Ran a MS-290 for years good firewood saw. Bought a MS-362-c last November nice firewood saw Joined FHC learned more about hoarding, seasoning firewood, 3 yr plan and saws. Bought two ported saws. Necessary no. Smile on my face yes. EPA look at what we have now for Diesel engines tier 4.
Same reason diesel cars are uncommon here in the US and fuel economy numbers on diesel pickups have tanked in recent years. There were 40+MPG vehicles available in the 80's. Why have we not improved upon those numbers? Because the regulatory agencies that control the manufacturers of cars trucks, chainsaws, etc., have made overall efficiency and fuel economy take a backseat to emissions. Basically, it doesn't matter how much fuel it burns, as long as it does it cleanly. Did the catalytic converter improve the fuel efficiency of cars? Nope, it's merely an exhaust scrubbing device. Does a Diesel Particulate Filter improve the efficiency of the engine it's attached to? Heck no, it actually requires raw fuel to be dumped into the exhaust for a cleaning/regeneration cycle. Why does a MS460 respond so dramatically to a muffler mod? Because in order get the engine to meet emissions, Stihl reduced the exhaust velocity to allow the hot gasses to burn more of the raw fuel that all legacy two-strokes discharge into the exhaust. If power and efficiency were the only two criteria used to design a saw engine, we would have peaked in their development decades ago. Overall power in a 70cc saw has not improved since the early-90's. You're right that it wouldn't cost a dime more to produce engines that use port timing and area numbers that give the absolute maximum performance of the engine's available displacement. The engineers that build these things have to consider power and efficiency of course. But the challenge is to maintain acceptable values in those categories while also meeting the design criteria for noise, ergonomics (vibration), reliability, and of course, emissions.
Eric Copsey and Danny Henry have ruined me... All my firewood saws are ported now. Stock saws r boring.
Not at all, I just couldn't think of a better way to word it. The gist of the question is not "why" one would port a saw, which is clearly to get more performance, whether real or perceived. It is more "why isn't already done by the manufacturer, ie why is it 'necessary' to port to get best power?" The manufacturer obviously has enough intelligence to figure out that a few timing tweaks and changes in the flow will give more power, and the market surely would prefer more power rather than less, so why are they not doing it? That's the question. I am leaning towards saw longevity and emissions as the answers. Greg
I would add that a lot of the reason cars don't get as good mileage as they could is because they're heavier, due to increased safety requirements for crumple zones, air bags, side impact zones, and so on. If you were to stick a modern Toyota 4 cylinder engine from a Carolla into a Geo Metro chassis, I think you'd do quite well in terms of MPG. Also, modern cars have extremely high performance relative to their predecessors. You can get a stock family sedan that has 0-60 times in the range of what you used to need a Ferrari to do. So, it's not all gloom and doom. As it relates to OPE, I think we'll see an increase in performance when we get a true EFI system, rather than the electronic carbs that are present today.
Amen to the stars and back. I like a fast saw as much as the next guy, but I would prefer if we could get them quieter.
Guns I finally made myself do that and required at work on the range. But saws I cant make myself do it yet, especially when cutting in the woods with someone else.
I use PPE all the time (helmet with face mask and muffs, ear plugs, gloves, chainsaw chaps, sometimes glasses under the face mask, steel toes, etc, though I don't have chainsaw resistant boots or gloves), but you can still hear it at the end of a long day of cutting or shooting even with muffs and plugs. I think the splitter is probably the worst though, as it's loud and runs continuously, whereas most felling/bucking operations involve a lot of downtime to clear away the brush, line up your ropes, etc. I suppose if you're bucking up a set of sawlogs that got dropped off that is pretty loud, but we usually scrounge or are cutting down whole trees, which means dealing with the tops, etc.
Why is porting necessary? That's easy........................ Gives people more time to polish, dress up, and whisper sweet nuttins.
it was touched on earlier also, but reliability is a pretty important factor. You shouldnt hand your 16 year-old a brand new camaro or whatever, the same as the average homeowner does not need a hot rod 60cc saw. They need something that will start and run, and continue to run with considerable neglect. Most ported saws will not live long at all with 9-month old 50:1 and a dull chain.
Porting has not been shown to negatively effect saw longevity. Most every internal combustion engine can be modified to make more power. So why not saws?
If so, why don't they just build it that way? (I think porting will almost certainly affect longevity, all other factors being equal. One cannot boost hp by a significant percentage without increasing cylinder heat and pressures, and longevity will be affected. How much the effect will be is an open question.) I realize that people do modfications all the time to improve performance on automobiles, but most, if not all, of those modifications affect some other aspect of the useability of the vehicle - efficiency, driveability, durability, noise level, smoothness, etc. With a chainsaw, most of those are not as significant to the user. Maybe noise, vibration, smoothness, and other factors that affect the user perception. There has to be some regulatory or other reason, otherwise why wouldn't Stihl (for example) crank out a new model that sports a few simple modification resulting in 30% more power than the previous, with no weight penalty? I am still leaning towards emissions as the primary reason and durability second. Greg