Hi all ; Near as I can tell this is at least a 32 year old saw. But, it had less than 2 tanks run through it. And was stored indoors. It came with a coastal , old growth bar and chain on it. 36" , 63 ga , 404 full skip, chisel chisel chain. That had been rocked ! Big time ! I puttered with it and got the starter pawls freed up, dumped the old gas out of it. Filled the cylinder with saw gas and let it sit for a bit. Very slowly pulled it over half a stroke and dumped in more sawgas. Pulled it over slowly many times. Pulled the plug and pulled it over a bunch. I had pulled the bar and chain off it and got it freed up. Fueled it up . Put the plug in and in about 10 pulls it fired. Then in a few more pulls it started. . Didn't run too bad. Got to work on the chain . Ground the rocked out of it with my Dremil tool with 7/32 chainsaw stone bit. Did the riders and round filed it. Took it to work the next day and bucked a 1.5 cord load with it. ! Since then I have done around 20 cord with it . Works awesome. I traded 1 cord of firewood for it . My cost, $75. And some sweat.
Yes . I was surprised and glad also . I was running 655 PPs back in 90+ 91 . They cut right along with the 2100 Husky. Would out stump the 056 Mag 2 . But I never did understand the Reed valve part. Fortunately I don't have to understand them to have them work very well for me. This one now wears a 28" Husky light bar. And I'm running chisel filed full comp , chisel , 3/8 . With an 8 tooth drive sprocket. It's a 72 cc powerhead. . With a heavy crank , flywheel and clutch. Not snappy. But with the bar full , none of the modern saws in the similar cc category out cut it as a normal course throughout the day. And ! It's Great having a rear muffler when working when the fire danger is hovering just below Red Flag warnings.
Welcome back! The reed valve closes the intake as the piston comes up to compression/power (basically, anything after intake) part of the stroke...the same thing is accomplished with port timing on the new saws. I see in your pics there another white Ford tough tailgate... buZZsaw BRAD will be jealous of it's integrity though!
Yes, I finally screwed a piece of osb to it so I can safely stand on it with my corks on . This one has been through over 100 cord of wood. Both commercial and personal. Up to now, we've been burning 9ish cord per burning season .
Management of Pioneer, Partner, Dolmar, Solo, Emerson, (Poulan) McCulloch, Jonsered all decided to get paid by the Man instead of doing the heavy lifting and investing to remain competitive. I’d say Makita acquisition of Dolmar was the worst, purchase and kill the entire gas powered lineup.
I love the pioneers, and poulan pro branded pioneers. The big ones P62, 655BP if they are running correctly will out perform modern equivalents.
I don't think that was the plan when they made the acquisition, but doesn't make it any more heartbreaking. I imagine they had to make some hard decisions concerning ROI and how long it may take a significant investment in Dolmar / gas equipment to pay back, vs exiting and sticking to their core competency - electric tools.
I’d say throwing away half of your core market of the business you just purchased is a really good way to not accomplish those goals…
Nobody wants to fold after the turn but if you don't have the cards, tree care professionals are a tough crowd to bluff your way through with. I think it's safe to say that Stihl and Echo were not leaving a whole lot of room in the market for entry-level up through mid-grade ICE handheld power equipment and here in 2024, consumer entry level handheld equipment has all but conceded to battery powered tools anyways. That's the lion's share of sales (entry - mid) and in the high-end of the market, where Dolmar was a stronger competitor, the volume just isn't there to support a 4th OEM trying to compete with Stihl, Echo & Husqvarna. Not when the entire professional line-up (save the 6100) would have to be re-designed to meet current U.S. OPE emissions standards with competitive performance to the big three. The 6100 (as much as I liked that saw!), which represented the final engineering evolution for Dolmar, was a 13.2 lb. powerhead making 4.7 HP from a 61cc engine. What was the MSRP on those? Roughly $700? That's MS362 power with MS462 weight and an MS391 price. Even if the price (especially for the build quality) remained attractive enough to forgive the extra pound - you still give up quite a bit compared to an MS362C-M (never mind the MS400) or the 562XP. I would, however, say it wiped the floor with an MS391 performance-wise, . So, forget the high-end. What if Makita tried to go after the mid-range market with the better quality, attractively priced saw? Well, I think the nails in Dolmar's coffin actually are NOT European, but Japanese. The Echo CS-590 dominated the market for those shopping for 20"/60cc on price, and availability. Echo has the brand recognition, the dealer network, box-store presence, and it produces an entirely decent product at that. If you wanted a little more umph than the 590 offered, the CS-620 was your Huckleberry and was close on price, if not a little cheaper. I'm just glad they didn't go out like Poulan, Homelite or McCollough did. In a race to the bottom.
