357XP Dropped and now it leaks oil, help!

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Deadman

ArboristSite Operative
Joined
Dec 25, 2006
Messages
211
Reaction score
12
Location
Wi
So I was cutting with my 357XP and in between cuts I ran out of fuel, so I walked the saw back to the truck in a hurry to get the fuel and oil to refill it. I tripped on a branch and ended up dropping or almost throwing the 357XP and it landed in the woods on leaves and mulch, but it landed pretty hard. I finished my cutting that day (not much left to cut at that point). 2 days later I decided to take the 357XP back out and cut the logs up that I hauled out. I obviously filled the fuel and oil tanks and set the saw in my truck. When I arrived 5 minutes later, there was a noticeable puddle of bar oil under my saw (2 inch diameter). This saw has never leaked any noticeable oil, so now I got worried!
I decided to cut a few logs up and see how it did. Well, my pants had oil stains on them which they never did before and I get this mental sensation that the saw has lost power. I'm not super scared of the oil leak, but my question is can it possibly be sucking unmetered air into the engine somehow and causing it to run lean? I DON'T want to blow this engine up if I can avoid that. (I ran the RPM's up to max and it 4 stroked nicely like it should, so I wasn't super worried, but it just felt lazy) I looked at the spark plug after I ran it for 15 minutes and its perfect cardboard brown color, BUT that color could be from previous running.

Any suggestions on what to look at as to this oil leak and if it "could" leak unmetered air into the engine? If I set the saw down siting upright, the oil leaks out below the clutch from the general area of behind the crankshaft. I didn't rip it apart to pinpoint the leak yet.

Thanks in advance for any help!
 
Check if the case is not cracked close to bar studs or elsewhere if really dripping started after dropping the saw.As for power loss,its not related to oil problem but you can remove the exhaust and check for piston seizure.
 
I looked thru the spark plughole and the cylinder itself is still all crosshatches, not a single vertical scratch that I would see, so I'm thinking the power is maybe just in my head. I was cutting some dry Hard Maple, so Maybe the wood cut hard! I guess I was just "on alert" with the new oil leak!
I'll do some more looking on the case, but after removing the bar and chain I couldn't see anything that looked broker or cracked at all.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top