A couple questions for the hive mind ~ I have an Echo CS-370 that's about 9 years old and needing some work. I know the saw is what it is-a homeowner's saw from Home Depot. It's time to replace the bar and I'm beginning to think it would be a good time to pull the cylinder off and put a fresh ring and maybe piston in it. I can give the cylinder a light hone at work if need be. While I'm in there I could even do some port work. I've done this type of thing plenty of times before with 2 stroke dirt bike engines but never with a chainsaw motor. I don't see it being much different. My question is, does doing all this sound like a monumental waste of time? Should I save up and buy a Stihl/Husky/whatever have you? Or does the roughly $80 investment for a bar, piston/ring sound reasonable? Also, would I be able to put a bigger bar on it if I put a fresh top end in and port it? What say you?
If you really like the saw and you figure it's worth the time and $$, go for it. I put some $$ into the Poulan 4218 a couple years ago. Was worth it to me, but I didn't do an overhaul or anything like that.
What Chaz said...we have an 029 that my dad bought in probably '98. Had gotten a little weak, sent it to huskihl He put the 039 top end on it, port and MM. Love that saw now, makes a great limbing, bucking saw. Screams with 20" bar now.
Heck, if it is still running fine I would just run it. Sure new bar and keep the old one for a backup, but just run the snot out of it. Nothing wrong with the Echo saws.
If you aren't going to port it I'd check the compression on it first. If it's good, then no sense in wasting money on the top end. If you are going to port it, get new rings for sure. Piston may be totally fine.
Thanks everyone for the input. I think I will invest a little time and money into it. It's the first saw I ever bought and it's been really good to me over the years. I bought it out of necessity after a freak snowstorm in October 2011 shut down my state for days. There were snapped trees all over my yard and blocking the driveway. Since then, I've gotten my money's worth out of it 10 times over. For sure I will replace the bar and the piston ring. I'll port it just because I can and that won't cost me a dime. If the piston looks good, I'll run it. If not, a replacement is cheap enough. If after all the porting I need to play with the jetting, I'll do that too. It's a good little saw and I hope to get many more years out of it.
I figured it would be running lean if I left the carb alone. Seems like there's a lot of online availability of parts.
