Chain saw's

[Harry Robinette]

HI All
Theres been allot of talk of chain saws in the last couple weeks.I thought I'd chime in on something I've found very helpful.
All of my 2 cycle equipment I've found start easier run better and have allot less maintenance if I use high test gas instead of regular. My 6 year old Pulan chain saw starts
on the 2 pull all the time,my leaf blower is 7 years old it starts and runs better then new and my weed waker is the same.My neighbor who was 86 told me to use it and I have ever sense. He said the higher octane is better for the engine because of the oil mix.
Just thought I'd let everyone now, it's sure helped me.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Yup - have been doing the same thing for many years! Makes a huge difference in starting!

[Keith E Byrd]

Thanks for the tip - I will upgrade my gas can!

[Ron Jones near Indy]

Along these lines--Stihl specifies mid-grade instead of regular. At least they did when I bought my last saw about 3 years ago.

[Bill Blasic]

We have in our club a Stihl Rep and he says to use the best high test you can get but only a gallon at a time. Gas does get old and fresh works best.
Bill

[Rick Cicciarelli]

Yeah, the local Stihl Rep was also telling me that it may start to get more difficult to find acceptable gas. They are talking about adding more ethanol to gas at the stations apparently? If this happens, it will make it unacceptable for the small engines. In fact, he said it was the ethanol that actually causes everyone problems...wearing down the rubber parts faster or something along those lines. If you are not going to use the saw for long periods of time he also suggested running it dry and not leaving any gas in the tank/carb.

[Brian Effinger]

Great tip, Harry. I'm going to do it.
My chain saw and weed whacker thank you. :)

[Bob Bergstrom]

It is the ethanol that makes them run too lean. If the engine gets hot enough under heavy use, it will cause preignition which leads to all kinds of problems. This is a picture of a friend of mine making planks from some hard maple. Soon after this photo was taken his engine seized up and he had to rebuild the top half of the engine. The Stihl rep said the same as noted above, use the best gas you can get and keep it fresh.
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn274/bbergst/IMG_1026.jpg

[Dan Forman]

I recently picked up a Stihl MS220, a pro line electric chain saw. I do most of my cutting at home, live in the city where noise is a factor, and was getting tired of disposing of old gas/oil mixture (Stihl recommends not using gas older than 6 weeks, even with stabilizer), which requires a trip to the toxic disposal site out of town. The electric works surprisingly well, makes a lot less noise, creates no exhaust, and obviously there is no fuel mix to worry about. It performs about as well as my MS 260 Pro, weighs about the same too. Of course, it's not much good for remote locations, but in a pinch, I could even use it in the basement. With all of this talk about raising ethanol levels, it's looking like an even better investment.

Dan

Dan

[Bob Bergstrom]

I have an old Milwaukee electric demolition chainsaw. It weighs a ton, but has a ton of toque, and I have yet to stall it in a cut. It has a 16" bar and what appears to be a router motor for power. I have been using it more and more in my basement shop instead of the bandsaw. It is much easier to sharpen that chainsaw than my bandsaw and the teeth stay sharp a lot longer. It does make a mess but I use it right in front of the lathe which is a mess anyway.

[Hayes Rutherford]

Harry, part of my income is from tree thinning, stump grinding, and vegetation management so I put a lot of fuel through chain saws and other equipment. I buy 100 octane, low lead, no alcohol AV gas. Aircraft can't deal with all the problems associated with junk fuel and that is what you get a the pumps. I feel motors that aren't used often do better with av gas in their tanks than regular gas and one of the stabilizers available. So do yourself a favor and get some av gas for your small motors and saw gas.