Thanks to RParrotte I recently bought a spare muffler for my 550 for a great price. I had been waiting to mod my muffler until I could get ahold of a spare. I literally did this mod on my break at work. Needed: carbide burrs, air die grinder or dremel and allen wrench to remove muffler. I did the standard "mild" mod adding an additional hole beside the existing exhaust port and hogging out the entry port a tad. Have not had it to wood yet, but it sounds even angrier than before. Louder, but not obnoxiously. Used the round for making the new hole and the cylindrical for widening the entry port. I found that simply bending the deflector upwards gave enough clearance to get the round burr in for the new hole. This is a plus for me as I don't weld. Bent it back down when finished. I think I am done modding this saw. I have also added a 562 spike and changed the clutch cover to the 545s better looking orange. I did try an 8 pin sprocket on it briefly which it did not like. Very pleased with the saw thus far and hope it will last like my 350. It's light, fast, low vibs and is fuel efficient. The perfect Tractor Saw for me.
Looks good! That's exactly how I modded my muffler, but I find mine is significantly louder. I also run an 8 pin sprocket, but only with a 13" bar. If I ever have to put my 18" back on I'll switch back to the 7 pin.
Yeah, mine wasn't having the 8 pin on the 18" bar. For small limbing it might be ok, but the saw whimpered when fully buried in wood. My ability to judge the loudness might be hampered due to my wearing ear plugs most of the time when I'm cutting...so the noise doesn't really matter I guess.
I also wear ear plugs 99% of the time, but I have fired the saw up once or twice when I was picking up logs and found one that wasn't cut all the way though and didn't bother to put in plugs. And it's LOUD!
So it'll sound like I'm doing way more than I actually am when I run it! I should have taken db levels to compare. Pretty sure there's free smart phone apps for that nowadays.
About the same way I did my 550 MM when I ported it. Painted clutch cover and added a 372xp double dawg small set with Stihl chain roller, blued the dawgs and the 16" Cannon picco bar, and painted handlebar black
She's a beauty! Bet it runs pretty good too! My main reason for the 562 spike was to keep the saw from falling over every time I set it down...works good! What part number is the small set dawgs? I have the large ones on my 2166 and thought about going a little smaller.
Couldn't resist and took it for a spin today. A little honey locust. Can't say that I noticed an earth shattering difference, but it really seemed to be running well.
