I just grabbed up near mint condition 55 off of Ebay, it showed up yesterday. The auction had just started, and was a "buy it now" auction. I noticed it had compression release, and didn't say "Rancher" on the starter cover.
Anyhow, it turned out to be a closed port model like one of my other 55's. It has over 150psi compression, and just needed some TLC to get it up and running. Couple of missing fasteners, new bar/chain, etc.
I thought my other closed port 55 was pretty strong, but not nearly as strong as the new one. My other 55 has 150psi compression, despite having quite a bit of material "smeared" over the piston when I first got it. It cleaned up fine, no parts required, but there are a few pretty heavy scratches in the piston, liner and ring cleaned up nicely.
I'm not sure why the 55 I just picked up has more power, but it is quite noticable. It's also louder, and easily revs past 14,000 rpm's and it still four stroking some. It likes a leaner "H" speed setting as well, and let me know it when I tried to slow it down some with more fuel, power dropped off sharply.
I ran 3 tanks thru it yesterday, even did some cross cutting in some huge red oak sections, never whimpered once and PLENTY of power everyplace. In any case, I was only aware that they made two versions of the 55 as far as P/C's go, some EPA models have a smaller piston and closed port, most were larger cc's and open port. Why would there be a noticable difference in these two closed port saws?......Cliff
Anyhow, it turned out to be a closed port model like one of my other 55's. It has over 150psi compression, and just needed some TLC to get it up and running. Couple of missing fasteners, new bar/chain, etc.
I thought my other closed port 55 was pretty strong, but not nearly as strong as the new one. My other 55 has 150psi compression, despite having quite a bit of material "smeared" over the piston when I first got it. It cleaned up fine, no parts required, but there are a few pretty heavy scratches in the piston, liner and ring cleaned up nicely.
I'm not sure why the 55 I just picked up has more power, but it is quite noticable. It's also louder, and easily revs past 14,000 rpm's and it still four stroking some. It likes a leaner "H" speed setting as well, and let me know it when I tried to slow it down some with more fuel, power dropped off sharply.
I ran 3 tanks thru it yesterday, even did some cross cutting in some huge red oak sections, never whimpered once and PLENTY of power everyplace. In any case, I was only aware that they made two versions of the 55 as far as P/C's go, some EPA models have a smaller piston and closed port, most were larger cc's and open port. Why would there be a noticable difference in these two closed port saws?......Cliff
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