Your experience with Hyway pistons…

[ballisticdoughnut]

Wanted to get some feedback from anyone who’s used a Hyway piston. Far as I can tell they sem to be pretty good quality. Casting looks good, machining looks good as well. Reason I ask is I’m considering running one of their pop-up pistons in my 268XP. I feel it could benefit from more compression, combustion chamber is pretty big in those saws. I’m not a fan of aftermarket parts but this is the only way I can increase compression until I get a lathe.

 

[kmcinms]

From all the builds I see using Hyway parts, they show to be higher quality than most ChyKneezium parts when it comes to holding up. I'm doing the same build on a 266xp and just about to buy that piston. Do you have any more 268 jugs?

 

[ballisticdoughnut]

If I’m not mistaken the Hyway stuff is made in Taiwan and as far as I can tell is pretty good quality. Their pistons look good, nice machining and surface finish, etc. I built a 266/268XP hybrid because I had the parts on hand. One thing I noticed right away was the 268 combustion chamber is quite large. That’s the main reason I wanna run the pop-up. Only thing I’m concerned about is the tolerance between piston and cylinder. If it’s more than .002 thou I don’t think I’ll go for it. Only one way I’m gonna find out I guess. I’ll have to look around for a 268XP cylinder. Not sure if I’ve got another one.

 

[kmcinms]

The 266xp chamber is WAY smaller than the 272xp chamber that I have. I'm thinking the 268xp chamber is shaped just like the chamber in the 272 jug. For some reason I want to build the 266 instead of the 272.

 

[Maintenance supervisor]

Wanted to get some feedback from anyone who’s used a Hyway piston. Far as I can tell they sem to be pretty good quality. Casting looks good, machining looks good as well. Reason I ask is I’m considering running one of their pop-up pistons in my 268XP. I feel it could benefit from more compression, combustion chamber is pretty big in those saws. I’m not a fan of aftermarket parts but this is the only way I can increase compression until I get a lathe.

As far as casting goes in the aftermarket pistons that I have actually used; Meteor ,Hyway, Dukes,farmertech, golf, and little red barn . From good to not good.
I really think that ring selection is more important than piston, being oem or cabers as the 2 I prefer. Ive used OEM on farmertech pistons.

 

[ballisticdoughnut]

As far as casting goes in the aftermarket pistons that I have actually used; Meteor ,Hyway, Dukes,farmertech, golf, and little red barn . From good to not good.
I really think that ring selection is more important than piston, being oem or cabers as the 2 I prefer. Ive used OEM on farmertech pistons.

I feel like Meteor and Hyway are probably the “premium” aftermarket pistons. I don’t really have a problem using either one if I have to, or in this case wanting a pop-up. OEM ring for sure. I’m thinking I’ll have to get the Hyway pop-up and take some measurements. As long as there’s no more than .002 thou clearance in the cylinder I’ll run it.

 

[singinwoodwackr]

I’ve used Hyway in two rebuilds, one a pop-up. All good so far.

 

[ballisticdoughnut]

The 266xp chamber is WAY smaller than the 272xp chamber that I have. I'm thinking the 268xp chamber is shaped just like the chamber in the 272 jug. For some reason I want to build the 266 instead of the 272.

Husqvarna did a good job with the 266. Bore, stroke, and cylinder seem to all work well together. I’ve heard from several people they prefer the 266 over the 272. Something to do with where the two saws make their power. It’ll be interesting to see how things change with that pop-up piston though. I suspect I’ll see a decent increase in performance overall.

 

[Maintenance supervisor]

I've done a couple aftermarket pop ups and all of them have shown some performance gains. In general though any bump in compression is going to produce good results. Even with a "base gasket delete " has really woke up some saws for me.

 

[Jasonrkba]

I've used several hyway pistons and been very happy. Another I have been happy with is dukes molybdenum.

 

[kmcinms]

Husqvarna did a good job with the 266. Bore, stroke, and cylinder seem to all work well together. I’ve heard from several people they prefer the 266 over the 272. Something to do with where the two saws make their power. It’ll be interesting to see how things change with that pop-up piston though. I suspect I’ll see a decent increase in performance overall.

Yep, it's the difference between a well built/balanced 327, and a mediocre built 396. The 327 rips and will give the 396 all it can handle up to a point (maybe).
I agree with Maintenance Super. I've got saws with 3 of the pistons he mentioned. Meteor, HyWay, and Golf. No problems with any of those three in my saws so far.
Now, don't forget there are two different piston designs for these 2 series saws. The full circle skirt design. I've seen Duke's offer a full circle coated skirt. Then there's Little red barn with a full circle pop up. There may be some advantage to the full circle, it's been 10 years since I even read up on this saw and these pistons (no pop-up was on the market back then as far as I remember).

 

[ballisticdoughnut]

Yeah the full circle pistons are what Husqvarna called “power flow” design. Not sure when or in what model saw they switched to the non full skirt design. I feel like the full skirt offers more support and is a more robust design. Some think the newer design is better for flow into the lower transfers but I’m not convinced based on personal observations.

 

[Sierra_rider]

The only knock I have against Hyway has to do with the cylinders and it's really not an issue for most people. The one I messed with was really hard to port without the plating chipping, again that's not an issue that the average consumer is going to have to deal with.

I've had good luck with the hyway pistons, although Meteor is my favorite.

 

[corriscaveman]

Husqvarna did a good job with the 266. Bore, stroke, and cylinder seem to all work well together. I’ve heard from several people they prefer the 266 over the 272. Something to do with where the two saws make their power. It’ll be interesting to see how things change with that pop-up piston though. I suspect I’ll see a decent increase in performance overall.

Hi, I'm a new member in the UK who enjoys your educational posts. I have a 268 which is obviously in-between your above saws. When I watch Tinman he suggests a 272 top end what are your views? I'd like to open her up a bit, maybe a muffler mod following Iron horses dimensions? Thanks

 

[phild234]

I've done a couple aftermarket pop ups and all of them have shown some performance gains. In general though any bump in compression is going to produce good results. Even with a "base gasket delete " has really woke up some saws for me.

When you rebuild with pop up, do you use the gasket or delete it? Just bought a 272xp pop up fpr my old 61, of course will check squish, but just wondering, gasket or no?

 

[ballisticdoughnut]

When you rebuild with pop up, do you use the gasket or delete it? Just bought a 272xp pop up fpr my old 61, of course will check squish, but just wondering, gasket or no?

I’d do a compression test with the gasket in place first. Check squish as well. If your in the clear on squish you could remove the gasket and check compression again.

 

[Chevboy0167]

I will add to check piston to combustion chamber clearance. In otherwards, make sure the pop up doesn't hit the ground strap on the spark plug.

Use an old plug that is gapped properly, install in plug hole, rotate engine over by hand via the flywheel to ensure the piston will not smack the plug ground strap.

I had this same fear for a Husky 350 rebuild with a pop up and base gasket delete. Didn't hit plug but only had .0165" squish... a bit tight for my liking so I installed a thin Husky base gasket.

I should add that the new cylinder I used was a HWY kit. Cylinder base flange was much thinner than an OEM and a Meteor cylinder flange. It looked as if the HWY jug came already machined down. So much to a point that I had to buy shorter cylinder mounting bolts as the OEM bolts would bottom out in the crankcase riser without tightening down the cylinder!

 

[thompsoncustom]

Wanted to get some feedback from anyone who’s used a Hyway piston. Far as I can tell they sem to be pretty good quality. Casting looks good, machining looks good as well. Reason I ask is I’m considering running one of their pop-up pistons in my 268XP. I feel it could benefit from more compression, combustion chamber is pretty big in those saws. I’m not a fan of aftermarket parts but this is the only way I can increase compression until I get a lathe.

If you still want more compression you can fill the combustion chamber in with aluminum brazing rod. I've done one saw that way and it turned out well currently doing another now.

 

[Maintenance supervisor]

When you rebuild with pop up, do you use the gasket or delete it? Just bought a 272xp pop up fpr my old 61, of course will check squish, but just wondering, gasket or no?

As others have pointed out its based on my squish measurement. Im not gonna go below .018 on anything and you always want to rotate the engine over by hand fully assembled, .022 seems to be a very good spot.
If the squish allows a gasket I use it , if not it gets deleted. Recently I made an extra thick gasket for a 288 so I could use an 066 piston in it and it raised the exhaust which gave it some pep.
Honestly I don't use a compression tester on a rebuilt saw ,in my opinion its a diagnosis tool for a saw thats being checked for problems. I don't care what the compression is after I set the squish and other timing numbers , as the saw should be healthy after a piston replacement, if it feels weak after that something is wrong ! Time to stop and figure it out.
I will say that engine size will have a dramatic effect on how compression feels though, there's a huge difference between the tight squish of a 090 137cc and a 346xp! So know what your comfortable with as far as starting and using.

 

[corriscaveman]

I've done a couple aftermarket pop ups and all of them have shown some performance gains. In general though any bump in compression is going to produce good results. Even with a "base gasket delete " has really woke up some saws for me.

Ive a 268 that really needs waking up and debating which way to go about this porting or like you say pop up any views welcomed thanks