

[Hedgerow]

What should the compresion be.
I have a freind thats a mechenic i will get him to check it for me.
Should i just do rings or order a piston and ring. anything else to replace while where in there?

Should be ~ 150lbs... Although I ran a 372 for a whole year at 120... It was tired, but ran...

 

[Guido Salvage]

Make sure the compression tester you use has a Schrader valve on it.

 

[theelectdud]

if you wait for it to fail you could take out the crank also

 

[funloven]

Thanks everyone. for the price of a piston and rings i might just do it anyway.
Should i hone the bore. someone told me they are stainless and cant be honed?

 

[ridecaptain]

Thanks everyone. for the price of a piston and rings i might just do it anyway.
Should i hone the bore. someone told me they are stainless and cant be honed?

You could send the saw to me and i would properly dispose of it at no cost to you lol

 

[zogger]

Rebuilding threads

Thanks everyone. for the price of a piston and rings i might just do it anyway.
Should i hone the bore. someone told me they are stainless and cant be honed?

--there are hundreds/thousands maybe of rebuilding threads on this site. Although most of them won't be saw specific for the 395, some are, and if you read a few just in general, most saws are quite similar, you'll get a better over all handle on saws in general and what it takes to rebuild them correctly.

No, saws aren't (few old exceptions) built like cars where you bore over and use larger rings, etc. They have chrome or nikasil plated cylinder bores (very thin plating that is necessary) and must be treated rather delicately to refinish them.

You'll see what to do with used cylinders, cleaning them up, including pics, on any number of threads. Just start looking back in the pages, there are so many of them I really can't recommend one over the other. Spend some hours/evenings reading. Cylinders get very light sanding with fine grit, and the judicial use of muriatic acid with q tips, then rinsing clean, etc. *If they need it* You won't know on yours until you take it apart.

Just go look for some threads that are about rebuilding.

You have such a nice saw, do the research before you start on it. You can start by taking just the carb and muffler off, looking through the holes at the over all condition of the piston and cylinder. then take to a shop or get someone to do pressure and/or vacuum testing to see if any seals need replacing.

Air compressor is your friend, get your saw as clean as possible (pull the plastic parts off, work your way in, with it before starting serious disassembly.

 

[w8ye]

Thanks everyone. for the price of a piston and rings i might just do it anyway.
Should i hone the bore. someone told me they are stainless and cant be honed?

The cylinders should not be honed.

 

[Stumpys Customs]

Thanks everyone. for the price of a piston and rings i might just do it anyway.
Should i hone the bore. someone told me they are stainless and cant be honed?

I'd say put a new piston & rings in it.
The cyl is not coated with stainless. Should be a nicasil coating. Honing isn't neccesary.

 

[ZeroJunk]

Should i hone the bore. someone told me they are stainless and cant be honed?

The cylinder will be aluminum and the bore will be either chrome or Nikasil plated.

If the bore is in good shape I leave them alone. If they have any scratches or aluminum transfer I get the transfer off with Muratic acid and ball hone the bore. Just a few quick in and outs in opposite directions. If you stay on it too long you will take the plating off on the downwind side of the ports and transfers. It's always worked for me.

But, with the cost of these aftermarket cylinder kits being as cheap as it is makes more sense sometimes if the cylinder is damaged to just replace it all. Just check your ports and transfers carefully to make sure there is no bits of plating in there that might come off. If there is remove it. Other than that these aftermarket kits have worked fine for me.

 

[AUSSIE1]

Considering the 395 is a $2000 saw in Aus, I'd be giving it a freshen up.

Bailey's - Meteor Piston Assembly for Husqvarna 395

Leave the base gasket out if squish clearance allows and do a muffler mod.

 

[Nitroman]

Having rebuilt several snowmachines, Nica-Sil can be honed. You need a special hone to do it though. I used a ball hone on my saw jug (not really the best tool but it works). Look on Bailey's website, they have a very excellent little training clip on how to properly hone a saw jug. You aren't getting in there and grinding everything out. What you are doing is just breaking the "glaze" that any cylinder with many miles on it will have. A few seconds, just watch the clip. Use a new set of rings and piston. The saw costs too much to take a chance on an old piston. A few tanks of gas and you'll be amazed at how much stronger it feels. The rings take about 5-8 tanks to get seated in good.

Advice on cleanliness is spot on. You don't want anything falling into the crankcase because then you have more work to do getting it back out. I clean with kerosene or a similar solvent, let dry, then blow away dust and carefully remove parts.

This is easy to do and fun, go for it.

 

[hamish]

Simple to figure out if your friend is a mechanic,,,,,,,,,,a two-stroke one.

Pull the cylinder, measure piston to cyl wall clearence, and also measure the ring end gap. Both measurements shour be made at various points in the cyl. Ring end gap clearence is most important above the ports.

A compression test unless you use that same gauge on a regular basis and have a baseline to compare it to means next to nothing in most cases, I have one gauge that reads consistantly 25 to 30lbs lower than my other gauge....which one is right, a compression test is just a troubleshooting tool, but is useless without a baseline to gauge it to.

 

[funloven]

Allright i done it.
I pulled it down and took the Barrell and piston to my local saw shop.
They said that just some new rings was all that was needed
So i replaced the Ringes, Gasket, Sparkplug and drive sprocket while i was at it.
Put it all back together started it up and gues what? She goes.
Hade to play with the tuning to get it to run properly higher in the revs.
Cant wait to take it out and give it a proper go
Thanks for the advice and motivation everone.