If this would be your first saw rebuild I would pick a pro style split case saw to do. Clamshell saws are more difficult to do. It's still possible and we could walk you through it if you were game to try. It all comes down to what your comfort level is I suppose. Lots of good info on the rebuild of this model here: Building a 290/390
I've worked on a few 029 supers and none of them had a decomp. Of course that doesn't mean they never had one. NBourque does the saw have a decomp valve?
Tell the guy at the shop 1) to go to NASA they looking for good engineers like him 2) to go and F@CK his AZZ
Lol I'm no mechanic by any means but when he did say it could be the valves I was a little thrown off.
here is a service manual in case that the friend decide to repair his saw Yeah the chitty thing ..........ERROR the upload file is too large , i will try with 290 its about the same
and think that the man at the shop he test the saw compression test and tell that it have low compression , where he see the valves i dont know
Now take a torx 27 screwdriver and a needle nose pliers and start to take off parts , put the each parts together with its screws for dont confuse them and i am here for help maybe a little far but i try to do my best
Bottom line you got yourself a good runner and a parts mule for a pretty good price. If you decide you'd like more power for essentially the same weight the option is always there in the 039 p&c upgrade.
I doubt I will try n fix the non running saw. The other saw runs mint. May try n sell it or keep it for parts.
