I got a G288 back in January when they were on sale. The first thing I had to figure out was how to adapt my large mount Stihl bars onto it. Being the tightwad that I am, I'm not wanting to buy more bars if I can avoid it. I ordered adapter #3 from pf65skate. It fits the large mount Stihl bars, but won't go on the G288 studs, very close but not quite. I modified it with a round file to enlarge the holes a mm and spread them about a mm further apart. I'm not sure on the exact dimensions there, but filed a little, checked, repeat... till it fit. I had to file just a little on the chain tensioner hole in the bars I want to use on it. I just picked up a new 20" bar and new chain from a guy that wanted a muffler mod but he had bought this 3/8 chain and bar and his clutch is set up for .325. It will be my "fun" bar for this saw. The standard chain sizes for these bars don't quite fit over the end of the bar on this saw cuz the bar studs are a little farther forward than on the Stihl saws. The only way I can make them fit is to remove the clutch, put the rim sprocket on the chain and mount the bar with the adjuster all the way in and put the clutch on through the rim sprocket. Pain in the keester to change the chain, but since I almost always file my chains on the saw anyway, it's not that big of a deal since this clutch can be removed with a 3/4" socket on the impact driver. The oiler holes match up pretty well, not perfect but good enough to oil. I ran half a tank through this saw and it oils the 20" bar pretty liberally. I didn't get any timed cuts in cuz I didn't want to push this saw too hard till it is broken in a little. But that won't happen till after I do some fun stuff to it. I did grease the clutch bearing as recommended by someone in a thread I couldn't find... The same one that was talking about these being on sale and triggered me to get one of these. I want to give you credit for that tip cuz the bearing was dry as bone like you had mentioned. May have been Czed ??? I tore it down and this was probably the easiest, straight forward, simple designed saw I've worked on so far. Didn't take long at all to have the cylinder off and I won't need to split the cases to do some grinding. Squish measured .043" with the gasket in place and the gasket measured .019" so it will get left out of the re-assembly plan. I haven't put the timing wheel on it yet so I'm not fully certain if I'll have the squish / base cut yet, but I'm not planning on making this a cookie cutter. I'm planning on warming it up but I still want to run the long bars on it. In the test cuts it felt like it had plenty of torque and I want to keep that, but get a little more top end out of it too.
Here's some 50% off bar's for that saw I got my 28" in yesterday Waiting on a couple of 24" to come in. Less than 100.00 for 3 bar's and 3 chains Is a good deal.
I've dremeled the slot to allow the bar to setback enough to run stihl bar's on my 266,268,272,372,288,394,395s Sometimes i had to file the back of the bar off
I thought about that but wasn't sure if it would let it slide back far enough, but since it works for you I'll probably do that to my bars also to allow easier chain access. I'm all about making the stuff I already have work as opposed to buying more stufz... LOL Thanks for your tips.
I was able to play a little with the saws tonight. I grabbed the piston and put it on the wife's nice scale she uses in the kitchen. I was planning on putting this thing on a diet, but I remember seeing a video where a HyWay piston for one of these tips the scales WAY lighter and I needed new circlips anyway. Hopefully the wrist pin is a tad lighter as well. I ordered the HyWay piston kit for 23 bucks. That won't break the bank, but I'm trying to build this thing on the cheap. I'll start with that and probably take a gram or two off of it as well. I'll wait to put the timing wheel on it with the new piston before I do any grinding. I'll check the numbers tomorrow with the original piston and base gasket in later tonight or tomorrow so I have the baseline numbers of a G288. Porky Pigimuss... I looked into the carb to ensure the WOT throttle stop is set properly and it will need tweaked. I need to do some trimming on the gasket between the carb and intake block, it's horrible. Kinda reminds me of second grade art class with safety scissors... While I'm at it this carb looks like the washer can go and use some super locktite on it, peen the shaft onto it, and trim it all to get a little more flow. I'll look for a brass screw also, but I'm not holding my breath... If I can find that I prefer punching it to lock it in instead of peening the shaft. I took .007 off the flywheel key, that gives it 3-4 degrees of advance. I'll measure that more accurately when I get out the timing wheel.
I put the timing wheel on it tonight to get the baseline stock numbers. Exhaust opens at 97* atdc for duration of 166* Intake opens 73* btdc for duration of 146* upper transfers open at the intake side at 115* and taper towards the exhaust 6* and is fully open at 121* blowdown of 18* I'll run the numbers with the Hyway piston when it gets here with the base gasket out. Depending on what those numbers are, I'll decide where I want to go with it. I did prep it for removing the base gasket and possibly cutting the jug if needed by cutting .025 off of the carb divider wall and where the carb screws would hit the carb box bottom.
New HyWay piston showed up in the mail today and does in fact weigh less than the piston that came in the saw. Even the pin was 1 gram lighter than the original pin. original piston 95 grams and pin is 21 grams for total of 116 grams HyWay piston 79 grams and pin is 20 grams for total of 99 grams (it will get tweaked and a skirt cut yet) Total savings of 17 grams right out of the box should allow a few extra revs with no other work.
I had some Duke's 066 Pistons cut for pop-ups to run in my g288s I'm going to advance the timing also I built one like this many year's ago that was a strong saw.
Have you weighed them? Just curious. I'm planning on getting my cylinder base and squish band cut to correct the timing to where I want it. That will also bring the compression up. This jug is a little lopsided inside with the front and rear squish differing by .010" with it being at .015 without the gasket over the exhaust port so I have to do something there. My local friend that does lathe work for me is out of town for awhile so I'm kinda in limbo till he gets back to me on this. If I can get the squish up to .020 or better on the short side I may just go with a base gasket delete. I'm not quite sure how to take that much off the squish without a lathe. Any suggestions out there?
I haven't received then yet from the machinist I'll try to weigh them You can glue sandpaper to a old piston and sand the squish I did it in a 257 I deleted the base gasket on.
I had been thinking about making one, but I just haven't blocked out the time to do it. Buying one may be the way to go if my normal guy can't get to it. I've done that before on a couple saws I was salvaging and I may end up doing this. Just waiting for my machinist to get back to me. Not in a rush to get this saw in working order, I have plenty of saws that do what I need, I just got this as a "fun" project. I have to be careful, I don't want it to become a money pit... I try to do things on a tight budget whenever possible. But on the other hand... LOL
You have deeper pockets than I do... or maybe I just don't reach in as far... I'd love to have all the toys, but...
I don't have them. I don't do enough to justify the costs. I could justify a small lathe much easier because I could do other things with it.
Same here. My BIL was a machinist and I used to count on him for all kinds of stuff. He retired 15 years ago and he had a NICE shop at his place but he decided he didn't want anything to do with it anymore and sold off everything. I'm stuck with a file, a drill, and a wood stove...
