Where’s the best place or way to increase performance with a chainsaw.

[Deere Dude]

I’m not paying it either. The saw holds nearly a quart of fuel and probably runs 20 minuets on it.

I never bought Tru-fuel either. But to be fair, I would consider a can just to make sure the fuel isn't causing poor performance.

I have a friend who came to me two years ago with his under-performing new Echo chainsaw. I told him to get some new gas or some Trufuel. He said he had good gas, so I let it go.
He took his saw to a dealer for carb. adj. with no satisfaction, twice. By then I thought his carb. was not set right and the dealer wouldn't pull the limiters and adjust the set screws. I figured he will be satisfied with a crappy running saw. I talked to him a couple days ago and he said his saw runs very good now and I asked him what he did. He got some canned gas.

I would get a can just to see if that will make it perform better.

 

[atsah]

A chainsaw will have more power with 93 octane ethanol fuel than 87 octane non ethanol fuel. You just want to empty the saw of it when not in use.

 

[MossRoad]

A chainsaw will have more power with 93 octane ethanol fuel than 87 octane non ethanol fuel. You just want to empty the saw of it when not in use.

Nope. Octane doesn't increase power.

 

[4570Man]

Nope. Octane doesn't increase power.

Neither does the ethanol. I’m not seeing that as a winning proposition.

 

[atsah]

Why is the premix 95 octane? If they could premix 87 octane non ethanol wth the same result why would they use 95? Octane makes a difference, I have proven it many times adjusting 2 stroke carbs.

 

[atsah]

Mixing 87 octane non ethanol lowers the octane rating of the fuel significantly. You are probably closer to 82.

 

[dragoneggs]

Re: Where痴 the best place or way to increase performance with a chainsaw.

90 octane ethanol free and 90 octane with ethanol is still 90 octane. It makes no difference. If your saw calls for 90 octane, use 90 octane. If you mess with the porting or timing and that causes a predetonation, higher octane may help with that. The only concern with gas with ethanol is storage long term. If you empty your saw after usage and don't let it sit for months at at time, you'll never have ethanol related issues.

Yep, ethanol is just not good for long term running of small engines without maintenance.

Sharp chains are good and all...
.....but don't forget to file down the rakers.

Yep, the bite needs to be controlled. If your tooth height is getting shorter compared to your rake, you are not being an efficient eater.

Neither does the ethanol. I知 not seeing that as a winning proposition.

Yep, I wish I would have learned this a few decades back.

 

[atsah]

Neither does the ethanol. I’m not seeing that as a winning proposition.

If you have a low power issue with a 372XP you either have a very long bar on your saw or you have a fuel or a carburetor problem..

 

[4570Man]

If you have a low power issue with a 372XP you either have a very long bar on your saw or you have a fuel or a carburetor problem..

The saw runs good until just recently when the carburetor fell out of adjustment. That wasn’t the point of this thread. Chains weren’t the point of this thread either. Obviously a good sharp chain is better than a dull one or one with bad rakers. The point was if gaining more power was practical. Since we’ve already gone off the rails ( I’m not upset, if you can’t handle that this isn’t a good website for you) what is the easiest most fail proof way to adjust a carb.

 

[MossRoad]

Re: Where痴 the best place or way to increase performance with a chainsaw.

Neither does the ethanol. I遏･ not seeing that as a winning proposition.

We all know that we should run the octane rating that's recommended by the manufacturer. 93 octane in an 87 octane engine will do nothing. Unless, of course, you have say, a large carbon buildup in the saw that is raising compression and creating a predetonation condition. Then a higher octane could help with the predetonation and seem to increase power. It's not increasing power. It's running like it would on 87 if it were carbon free.

If you have a saw that you want to get some more oomph out of, the easiest way is to modify the muffler and adjust the carb. But before you do that, as others have suggested, pull the muffler and look inside the cylinder to see if it's all carboned up in there. If it is, get some gaskets, tear it down, clean it out, and put it back together again. Adjust the carb correctly, etc... and off you go.

All the talk about adjusting the squish.... don't go there unless you want to, but it's a waste of time. The saw should run well in stock configuration. A muffler mod is easier to accomplish. Buy a second muffler if you're not sure, so you can go back to stock configuration easily. Also fun to switch back and forth to see the differences.

I did quite a bit of work on my motorcycle back in the early 80's. It's a Yamaha RD400 two-stroke twin. Once you start messing with getting more power out of a two stroke engine, you're going to go down the road of compromise. The more power you try to make at the top, the harder it is to have any low-end power. Now you don't need power at the low end on a chainsaw, because you typically run them full trigger. So you're after more power at the top end. That means you want it to suck in and burn as much fuel as possible. Opening up the muffler a bit is a pretty easy way to accomplish that.

On my bike, I installed expansion chambers and mildly ported and polished the exhaust ports. I also installed lighter reed valves and HUGE carbs, and milled the heads to increase compression just a bit. We never messed with squish adjustments (it wasn't called squish back then, that I recall, but it's the same thing). It wasn't worth the effort for the amount of power gained compared to all the other modifications. Exhaust and carbs is where it's at.