066 mag project, poly or metal?

[nilzlofgren]

I know this topic has been beat to death, but I need to know so I can get started. As far reliability,durability, and the ease of finding parts, should I start my project with an old style crankcase with metal flywheel, or new style crankcase with a poly flywheel. Or does it even matter? I don't care about the rpm vs. torque debate. I just want to get started.
Thanx, John
P.S. also, what about generator vs. magneto? Or does that depend on what style I go with?

 

[Cut4fun]

Just put it this way. I have a poly flywheel and dropped a top cover spacer inside the flywheel area. I didnt know I dropped it. Well while running saw, i found pieces of plastic fins.
I dont think this would have happened had it had a metal flywheel. Just my 2 cents.
Poly fly new at dealer is $103. Online non-dealer Poly $15-$60.
Metal ones online $15-$45. This is just my findings on my last search for a flywheel.
Hope it helped some.

 

[hautions11]

I started the thread on Poly Vs Metal. I ended up with a Poly saw for a couple of reasons. I believe the longevity is slightly better and there are more low hour clean ones on the market. If I found a relly nice metal flywheel saw for a good price , I would not hesitate to buy it. What I tended to find was very well used older saws for $350-$400 and relatively new saws with low hours for $450. That led me to a newer saw more then the poly Vs metal debate.

 

[RiverRat2]

Ive got both and I think Lakeside has said it there was a batch of bad cranks, in the Metal Flywheel era,,,,, and to fix it Stihl beefed up the crank and made the switch to the poly models,,,, I guess Im lucky cause I have a good one,, it runs great and has no problems and I hammer on it regularly but,,, I have a several poly ones and they get the same beating,,,, bucked up a 40" DBH live oak and a 24" pine with my poly today in about thirty min.s would have been alot quicker but that Oak had a ton of those long sprawling limbs about 20-12" diameter and big multi split crotches

 

[Lakeside53]

If it was me, I just use the version with the beefed up crank - it was done for a reason.

 

[RiverRat2]

There you have it!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[MOE]

Is there a year that the better crank came out? Is there any difference between a 066 and magnum 066?

 

[Lakeside53]

Early 1996.

Magnum? That's a misused marketing term. Once it referrred to Dual Port muffler systems or the "next level" of a particular saw/blower, then it got applied to many others, so just rely on the serial numbers and dates of manufacture.

 

[Stihl #1]

I am looking at an old bulletin,and it says that the poly flywheel started at serial number 133917066. BTW, most older STIHL literature may show serial numbers starting with an X, so the bulletin actually has X33917066, since the first number designates the country the unit was built in, so 1 is Geramny, 2 is US.
So anyway the red light saws had a rev-limiter built into the ignition module, and then that was dropped in '94 to no rev-limiter at serial 131067164, then the change to the poly at the above serial number. And then then the module changed again but still uses the poly flywheel.
Also there is a replacement flywheel for the 064 and 066 that has 2 key slots in it, the one labeled X or B is for no rev-limiter, and the one labeled P is for the red light units.
Hope that is of some use.

 

[nilzlofgren]

I don't have serial numbers, but i have part numbers.
For the flywheel, they all start with 1122 400 12, than the last two digits differ.
Last two digits: 17 for: 066, 066M, 066MR, 066BR
18 for: 066W
02 for: 066 Arctic
(previous model) 18 for: 066 Arctic
(previous model) 14 for: 066, 066M, 066MR, 066BR
(previous model) 16 for: 066W, 066 Arctic