Got the skil 1661 / PM 177 gassed up and no luck starting... literally nothing; even with mix in the throat.
Plug looks fine.
My HOPE is this means he put heavy oil in the carb before putting it up... He did drain the tank really well; so definitely a good chance of that.
So I pulled the carb... good lord this is a bad design carb attachment. You basically have to remove the top end to get the carb off... They run bolts OUT through the carb that mount it to the insulator block... then run bolts IN through the insulator block to mount it; but the heads of these bolts are blocked by the carb body so they can't be undone easily. And because the bolts go OUT instead of IN on the bolts that mount the carb to the insulator block... you CANT remove it from the block the way it pretty clearly was intended to be done... I assume the "correct" way is to remove the trigger grip assembly, disconnect both fuel and primer lines (REALLY hard to do with the carb mounted)... and slide it off the insulator block/carb bolts backwards... but that is a mess. Horrible design.
I managed to wiggle the bolts mounting the insulator to the cylinder out eventually; but the insulator block cracked... so hopefully some high temp adhesive will survive there if I glue it back up.
Intake side of the piston looks fine.
So now my plan is cleaning the carb (and the rest of the saw) and debating if I want to just go ahead and try to pull the piston and use some 600 grit to knock down the high points on the scoring on the exhaust side while I've got the whole thing pulled apart.
Also... the throttle is odd... There's no choke; so the throttle valve is where the choke valve typically is.
Parts of this saw feel really well made; but that Carb mount is a nightmare. And the bar mount bolts are floating, and also hold the dogs on... with one trapped in place by the auto oiler cover so I can't remove the dogs without taking that apart... I can see why this saw was only produced for like 1 yr.
On the other hand... a 95CC saw that weighs more than 3 lbs less than my 900EVL? Would be nice.
In general; I think I'll be able to get it running well; but it's gonna be more work than I thought; and as such I'm really leaning towards taking my time and trying to clean up the piston a bit; do a pressure/vacuum test, etc... really make this the first saw I "fix up" properly and check all the boxes.
edit: Opened up the carb on my lunch. Wasn't too bad inside; but there was definitely some gummy oil/gas residue. Epoxied the insulator back together... hopefully it holds.
Hit the carb with carb cleaner; the rebuild kit should be here in a couple days.
Checked that the primer pump worked... it does.
Checked that the plug gets spark when cord is pulled... it does.
Next steps are cleaning the saw, confirming the fuel line/filter aren't clogged, rebuilding the carb, pulling the top off and polishing off high points on the piston, performing a pressure/vacuum test, then reassembling it... and hopefully it'll run.