Thanks for the feedback all... Even if I did put the ring in correctly (which I still believe) I'm certainly guilty of buying a cheap lightweight piston that I took even more meat off of looking for more performance. I'm still a rookie at this and learning from the generous folks on the blogs about saws. I sometimes have to learn things the hard way too... Like I said above though, I'll still probably hit many parts with the spinny thing...
I did work on a saw a couple years ago that had been running just fine. The owner wanted a muffler mod and I took the jug off to do a quick exhaust port clean up and widen. The ring fell out in two pieces when I pulled the cylinder. The crack was luckily not near a port. I would have thought it would have been not running, but I even made a couple test cuts with it myself before taking it apart. That was a lucky one!
I'm OK... I'm just trying to be honest and open as I can be about both the good and the bad while adding a little of my brand of humor to it. I figure if I'm learning something I might as well share the info. The good side of this was that this saw has run great and gave me 2 years of fun firewood cutting. The downside is that maybe the cheapest, lightest piston might be OK in the short term. But if you don't like to open up saws and work on them, stick to higher quality stuff. I had less than 300 bucks in this saw and had fun building it, learned a lot building it, and had fun using it. If the bottom end flushes out OK, I think I can get by with a meteor / caber combo for under $45. Yes, I'm still a tightwad...
With that level of carnage, I'd say you did great if a new piston and ring gets it running again. I cheaped out on 2 pistons since starting to work on saws. First was my dad's old Husky 50. It still has the Golf piston in it. Truthfully, I don't run it much so I couldn't judge honestly. The other was a Little Red Barn slug for a closed port 55 (if I remember right), I had no other choice. Aside from those 2, I've been through probably a dozen Meteors. They're all I'll use aftermarket wise. Wolf Creek has a sale code (firewood season), I just got one for the 281 @ $39.98 shipped.
I had some time this evening to clean the saw up and get ready for the new piston. Wishful thinking on my part. When I took a good look in the cylinder and cleaned the oily mess out of it, I noticed what I had hoped was some transfer, BUT... it's not. The cylinder is a paperweight. several nail catching scratches look to be through the plating. The casting looks cracked in both transfer tunnels. Flywheel side
I already have bearings, seals, gaskets and new O-ring for the bar oil pump so I'll take it down and replace all that stuff and get that bottom end clean while I'm waiting on a cylinder. Not sure what I'll go with yet, but I missed out on a flash sale of an OEM cylinder and piston kit the other day when I ordered just the piston... I should've jumped on that. While I've got the case halves apart, I'll pop the bar studs out and flatten the mating surface to the bar cuz it seems to not seal the oil passage to the bar very well.
Looks like there’s a couple OEM on eBay. This Mahle one with the damaged fins: OEM Husqvarna Cylinder, Decomp Port, 54ZN13, REFURBISHED, Models 288 281 181 | eBay This Kolbenschmidt one in Canada with no decomp: 288xp Used OEM Cylinder And Meteor Piston | eBay Maybe my man card should be revoked but I wouldn’t want to try pulling my 288 over without a decomp. I had it out yesterday for the first time in months and forgot how it was to get it going, especially with the base gasket delete. Now you’ve got me nervous about the cylinder on my 61/272. I bought the cylinder thinking it was a meteor but it’s a knockoff of even that. Since I built that saw, I did get an OEM 272 cylinder but have yet to put it on. I should just swap that out before something catastrophic happens.
Here is an oem top end. New. More than the saw costs but known Husqvarna quality. Husqvarna 288 XP Cylinder Assembly New OEM 544223102
Not sure if it helps but I was scrolling eBay tonight and came across this. Made me think of this thread. OEM Husqvarna Cylinder, Decomp Port, 54ZN13, REFURBISHED, Models 288 281 181 | eBay On second look, I see the fins look to be smashed off.
