Thread: show us your chainsaws

First saw was a stihl 041AV, It still goes (haha) ,then I had only Husky's for years but the toughest-saw I had was a Dolmar that only died because of electrics . I now use an older 034AV (metal-case) and a first-gen 025 plastic . The biggest surprise and my 'New-Favourite' is $150 Ozito-saws from bunnings , I have two of them and they are amazing for what they are . You can climb and limb some surprisingly large-trees with them . The first ones were green, 25-1 , the latest grey-ones are 40-1 , they swap-them-out if anything goes wrong , only fault I've seen so-far is they oil-properly or they don't . One definitely revs a bit higher than the other, but thats it .I work them hard and they appear to handle-it , I never use 2-stroke oil made by castrol, even if it is Stihl-oil made under licence by them, a retired ch-saw mechanic told me every saw he rebuilt , using Castrol over-its-life , was scrap .

Interesting on the Castrol thing, they make oil that's repackaged under a fair few brands and there usually isn't any indication of who made it after the individual branding on the can. What I'm sort of wondering, is how does the mechanic actually know what's run on what?

Interested in the Castrol oil claim too. Over the last 45 years Castrol has been one of the best oils I’ve used, covering all engine/transmission types.

As far as I'm aware there are not that many companies making the 'base' oil stocks that are then mixed with additives, metallic soaps and thickeners as required to meet the specification they need to. Mobil and Sinopec are two of the outfits making base stocks - and from what I know I don't think Castrol is one? Which means the issue is in the additive packs in the 2-stroke brews which really shouldn't cause that sort of issue from what I know.

I know of several large outfits who have gone over to or specified Castrol 2-stroke oils as one of the 'listed' approved products they expect their people to procure and use (the high-zinc Activ 2T being one of the main ones), and from what I experienced after they've done that the failure rate has dropped... There's still the odd blow up for whatever reason, and the odd person cocking it up but on the whole things have improved. Could be due to the increased knowledge amongst the crews on how to do the 2-stroke thing as likely as the actual oil used, but either way the oil seems to not have a major negative effect on the equipment failure rate.

I'm currently using a mix of Mobil Stihl HP and Castrol Garden 2T, both of which I think are produced by Castrol? And in all my 2-stroke fluids box I have Mobil Outboard Plus, Yamalube 2T and BP Powerstroke and I think two of those are made by Castrol as well!

I run a supposedly highly strung 2 stroke enduro bike that's meant to have a new piston and rings every 80 hours or so, and only be fed special fully synthetic 2T oils.

But I just run it with a tad more oil (40:1 instead of 50 or 60:1) on a mediocre fully synthetic 2 stroke oil (Total) and I am pushing 550 hours with only one replacement piston and rings @ 240 hours. Still runs like a swiss watch. Used it to shame some 18 year olds in some gnarly terrain last weekend "Try and keep up with the old fart!"

The same fuel containers feed my Husky 394 and 395. 394 was fed a diet of straight petrol in 2002 and gifted to me after it seized. I rebuilt using genuine Husky parts and it still pulls strong. But I am sure its heavier now than it felt in 2003

buckin billy ray...did a speil on the castrol oil thing..... he likes it.
I quite like any 2 stroke that is heavily dyed...makes it harder to double dose a tin of fuel. had some outboard motor stuff from warehouse...some american brand...it was great stuff and the saws liked it too... you can get away with mixing two types...but 3 is asking for trouble. used 30/40 motor oil and any thing sitting around for years and years..now it proper 2 stroke and my saws run much better for it. havent adjusted an idel etc for year now Im using decent fuel.

It's interesting delving into the specs of the various oils (or as much as you can without access to the company tech sheets which have a lot more info about the characteristics of the goop). One of the ones that I find interesting is the density of the super-trick fully synthetic 2-stroke oils can be much higher density than the others, Stihl HP Ultra is quite high at .94 versus Stihl HP at .87 or so which is pretty much what most engine oils run at...

I know 'The Great oil-Debate' is a huge 'Can-of_Worms' . I also know from experience with 4-stroke engines , that the 'more' regularly you change oil, at more-frequent intervals, the-longer the engine lasts . I was in a position years ago , to have free-oil , and changed my oil every couple of months (3.3 Vauxhall) . The oil eventually looked like new @ each change and the motor was tight and strong after 350,000 miles, not k's . Motorcycle oils are dead @ 1200miles, according to a Scientist-biker in The States (shared-gearbox machines ) . He tested every bike-specific-oil on the market (over there) and the only one that stood-out was Mobil-1 in m/cycle equivalent , the rest looking more like 'Snake-oil' . My take-away from that was , change my bikes @ 1000m with the cheapest jaso-ma 1 or 2 oil and I've done that ever-since, with NO problems in any bike . Ive owned 51-bikes over too-many years , down to 4 now . With the 'Castrol-Statement' , my retired- friend was referring to customers Saws in-particular , that he had serviced, over the-life of the saw . He is an exceptional Mechanic and wouldn't make that 'call' lightly . I know from research that some Castrol Synthetic oils , are NOT true-synthetics like Mobil-1 . They are much-cheaper hydro-cracked-oil marketed as equal to Mobil and Others making 'True-Synthetics' . Mobil took Castrol to the High-Court over this, and Lost , because The Court considered the oil had been changed-enough to be 'Called' Synthetic . If I can find the link to the 'Bike-oil' testing, I will put it up. It was the most comprehensive-testing I've ever seen , and just Very interesting to go-through .

I hear that, my take on most 4stroke oils is run to the quoted spec rigidly - unless you are trying to achieve something specific like trying to extend the life of an engine with tired valve guides or similar that really isnt worth the expense of a full head job so you've elected to run a grade thicker oil... Especially trying to run skinny synthetic in an older engine has never been a goer for me - we got 'basically given' a drum of synthetic engine oil that was rated 10w50 and promised 24k gold sludge flowing from the exhaust. Unfortunately we discovered that claim was a little optimistic, and the blue smoke from the exhaust meant we couldn't see the gold!

2stroke is a little different, as it uses the fuel to carry the oil to where it needs to go 'total loss'. Also, the oil amount is restricted in how much it can do to combat heat - a lot of people run their small engines at half throttle which does two things 1) it reduces the flywheel speed and the amount of air the cooling vanes on the flywheel are pushing over the cylinder cooling fins and 2) it reduces the amount of air/gas moving through the engine and out the exhaust which actually increases the heat buildup on the exhaust side of the cylinder head. If you've got a piston/cylinder showing a lot of nipping up on the clutch side of the cylinder by the exhaust port, that is normally considered to be a lean running at full throttle condition. That condition can also be from not running at full throttle, or running the engine in an 'overload' condition where you are using the cutting tool that is designed for 'X.XKw' at 'YYYYRPM' at full throttle, at a Kw/RPM combo that is quite a bit less than that at anything under full throttle.

so a 15hp 2 stroke motor use for trolling???? a plurry good hoon around a couple of times during the day???

My experience of 2strokes is they don't usually like that much (long periods at idle) although the newer versions and water-cooled 2strokes in general are much happier at lower throttle settings than their air-cooled mates. 4stroke engines are much better all around, with the probable exceptions of initial purchase cost and maybe weight in some circumstances. But, on an older boat I'd still buy it happily if it had a 2stroke outboard that was healthy and in good nick and it's really a 'run what ya brung' scenario in that case - making the best of what you've got!

This is my collection of creamsicles .

She lives again!
Acid dipped the cylinder to remove the bulk of the piston material deposited in the bore after seizure.
Then honed the bore till it was looking as good as I could hope for.
Fitted a new piston, and we’re back in business.
Bought a new 881 to replace this for slabbing, so this one can wear a 36” hard nose for occasional use.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by MSL

She lives again!
Acid dipped the cylinder to remove the bulk of the piston material deposited in the bore after seizure.
Then honed the bore till it was looking as good as I could hope for.
Fitted a new piston, and we’re back in business.
Bought a new 881 to replace this for slabbing, so this one can wear a 36” hard nose for occasional use.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Excuse me piggy backing on this thread.
Have just acquired a log splitter and rather than put a log lifter on it ( running it horizontal) thought I would quarter up rings.
Question is it worth getting a ripping chain for this.
Will be Nitens and Saligna gum heading towards 1m diameter.

Originally Posted by MSL

She lives again!
Acid dipped the cylinder to remove the bulk of the piston material deposited in the bore after seizure.
Then honed the bore till it was looking as good as I could hope for.
Fitted a new piston, and we’re back in business.
Bought a new 881 to replace this for slabbing, so this one can wear a 36” hard nose for occasional use.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My 84 had a lucky escape,started sounding odd then wouldn't start again. The head bolts had somehow backed off and broken the seal . Amazingly there was no damage to piston, bore or any other important little bits so it's back in the mill and on we go . If it had gone buggerup I don't think I would have gotton a new one.