I've had my 55 Rancher almost 15 years bought it brand new in high school and it has never given me a bit of trouble til last fall. The spark plug went bad! Ok easy fix, right back to cutting. Ran fine up until last week the recoil rope broke! Ok easy fix, put it back together only to find the reason the rope broke was because there seemed to be "too much" compression. Thought about flooding,no. Thought the recoil assembly was binding or the flywheel pawls were messed up, no. So hmmmm compression test showed almost 185 lbs! Pulled the muffler and plug to see some carbon and a small score starting on the P/C. So I ripped her down tonight quick cleaned the ports, the top of he piston and top of the cylinder and Yahtzee! It's fixed! Forgot to retest the compression though have to check it. Long story short to much carbon caused less space in the cylinder and increased the compression by a lot! Seems ok now..... it's a 16" .325 chained bar and I really leaned on it to stop it. So I think there's a new jug and piston and total rebuild coming soon!
Saved it I'm going to switch my 55 over to .325, I have the sprocket I just need a bar and chain for it, I think it will be better than the 3/8
Good question, although the saw is 15 years old too....maybe good 2 stroke oil doesn't give issues no matter the age of the saw?
The carbon was up in the top of the head mainly. As far as oil it's had about everything through it, snowmobile, outboard, every major other brand. Not to mention questionable gas here and there. I ran some klotz through it last year as an experiment which I think wasa bad idea. Mainly stihl or husky oil now. Also it had always run a 20" 3/8 chained bar until this winter and I had it tuned a bit fat to pull that set up so I think it's been running pretty rich with the 16" on it.
Joe echo red armor supposedly helps clean that carbon out of 2 stroke engines. Lots of guys seem to like it. Best Built Longest Lasting Gas Powered Outdoor Power Equipment | ECHO USA
Next time im in a town with one i need to buy some. I heard its good oil. And my echo dealer does not carry red armor. And i am almost out of the amsoil i have. I also need to mix up some more 2 stroke fuel im all out.
