I took the 350 back to the saw whisperer. The carb held both pressure and vacuum. Tore into it and found nothing glaringly wrong. Put the carb back together, back into the saw. Hooked everything back together, and got it running. Still seems like it's flooding for some reason. We left the idle a tad high and when I'm out in the yard, doing other stuff, I'm going to just let it idle for a while, just to run it. I still have some noodling to do, so I'll finish that. I don't have any logs lines up to cut, so idling will have to do.
I grabbed a 350 for a bill several years ago. It had a new cylinder put on by a dealer and they used clear silicone and the screws were finger tight. The silicone was all inside the motor and packed in the spark plug. Just a mess. I tore it down, cleaned it, and ported the heck out of it. It ran great for about 10 seconds. I found an air leak by the pto bearing. Tore it down, used a little more sealer, and it ran longer, but still lost tune. Air leak in the same spot. I tore it down and it turns out the bearing had gotten hot enough before the dealer got it that it melted the case enough to deform it. I got a new case last year and will be putting it together soon. There are all kinds of problems that can be overlooked on these saws. Hope it gets going soon.
The behavior I noticed while idling, is that it would "surge". IE: I could hear the revs slow, then increase. It did that a few times, then stalled. I fired it up this morning, using the hold throttle until it starts, technique. No surging after yesterday's take apart, and idle adjustment. I let it idle, while I went off doing other things. It finally went dry after about 30mins. I'll add a bit of fuel tomorrow morning and let it idle dry again. Then, i'll give it chance to cut something. Stay tuned.
While mowing the lawn this morning, I figured good time for saw idle time. Poured some fuel in it. Got it to start. I mowed while it idled. When I was done with the yard, I noticed saw had stopped. It had run dry. I put more fuel in, got it to start, and cut a 4in ash stump. I'll fire it up in a few days and see how it goes.
I had just finished mowing the lawn and had a few minutes. So..... I fired it up and made several noodling cuts. The 350 coughed after 3 pulls. Closed the choke and it started 4 pulls later. It was running fine. The idle was still set high. I left it like that for now. It'll get adjusted once I have some logs to buck.
Took the 350 out this morning. Cutting some elm and cherry, and noodling some ash chunks. It ran pretty good. No real issue getting it running. Had several hot restarts, and it fired up. It cuts real well, compared to the Huskys I've owned. I suspect that more use, and gas tank refills, it'll be just fine.
I'd appreciate opinions. I took the saw to my local OPE shop. I hear that the piston is scored. To repair, $300. Is that reasonable?
I'm going to pick it up tomorrow. So long as it'll start, I'll cut with it. I don't think that'll cause any additional problems. I have some good sized red oak logs and it would be nice to cut with the 350.
No! Not reasonable. A Meteor piston is about $40. Cylinder can more than likely be salvaged. If it's scored, don't try and run it like that. You'll kill the top end.
Just an fyi, if you don't have someone close.. I'd be more than willing to help fix er up. Shipping each way probably $30-35, $40 piston. I'll be at the PA GTG if you know anyone going and could pass it off. There's a couple known issues that could cause air leaks which lead to scoring. I'm familiar w/ all of them. You can get pretty clean entire saws locally for $200ish, so 3 is just not worth it IMO. First thing to see is the piston. If you want. remove the muffler and pull the cord and show pics of the ring area and the lower portion. If it's not hateful, I use this method: The Nikasil plating on the inside of that cylinder is very tough stuff.
Thanks for the info. And I very much appreciate the offer. Another member has reached out to me and offered to take a look at it. That would be M2theB. He's a comfortable ride through the country from me, and has looked at this saw when I first acquired it. He was able to clear up a few other issues with it. As with other saws, this one works well, when it works.
Piston is scored. This saw has two knocks against it. Clam Shell: those hold down bolts underneath loose just enough to let that riser leak at the plastic case. They were leaking pretty good on a pressure test. Only got a 32nd turn on them and they seemed to hold. The second is that plastic clip to cylinder connection. That is the death of lots of saws with that design. You can see the big bubbles in the pic during pressure test. It’s leaking pretty good. Haven’t pulled then jug yet to see what it looks like. seals were holding, but I had a hard time getting the test much over 5 psi.
