1st catastrophic failure

Well yesterday it was single digits and I had some big logs to buck up. At the saw shop the owner who has mentored me has said real cold weather is hard on saws, particularly the base gasket letting go as a saw warms up. Especially if it is run WOT right after initial start, so let it run a good minute or so at low speed before making bucking cuts.
As I said it was cold and I had run an entire tank through the Husky 372XPG as it is my oldest saw and has heat. I moved some rounds around and started bucking again. I set the saw down and it was idling and all of a sudden the tone of the idle changed and in a bad way, (sounding). It did not rev like an air leak but just sounded off and then it quit. I started it and it didn't sound right and the compression was way off so I put it away.
Went to the saw shop today and the owner pointed to a bench and said to pull the jug and let's have a look. Inspection revealed a metal bearing race had let go and pieces chewed up the top of the piston and some was imbedded in it. There was a slight gouge in the cylinder but he said it was OK.
So new OEM piston, seals, bearings and it will be ready to go. Looking at about a hundred bucks in parts and it will be good to go.

Moral of the story:
If something seems wrong, just stop.

This could have been much worse if I had continued to try and run it.

Will probably delete the base gasket since it is an X Torq. (comments pro and con appreciated)

 

Wow. Well at least it was a total loss and you wasn't using it when it decided to "Call it a day"

 

That sucks...

 

Yeah that sucks bad as it is it could have been worse

 

Well the cost is pretty negligible. It's just that I have a lot to do and spending a another day at the saw shop is not on the list right now. Oh well, maybe optimistic for one day but my OE 346XP I just picked up needs a new piston too. The saw is fine but I am just freshening up is due for work too. That part should be here any day.

This is my project for today and has to be cut up on pallets before it gets warm out. Not in the picture is a 2nd load I got Tuesday. Going to see my logger buddies for lunch, this is the last day on this site. What the heck, I'll take the trailer and get some more wood too, I am almost out.





New to me OE 346XP

 

I guess I'll be the one to ask... Are you running your mix at 50:1? I've heard that 372's need more oil... I run all my saws at 32:1.

There have also been some other bearing issues with some X-Torq saws...

 

You are correct Sir. There have been a ton of bearing failures in the X-Torqs. At the saw shop, 562XP's aren't far behind on bearing failure. The amount of dirt that gets past the filter is criminal. This pic I scraped some of the debris out for perspective and had grease in the groove to attempt minimizing air bypassing.



Here is my 550XPG



FWIW, I run Woodland Pro @ 40:1. The piston looked great on the saw other than the bits of metal that pounded the top of it.

I rebuilt a 357XP for myself, it looked like this when I bought it: This saw also had a bearing let go. The piston before this was in amazing condition and it has a ton of hours on it. It also had Woodland Pro oil in it.

 

Bummer about the saw......

 

I spit a crank bearing cage on the red version of the 372 felling a large tree, made a total mess out of the piston, jug, bottom half. They are kinda a bear to put the bottom half back together.

I also do an annual crank case leakage test.

I'm more careful about dry revving the 2171 and 2065 and making sure the carb mixture is a tad fat.

 

I dont know if the oil is doing its job with all those bearing failures!!!

 

Well it's always something. Things do wear out, you won't have problems like this if the saws sit on a shelf.

Just ran the Dolmar yesterday, it is a lot stronger than the 372 anyway.

I am talking with my dealer, he suggested putting an old school OEM 372 XPW top end on. Not that is a seriously good idea.

 

I have never heard of cold weather being hard on saws. That's a new one on me. My guess is it would have self destructed no matter what the temperature was outside. Something else must have been wrong.

A lot of times you can tell if a part (bearing) was bad from the start when the manufacturer has an updated part number. They usually figure the issue out long before the owner of the saw does. And spec a different part to replace the faulty part.

 

Well you have two things going on. One is the saw is going to run leaner with the colder air and the 2nd being the cylinder will heat up faster than the case so it puts extra stress on the base gasket due to expansion. So take it easy the first 60-90 seconds.

 

Well here are some pics of the top of the piston, the piston is rotated 120 degrees each pic., the cylinder is also shown rotated 180 degrees, (it's salvageable).

 

I always let my motors of any sort warm up a bit before revving them high. Nothing good can happen wailing at top rpm right after cold startup.

 

Is that 562 auto tune? Thought they always were j perfect tune?

 

I don't know my huskys, but zooming in, it says auto tune.

Auto tune can't fix a bad bearing though.

 

The saw that ate the bearing is a 372XPG X-Torq.

The 562XPG is just in the picture for contrast and I was cutting wood today and sunlight made good contrast.

However 562XP have been having bearing failure too. Hope this clears up the confusion.

 

Heard that 562 have bearing problems. I was just going to say the temperature should not matter for tune on an auto tune. Thats the point of them. And I was pretty sure the 562 was auto tune.

I forgot the toasted saw in question was a 372.. hence the talk about replacing the top with an xpg topend