Hello, I just bought my first new chainsaw yesterday, a Stihl MS291! Pumped as all heck, as my previous saws were hand me downs, an MS440, which works great as well, lots of power. Question to all you experts out there: I made the bonehead move of not asking to upgrade to a 3/8 bar and chain, and got the .325 stock one installed. According to the specs, that is factory and when I called the dealer back to ask about the upgrade, he said you can't. So, I don't see how you couldn't just change the sprocket and install the new bar, or am I missing something here? Would love you get your guys/gals input on this! Thanks
Your dealer just does not want to do it for you. I have swapped .325 for .375 numerous times. That said, yes it is just a matter of sprocket/rim bar swap.
Put a 3/8 28 inch bar on that 440, or maybe a 24. That and a 18 or 20 inch .325 bar on that shiny new 291 will make a great 2 saw firewood hoarding duo.
Yeah tried it out tonight and cut some Tamarac some pretty big stuff it ripped through that like nothing I was quite impressed to be honest Sent from my SM-G920W8 using Tapatalk
My son has a 290.Decided to change the bar and sprocket to 3/8 because a lot a people run a 72 72 chain and hey are easy to get.He wasn't long changing it back to .325.
He felt he lost power in the cut.I don't know if it was speed or torque loss which caused it.I know that in smaller wood( 12" or so and less),he can pretty well keep up with my 362.Get in the bigger stuff and mine shows up much better. Both wearing 20" bars.He's 6'3" and I'm 6'+ so the extra helps the back.
It’s could be that it’s not tach tuned ... even operating at 100% a 20” bar is pushing it as far as cutting quickly ... I run an 18” on my 362c and it cuts very quickly ... it’s all in the hp/tq gearing of the application and what you want out of it !
