Stihl 036 pro top end rebuild, Chinese parts review

[Thewhitestjamal]

Hi guys,

My father asked me to help him get his old 036 pro up and running again as cheap as possible for him. I pulled the muffler and told him his piston and cylinder were toast and began the tear down. I think the grey squirrel has run over a 1,000 tanks of fuel through this saw so I wasn't surprised. made a parts list. Went on scamazon and got basically everything I needed for 37 dollars shipped. Started getting everything nice and clean and pondering how bad the parts were going to be when they showed up for that price.

 

[Thewhitestjamal]

The reason the old saw finally gave up is one side of the piston skirt had become paper thin and began to break away and chunks scored the cylinder walls all to hell. Or maybe the grey squirrel grabbed the wrong can. Although I kind of dought that. Any of you guys seen that or know what causes it? It was the forward side of the piston towards the muffler. I could imagine this side sees more action over the years as well as rotational forces against the wall of the cylinder but wasn't sure.

 

[Thewhitestjamal]

After a dip in the chain saw spa aka my hot solvent tank all was sanitary to build back up and my exotic parts were here after traveling the globe.

 

[Thewhitestjamal]

During the incoming parts inspection of my "as cheap as I could find" parts kit. I was actually kind of impressed. Everything likely could have been used in its delivered state but I found a couple things about the casting of the cylinder I didn't like. Intake casting needed some massaging and when I placed the cylinder base on a granite surface plate, you could see the QC DEPARTMENT in Nanjing was a bit relaxed. That was ok for me. Grabbed pencil grinder and jigged up the cylinder in the mill. Although I do believe the base gasket would have taken up the discrepancy when all was secured down.

 

[Thewhitestjamal]

Started assembly and pre lubing all parts. Luckily everything on the low end felt ok and since he said cheap I rolled the dice with the crank seals and planned on checking vacuum after everything went back together.

 

[lone wolf]

What kind of compression are you getting out of that cheap cyl and piston I am curious?

 

[Thewhitestjamal]

Got the piston situated and placed a micro fiber Towel over the "black hole" of the low end while fiddling with the LH piston pin clip. I've dropped them down in there and fishing them out was not fun.

 

[Thewhitestjamal]

What kind of compression are you getting out of that cheap cyl and piston I am curious?

You know lone wolf, I haven't checked. But that's a good question. If you haven't been able to tell this is a summary "post build" but I actually did not check compression prior to giving back to my dad. Honestly "spoiler alert" the saw ran fine and made good power when I completed the build. I ran about 3 tanks of fuel through it on the ranch and cut wind fall oak and Doug fir with it and it performed just fine.

 

[Thewhitestjamal]

Got the cylinder squared away and used two small shims of plywood to rest the piston on while I squeezed the rings down with a piece of .020 scrap of sheet metal i fashioned into a ring compression tool Using the old piston as my form blank with a vise. Pulled the rings in and carefully slid the scrap metal cylinder over the brittle Chinese cast iron rings.

 

[Thewhitestjamal]

Put it all back together and test rolled everything through by hand and all felt well enough. Finished buttoning it up and put some fresh fuel in it. Once it was primed it fired up and I tuned the carb to idle and got a couple heat cycles on it and ran it out of wood for about a minute each run with out any prolonged wide open events. Saw seemed to run fine.

 

[Thewhitestjamal]

Brought it out to the ranch and showed the grey squirrel and he was stoked to have his saw back. I warned him there were no guarantees and if it scattered both of us would not be surprised. Ran about 3 tanks of fuel through it my self and tuned the carb in wood and honestly it seems to make comparable power to the previous saw I grew up using with him. Can't really compare it to new. I'll make sure to update how long it lasts.

 

[lone wolf]

Nice work you did there. You a machinist ?

 

[ggreene3]

Good to hear. I just ordered a cheap Chinese kit to rebuild my old 036.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Thewhitestjamal]

Nice work you did there. You a machinist ?

No sir, I'm a paper pusher now but an aircraft mechanic by trade. I currently manage our shop. This was actually the first top end I ever did on a chainsaw. Also the first time machining something flat which I quickly learned is rather difficult and ended up getting help from one of my co workers who is a hobby machinist.

 

[Wood Doctor]

The first top end rebuild I ever did on my own was to upgrade an 034 AV to an 036 PRO, about five years ago. Today I took the saw out and cut two truckloads of elm with it. That included noodle cutting in half a dozen big rounds that were too heavy to lift onto the tailgate. The saw operated flawlessly:

Of course, I could replace it today with a new MS362 for about $800 or so.