Chain Saw Destroyed By Neighbor

I have a MS290 Farm Boss that I use a lot. I’ve run the hell out of it in hot weather and never had an issue. But before you get too upset, remember these are small, relatively inexpensive high RPM air cooled 2 strokes. Even bigger, more expensive, better designed 2 strokes burn down (moment of silence for all the 2 stroke snowmobiles I’ve killed lol). As others have said, sometimes there is no rhyme or reason why these things burn down if that’s what happened. If the piston has been married to the cylinder, pitch it and grab a new saw.

I have only ever used the small pre measured stihl 2 stoke oil and mix with exactly .9 gallon of 90 ethanol free gas from my local gas station. What fuel I don’t use up on a project is used to start the fire to burn off the brush I create. Next time I use the saw, fresh gas and oil every time. And big picture, no sense tripping over what’s behind you.

That being said, I wouldn’t loan out my Stihl. I have a little 16” Craftsman I hand off to my brother in law or other people that need a saw here and there. I’ve probably loaned it out 3 times in 5 years. It’s rough, lacks power, is heavy as hell, but it runs okay. If people need more than the Craftsman can manage, time for them to rent or buy their own.

good luck!

 

2018 Limited, this chainsaw has only been used 2 times. I didn’t even have it for 2 weeks. No reason for it needing a cleaning. When the mechanic took it apart, he said everything was really clean.

 

I misunderstood you then. You stated they were ordering a new carb for you I assumed it was because it possibly sat around rather than the technician recommended it because he thinks it’s defective from the factory. When you said brand new I didn’t realize 2 weeks brand new. I’ve had gas go bad in my ktm that sat for 4 months once.

 

"When someone asks you to borrow your tools loan them your wife.

You know what they'll do with your wife. You don't know what they'll do with your tools"...

Told to me by an engineer on my first day working for Westinghouse Filed Service...

 

You know Damm well he ran straight gas through it.

 

From the Instruction book:

"At temperatures above +20 °C: always return the slide to the position for summer operation.

otherwise risk of engine malfunction due to overheating!"

Page 23 Winter Operation

Was/is the slide set to summer operation? If not heated air is circulated around the carb and overheating occurs.

Just tryin' to eliminate it as a cause.

https://static.stihl.com/baonline/01_146.pdf

 

My first thought as well.

He might of mistaken the bar/chain oil hole as the engine oil feed. And figured he was putting oil in there.

 

Most Stihl engines are rebuildable, my neighbors have a logging operation, have used Stihls for decades, rebuilt several throughout the years. I guess the part that really sucks is, your neighbor borrows it, and it get damaged, and he makes NO effort to "help" repair it. Where I live we constantly exchange equipment (tractors, excavators, dozers, grain drills, plows, discs, etc.) with the understanding that if you borrow it and break it, you "help" repair it to the condition you received it. That's just that!

 

When I bought my chainsaw, the warranty was for one year unless you bought Stihl premixed can of gas, then the warranty was for 2 years. I bought the premixed gas for $36 for one gallon. I used the chainsaw one day and the next day, it would not idle at all. I took it back to Ace Hardware and let them handle it because it’s brand new and under warranty. Ace has to recommend to Stihl any problems before anything can be done. According to the mechanic at Ace, everything was clean and looked good, but, he could not get it to idle at all.

 

Update! OK, thanks for that ECHO link. This confirms my suspicion about the hot 100 degree+ weather probably doing in my saw. I should have known better- a small air cooled engine. He was going at it out there pretty hard- While I was home I could hear the saw running. He WASN'T taking frequent breaks to let the saw "cool off".

I've had time now to take the muffler off to try to take a look inside. It doesn't look good at all. Crap. I can't get a good pic of what I'm seeing by trying to use my cell phone camera. Well the saw is pretty old, as I mentioned in my original posting here.

I've already found a used replacement, thanks to wifey. (Well we shall see, I need to see if I can get the dam thing running.) She somehow in phone conversation with one of her lady friends found out that the lady's husband had a chain saw that he can't use because he can't start it. They are an older couple. Older than me even, ha ha. We drove over to take a look at the saw the other day. It's a STIHL MS271 FARM BOSS with a 20" bar. Outwardly the thing looks good, like almost brand new.

The guy told me he just doesn't have the strength to pull start it, so he bought an electric chain saw instead. Glancing around their property, I don't know why he even bought such a big saw with such a long bar on it anyway. But I didn't ask or say anything. He had me try to start it, but it wouldn't start for me. It popped (fired) once, but I had to quit on it, it pooped me out as well, lol. It does pull hard. I might have flooded it, I don't know. But I sniffed the fuel in it and dumped a little bit out. I think the fuel is bad. I asked the guy how old the fuel was in the tank. He said probably 2 or 3 years old. Fuck....

I told him I think I'm going to pass on it, thanks anyway. But he told me to just take it home and see if I could get it running with fresh fuel. He told me if I could get it running to my satisfaction he'd sell it to me for $50.00. He told me if I couldn't get it running just bring it back to him. So I thought wow, this thing was probably many hundreds of dollars brand new. He even had a carry case for it. But he couldn't find the book to it while we were there. He said he'd look for it and let me know if he finds it.

So, I brought it home. I haven't screwed with it yet. I'm going to get a new spark plug for it, a new air filter, try my good fuel, and see what happens. If I can't get it to start and run doing just that, I'll just take the thing back to the guy and go out and buy me a brand new saw.

Here's some pics of the thing. Maybe I'll get lucky for $50.00. But I'm skeptical for the moment. I'll report back once I try to work on it.

 

Nice find. Hope you get it running.

 

I have that same saw (OG Farm Boss 270) and it has been run often in high temps (90+) so I doubt the air temp was a factor. Not letting it cool down every so often, summer or winter, is really bad for any saw. When I was a firefighter, we would be out for hours clearing storm damage and would alternate saws- after it ran out of fuel we would let it sit and use the next one. Stihl makes great stuff, and the older one's are pretty durable, yet easily and reasonably cheap to rebuild. For $50 that 271 seems like a bargain.

 

Rick G that’s the exact chainsaw I just bought and it was $498. Mine also has the 20 inch bar.

 

Another update! Yesterday afternoon, I was able to get this MS271 running. I put a new NGK brand plug in it, and a new STIHL branded air filter in it. I now have some ethanol free 90 octane fuel in it mixed with my Shindaiwa brand 2 cycle oil of choice. It didn’t look like it particularly needed a new plug or filter, but oh well.

I did have a bit of a hard time getting it started- I ended up having to spray some starting fluid spray down the carb throat to get it going initially- probably still a bit of stale gas down there in it- but at least I didn’t have to take the fuel system apart to get it going.

Subsequent starts yesterday proved easy. And this Sunday morning I did a “cold” start on it and it started on the 5th pull, not too bad. I’ve decided I’m going to take a chance on it and keep it. It runs like a raped ape.

I called the guy this morning and told him I got it running and it seems fine. I’m going over to pay him for it this afternoon. A good bonus for me is he told me he found the book to it, so that’s cool.

I told wifey I’m going to give him $100.00 for it. I feel like I’m still stealing it from him at that price. She agreed with me it’s a nice gesture and to go ahead at 100. He only asked $50.00 if I could make it run. Dam.

So I’m back in business for when I need a saw. I don’t know what I’m going to do with my old one. It’ll probably just set taking up space here for the next 40 years, lol.

I’ve already warned wifey DO NOT railroad me in to loaning out any of my outdoor power equipment ever again. She apologized and said she did not realize the sensitivity or frailness of these machines if not properly operated.

Still no further word from my neighbor who destroyed my saw. I guess I’m just going to keep quiet about it and not say anything. No more loaning out to anyone. If I don’t go along to run my stuff, it ain’t going out. I’m not mad at him. But lesson learned.

 

$100 is a steal!

 

Sweet!!

 

Heck yeah, $100 is indeed a steal. The case alone costs $50 or more and you can use it on whatever Stihl chainsaw you wind up with. And it's a handy place to keep a screwdriver or the Stihl tool you use to adjust the chain tension.

 

Not sure if anyone posted this but I saw a video on a Stihl saw that had a black plastic slide between carb intake & body on R/H side. It has a winter/summer cut out. for summer you slide it in to block hot exhaust air from entering in carb, for winter has hole to allow heated air in to carb. Not sure if that is one older models but thought that was really good on their engineers to do that.

 

The sh&t that I learn on this site!!

I've never heard of letting a saw cool down. I have an Echo with a 16" bar that has cut more than 60 cords of wood over 10 yrs. It's been run as hard as I want it to. Never been babied. I didn't beat the hell out of it, but I ran 'er hard for a few hours at a time. Its' cut logs that I should have gotten a bigger saw. I have always had a smoke and a Coke between fill-ups. Every time. Takes about 7-10 mins. Maybe that was enough to cool down the saw.

 

Next time the neighbor comes over to borrow your saw...lend him the busted one...

 

You should always run an air cooled engine @ idle for 1-2 minutes to help cool down & stop the acidity in the oil 2 or 4 stroke. R/W Turbine engines Mfg have that in the operating manuals. Helps keep the coking down on the oil struts/passages. I did it on my JD X320 & when I use the the Snow thrower do that too even in the winter. (I barely use that cause it's way more fun to plow W/ATV!) Hope we get some good snow storms this winter!