stihl ms460 piston

[Lester Gillett]

I bought a ms460 for my chainsaw mill. been real good cutting white oak and walnut. On my next cut, walnut I hit two nails. Changed the chain and cut off the end of the log and started milling
I don't know what I did putting on the new chain but the saw started smoking and quit. Now it won't start and seems like it doesn't have much compressing. If I have to put on a new piston and
cylinder can I put the 54 inch unit that the the bigger saw uses ? I have have been using a little more oil in the mix so that should not make it run hot. Any help will be helpful.
Lester

 

[Bob Hedgecutter]

Photographs will help diagnose your problem.
You might have smoked your clutch- the 460 is a good saw, but might be considered light for a milling saw.
Adding more oil to the mix is probably a good idea- if it is measured to a ratio and the saw tuned for THAT ratio.
Don't consider a cheap aftermarket 54mm (not inch) topend for a supposed mill saw. If you want easier milling, find an 066/660.

First, find out what "smoked and quit". Take the muffler off and show us the face of the piston. Take the clutch cover off and show us scorched plastic.
I would hazard a guess the top end is roached by being over worked, over heated and possibly not in tune with the mix you were running. Milling is hell on saws compared to cross cutting.
If you heated it up real good like, you might be in for bearings, seals, piston, rings, cylinder and possibly a crank.......

 

[Lester Gillett]

Photographs will help diagnose your problem.
You might have smoked your clutch- the 460 is a good saw, but might be considered light for a milling saw.
Adding more oil to the mix is probably a good idea- if it is measured to a ratio and the saw tuned for THAT ratio.
Don't consider a cheap aftermarket 54mm (not inch) topend for a supposed mill saw. If you want easier milling, find an 066/660.

First, find out what "smoked and quit". Take the muffler off and show us the face of the piston. Take the clutch cover off and show us scorched plastic.
I would hazard a guess the top end is roached by being over worked, over heated and possibly not in tune with the mix you were running. Milling is hell on saws compared to cross cutting.
If you heated it up real good like, you might be in for bearings, seals, piston, rings, cylinder and possibly a crank.......

Thanks Bob. By you say tuned for the added oil, how is that done ? I have had good luck with the 046 till now and I think I may ha mme had the chain to tight. Will
take the muffler off and see what the piston looks like.. As I said can a 54 mm piston and cylinder be put on my saw ? Is a Nikasil cylinder kit a good one ? There
is on for sale i could get. will take a photo what i find and post it here.

 

[Woodslasher]

Thanks Bob. By you say tuned for the added oil, how is that done ? I have had good luck with the 046 till now and I think I may ha mme had the chain to tight. Will
take the muffler off and see what the piston looks like.. As I said can a 54 mm piston and cylinder be put on my saw ? Is a Nikasil cylinder kit a good one ? There
is on for sale i could get. will take a photo what i find and post it here.

Non-oem cylinder kits tend to produce less power and are less reliable than oem.

 

[Bob Hedgecutter]

Thanks Bob. By you say tuned for the added oil, how is that done ? I have had good luck with the 046 till now and I think I may ha mme had the chain to tight. Will
take the muffler off and see what the piston looks like.. As I said can a 54 mm piston and cylinder be put on my saw ? Is a Nikasil cylinder kit a good one ? There
is on for sale i could get. will take a photo what i find and post it here.

You retune the saw to suit the mix the same way you tune any saw to match the mix. If you use 50:1 and tune the saw to suit, then use 33:1 without retuning- you are running the saw lean because the oil ratio is higher.
Add that to the fact you are using a saw that might be considered marginal in power for milling, work it hard, slightly dull chain and you are never far away from a meltdown.
As for the 54mm kit on sale- you decide what is going to suit your needs and your wallet, but as above, after market is usually lesser quality and many so called big bore kits make less power than a good OEM original sized cylinder.
You are using the saw in a hard environment of continuous long period hard cutting- not zing and rest, zing and rest of medium diameter bucking- which is much easier work. Put a bigger top end on for supposed more power and you are adding that load to the bottom end of the saw, which is working hard enough already.
Diagnose what is broke first before you decide how you are going to upgrade!

Or, shelf it for a later rebuild and find a good 066/660.

 

[Lester Gillett]

Not s

You retune the saw to suit the mix the same way you tune any saw to match the mix. If you use 50:1 and tune the saw to suit, then use 33:1 without retuning- you are running the saw lean because the oil ratio is higher.
Add that to the fact you are using a saw that might be considered marginal in power for milling, work it hard, slightly dull chain and you are never far away from a meltdown.
As for the 54mm kit on sale- you decide what is going to suit your needs and your wallet, but as above, after market is usually lesser quality and many so called big bore kits make less power than a good OEM original sized cylinder.
You are using the saw in a hard environment of continuous long period hard cutting- not zing and rest, zing and rest of medium diameter bucking- which is much easier work. Put a bigger top end on for supposed more power and you are adding that load to the bottom end of the saw, which is working hard enough already.
Diagnose what is broke first before you decide how you are going to upgrade!

Or, shelf it for a later rebuild and find a good 066/660.

You retune the saw to suit the mix the same way you tune any saw to match the mix. If you use 50:1 and tune the saw to suit, then use 33:1 without retuning- you are running the saw lean because the oil ratio is higher.
Add that to the fact you are using a saw that might be considered marginal in power for milling, work it hard, slightly dull chain and you are never far away from a meltdown.
As for the 54mm kit on sale- you decide what is going to suit your needs and your wallet, but as above, after market is usually lesser quality and many so called big bore kits make less power than a good OEM original sized cylinder.
You are using the saw in a hard environment of continuous long period hard cutting- not zing and rest, zing and rest of medium diameter bucking- which is much easier work. Put a bigger top end on for supposed more power and you are adding that load to the bottom end of the saw, which is working hard enough already.
Diagnose what is broke first before you decide how you are going to upgrade!

Or, shelf it for a later rebuild and find a good 066/660.

not sure how you would retune a saw to match the gas to oil mix ? I have on this last log I mixed one bottle of stihl oil to two gallons of gas.
before i mixed one bottle and just a smidge more. I don't see how you would change the settings for a bit more oil. I can see if you had more oil then
gas you might be lean. Is there some where that shows' how much you can add up or down on oil and be ok ?

 

[Bob Hedgecutter]

Not s



not sure how you would retune a saw to match the gas to oil mix ? I have on this last log I mixed one bottle of stihl oil to two gallons of gas.
before i mixed one bottle and just a smidge more. I don't see how you would change the settings for a bit more oil. I can see if you had more oil then
gas you might be lean. Is there some where that shows' how much you can add up or down on oil and be ok ?

Um, exactly the same way you tune anyhow- set the idle, set the L, readjust the idle, set the H for slight 4 stroking at WOT but cleans up in the cut and then richen both L and H somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 for milling.
What I am saying is, the saw should be tuned for the fuel mix you are using- not tune the saw once and then use whatever fuel mix you like.
The latter can be gotten away with for light use cross cutting- but as I keep repeating, milling is a hell of a lot harder on a saw than cross cutting.

There is an entire section of this forum dedicated to milling- I suggest you spend a bit of time researching on there to learn how to best set up the saw and the fuel mix to use so it can have the best chance of doing what you are asking of it.
But none of that matters until you diagnose the current problems and repair the saw to tip top condition.

 

[K-techcowboy]

Non-oem cylinder kits tend to produce less power and are less reliable than oem.

Unless you bb it and check you end gap like no one dose. I've seen cheap cylinder kits go 10 years and counting cutting alot of firewood.

 

[K-techcowboy]

Thanks Bob. By you say tuned for the added oil, how is that done ? I have had good luck with the 046 till now and I think I may ha mme had the chain to tight. Will
take the muffler off and see what the piston looks like.. As I said can a 54 mm piston and cylinder be put on my saw ? Is a Nikasil cylinder kit a good one ? There
is on for sale i could get. will take a photo what i find and post it here.

The fact you asked how to tune it tells it all. You smoked the piston and probably just need to clean out the transfer that occurred and put a new piston in it, back off your chain a skosh and run it. Once you do a thorough inspection of course