With all the leftovers from my 181 rebuild, I took the 288 plunge

[tolman_paul]

Time will tell whether I suck or I was suckered, but I couldn't pass up $200 for a 288 on flea bay.

I've got a spare carb, carb rebuild kits, crank seals, oiler, clutch bell, 30" bar needing a saw and the experience of tearing the 181 down and getting it back together. I'm hoping at most it just needs a new piston and ring, and some porting and a muff mod I figure it'll make a nice compliment to the 181 and will be a good saw for my granberg mill, which I haven't used yet

Oh and I need a winter project, and based on what I found yesterday morning that will be sooner than later :taped:

 

[elanjoe]

I would have paid 200, I think you did good.
And yeah , ole man winter is knocking

 

[tolman_paul]

The moment of truth arrived yesterday. What did I get for $240.


I knew from the pictures the clutch cover was cracked at the high idle speed part of the throttle was missing. Mix and match on the starter bolts made me question how well the saw had been maintained. The manufacturer plate was missing as well so I had a concern I’d get a 281 with a 288 cover, and of course with a sight unseen saw was the p/c scored and were the bearings shot.

The seller packed it very well, big box with tons of padding. It was advertised as with bar and chain with no bar length given. But with the $200 buy it now price, I figured it was a decent enough price for just the powerhead, whatever bar and chain it came with was just a bonus. Turned out to be an Oregon 20” bar, which now brings my total of large mount 20” husky bars to three, the new woodland pro on the 181, the old Oregon from the 181 and now another Oregon. So now I’ve got a stump bar and a backup. The chain was rocked but has enough meat in it to clean up.

A cursory overview showed the handle had a crack on it so I’m guessing whatever cracked the clutch cover tweaked the handle as well. I started by pulling off the top cover. The topmost cylinder fin was cracked on the mag side and the inside of the saw was just filthy (what do you expect for a $200 saw) I pulled the spark plug and the piston had a pretty good layer of carbon on it. Time to pull the muffler and see what the story is. Good news, no scoring and the machine marks were still on the piston leading me to believe the piston was fairly new.
Time to inspect the anti vibe mounts. The forward two were completely missing with the bolts held in place with nuts, hmm never seen that before. Well, that needs fixing so might as well pull the tank. The chain catcher was sheared off. More time picking dust out of cap head screws to remove them than anything. Once the tank was off the tally was 2 missing a/v’s, 2 torn a/v’s and 2 that are still good. I’ll probably just replace them all and have a couple spares.

Well, I’ve got the saw torn down pretty well, might as well pull the jug to see what the story is. Well, per my calipers the piston is a 54mm which makes it a 288. Better yet, the cylinder looks pristine inside and the bottom end is very tight and clean which as far as I can tell means while the saw is beat on the outside, it really hasn’t been used that much. So I’m way stoked to have taken the flea bay gamble and ending up with a saw that seems to only need a few small parts to get it ready to go and I’m very relieved that the p/c is in good shape. It would have been nice if it had been a full wrap with a high top, but I figure I’d rather have a low mileage saw and at the price I got it I can add those and still be into the saw for about $350 and I’ve got an old style 30” Oregon bar I plan to run on it. Might take the full wrap off the 181 and swap the 288 handle over to the 181. Kinda makes sense to run the full wrap on the 288 with the 30” bar for felling and running the partial wrap and 20” bar on the 181 for bucking.

With it torn down this far it’ll get a thorough cleaning and I might as well put a fresh carb kit in. Not sure if I’ll replace the crank seals. The big question is, port it or not? I’m kinda split between wanting to compare my ported 181 to a stock 288, and then thinking I’ve got it torn down might as well do a base gasket delete and bring the transfers up to 118, the exhaust to 158 and intake to 156 deg.

Decisions, decisions.

 

[tolman_paul]

Test

Seeing if posting again will bring this thread back up.

 

[Eccentric]

The moment of truth arrived yesterday. What did I get for $240.


I knew from the pictures the clutch cover was cracked at the high idle speed part of the throttle was missing. Mix and match on the starter bolts made me question how well the saw had been maintained. The manufacturer plate was missing as well so I had a concern I’d get a 281 with a 288 cover, and of course with a sight unseen saw was the p/c scored and were the bearings shot.

The seller packed it very well, big box with tons of padding. It was advertised as with bar and chain with no bar length given. But with the $200 buy it now price, I figured it was a decent enough price for just the powerhead, whatever bar and chain it came with was just a bonus. Turned out to be an Oregon 20” bar, which now brings my total of large mount 20” husky bars to three, the new woodland pro on the 181, the old Oregon from the 181 and now another Oregon. So now I’ve got a stump bar and a backup. The chain was rocked but has enough meat in it to clean up.

A cursory overview showed the handle had a crack on it so I’m guessing whatever cracked the clutch cover tweaked the handle as well. I started by pulling off the top cover. The topmost cylinder fin was cracked on the mag side and the inside of the saw was just filthy (what do you expect for a $200 saw) I pulled the spark plug and the piston had a pretty good layer of carbon on it. Time to pull the muffler and see what the story is. Good news, no scoring and the machine marks were still on the piston leading me to believe the piston was fairly new.
Time to inspect the anti vibe mounts. The forward two were completely missing with the bolts held in place with nuts, hmm never seen that before. Well, that needs fixing so might as well pull the tank. The chain catcher was sheared off. More time picking dust out of cap head screws to remove them than anything. Once the tank was off the tally was 2 missing a/v’s, 2 torn a/v’s and 2 that are still good. I’ll probably just replace them all and have a couple spares.

Well, I’ve got the saw torn down pretty well, might as well pull the jug to see what the story is. Well, per my calipers the piston is a 54mm which makes it a 288. Better yet, the cylinder looks pristine inside and the bottom end is very tight and clean which as far as I can tell means while the saw is beat on the outside, it really hasn’t been used that much. So I’m way stoked to have taken the flea bay gamble and ending up with a saw that seems to only need a few small parts to get it ready to go and I’m very relieved that the p/c is in good shape. It would have been nice if it had been a full wrap with a high top, but I figure I’d rather have a low mileage saw and at the price I got it I can add those and still be into the saw for about $350 and I’ve got an old style 30” Oregon bar I plan to run on it. Might take the full wrap off the 181 and swap the 288 handle over to the 181. Kinda makes sense to run the full wrap on the 288 with the 30” bar for felling and running the partial wrap and 20” bar on the 181 for bucking.

With it torn down this far it’ll get a thorough cleaning and I might as well put a fresh carb kit in. Not sure if I’ll replace the crank seals. The big question is, port it or not? I’m kinda split between wanting to compare my ported 181 to a stock 288, and then thinking I’ve got it torn down might as well do a base gasket delete and bring the transfers up to 118, the exhaust to 158 and intake to 156 deg.

Decisions, decisions.

Nice score. ABSOLUTELY replace the crank seals and the oil pump body O-ring while you have it apart. Cheap insurance. I've had old crank seals fail suddenly before. That good top end is worth the cost of the seals and the time.

Rebuild the carb )RK-23HS). Get a 181/281/288 gasket set from your dealer. Cheaper than getting the intake manifold, carb mounting, cylinder base, and exhaust gaskets separately. Around $8 IIRC. Comes with a case gasket that you can save for later.

 

[roundhead]

great find. I worked on mine today and last night. no spark. I can see some exposure on the red wire but I am not very familiar with Husqvarna so if you have any suggestions, feel free to enlighten me. I was tempted to port mine but I need to learn some more and didnt want to take a chance on the oem cylinder. man snow already...enjoying upper 70's in SW OH

 

[tolman_paul]

If you see any exposed wire then likely the ignition is being shorted out. I had an issue with my 181 where the wire to the kill switch was being pinched by the starter housing and it was enough to kill the ignition even though I didn't see any exposed wire. Be careful how you route the two ignition wires under the starter housing as it's easy to pinch them.

I've gone through the 288 and am just waiting on the new a/v mounts and an 8t sprocket. While it looked a bit rough on the outside, it was absolutely filthy on the inside. I did put my new pressure washer to good use, it's definately a time saver. I was going to port the cylinder but I forgot my flex shaft died. With a base gasket delete my squish is 0.025", ex duration is 160deg, transfer 110deg and intake 140deg. I'd like to raise the transfers to 120, increase intake to 156 and flatten the top and bottom of the ex as well as widen it a touch. But, I can live with those numbers for now. I put a fresh kit in the carb and need to weld up the muffler to complete the mod. Then it's assembly and testing. Compression seems pretty stiff with the base gasket delete, not sure if I might add a decomp to the cylinder.