Homeowner with Stihl MS391 looking for help.

[deepsouth]

I'll add my 5 cents.

1. If youre in bigger wood, ie 20-36", you would really benefit from a bigger saw or saws. I have a 95cc (ported) to tackle 28-36" (or bigger) hardwood.

I have a 75cc modern autotune saw that does most of my cutting, generally on wood 12" up to the 24" size.

And a ported 60cc and a stock 40cc for smaller stuff. The 60 has an 18" bar and the 40cc is 14".

All go for wood cutting trips and get used.

2. The trading post section in this forum gets great deals from time to time.

3. There are brands other than Stihl.

4. For that amount of use, I would only own pro saws ( 50 full days a year is basically 1/7 of the year - a fair chunk).

5. Look at getting one or more saws ported - a good woods port / work port will really help them, and you, get it done. I would be careful with muffler mods, and keep the spark arrester screens in place...... You don't want a fire. There's a good selection of porters on this forum.

Good luck
Ian

 

[bajafx4]

I am glad to see you tried the skip chain. I think it definitely helps saws the size of the 391 with the 25" bar on it. I currently have one on my 2171 and I definitely like it better when it comes time to sharpen the chain, but it also works well when I am using the saw to noodle some of the bigger pieces. If you hold your saw at an angle to the wood you are noodling, the stringy wood will be much smaller. A wide discharge clutch cover helps also.

Is the clutch cover from the 362R wider than say a standard 362 or the chute on my 391?

The chain catch really seems to be the biggest problem where they get wadded up. It seems that 25% of the stringy chips go right with the chain around the drive gear and shoot forward off the top front of the bar.

 

[rburg]

I am not familiar with the 362R. I have a 440 that has the wide discharge cover and it has a roller chain catcher and it works very well when noodling. You can clog it but it works much better than a standard clutch cover.

 

[7sleeper]

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I've been using my saw to "split" some really large pieces of old maple just to get them to a manageable size to be moved to the splitter. Cutting with the grain really generates some long stringy chips that jam up in my chain catch. Sometimes they jam up bad enough to jam up and bog down the saw. If I added the 2nd dog so I could install a roller catch and removed the stock chain catch, would it alleviate this problem a bit?

Simple question requires a simple answer. Many saws have this problem. So nothing to worry about. You have a few possiblities.

1. Tilt the sawbody down or up(up to 45°). The chips will become "short" again so you won't have any further problems. Through trial and error you will find the ideal angle.

2. Hold the saw body at a distance (a few inches) from the wood. The chips will clear before reaching your saw. I wouldn't add a second dawg because it will channel the chips towards your saw.

3. You can go into a spending frenzy and buy a new cover, a new saw, a new girlfriend..... I didn't say that! It was autocorrection!

Have fun!

7

 

[Nate66n1]

The second piece they are referring to is the chip deflector I believe. Its the little black rubber thing that hangs out the bottom of the cover. Ill check on mine but it shouldnt really affect anything because the deflector just pushes into the cover. I havent cut with that saw for a while now but ill check when I get home and let you know.

 

[Wolfcsm]

Have a 310 - the smaller brother to the 390 - but with a 390 piston and jug.

Run OREGON LGX on a 18" bar. Noodle 30" to 36" rounds with little issues. As has been stated, keeping the chain sharp is a requirement. Are you comfortable with sharpening?

Muffler mod is a big help.

Clean air filter is another. I go into the woods with an extra every time.

Enjoy.

Hal

 

[Nate66n1]

Have a 310 - the smaller brother to the 390 - but with a 390 piston and jug.

Run OREGON LGX on a 18" bar. Noodle 30" to 36" rounds with little issues. As has been stated, keeping the chain sharp is a requirement. Are you comfortable with sharpening?

Muffler mod is a big help.

Clean air filter is another. I go into the woods with an extra every time.

Enjoy.

Hal

With your muffler mod did you just open the stock exit or did you add another port. Those mufflers are sort of just a can aren't they?

 

[Terry Syd]

A muffler mod on the 029-390 series saws can be done to achieve good flow without a lot noise. Unfortunately, most of the mods you see haven't been thought out well. Yes, they flow, but they make way too much noise.

If you can find a parts manual for the series you will see that the European version has a different muffler with a different front lid. The muffler on the European model has holes in the internal baffle beginning close to the exhaust port - that's what you want to do!

You want the cylinder to blow down quickly. If the exhaust stays in the baffle tube until it reaches the end of the tube, you will have extra gas pressure on the exhaust port. All you have to do is vent the tube close to the exhaust port. Drill/grind the tube close to the port so that the gases can then vent into the body of the muffler.

Since the gases are venting into the body of the muffler at a 90 degree angle, the sonic wave will not go directly out the front of the muffler. The result is a lower tone to the muffler, it makes the saw sound like it has a bigger engine.

The front cover on the European muffler has a larger opening and the vent moves diagonally down across the front of the muffler. That's because the front of the European muffler has a larger opening on the side away from the opening on the cover. The lower right hand hole is shaped like an 'L' laying on its side. Take a look at your cover and muffler and you can see how you can enlarge the openings including extending the lower right hand opening upward towards the bolt.

Since the European cover is not available, you can shape your cover to work even better than the European cover. First cut the opening of the cover WIDER by cutting away the side of the cover just above the where the nut clamps down. The opening will now be from the top down to the nut. You can then take a butane/propane torch and heat up the center of the lid and start hammering it out so that it can flow better. Heat, shape it, stick it in a vise and tweak it a bit, heat and repeat - gradually the cover until enlarge to flow as much as you want.

Do not drill out the center dimple on the muffler. The sonic wave will go directly out the hole. Simply enlarge the small holes/slits around the dimple - there is more than enough material you can remove in those areas to significantly increase the openings.

 

[Nate66n1]

The 391 muffler isn't anything like a 039 390 though. It doesn't have a cover that bolts on the front, it's pretty much just a can.

 

[Wolfcsm]

With your muffler mod did you just open the stock exit or did you add another port. Those mufflers are sort of just a can aren't they?

Put some holes on the inside to free up the flow. Made the exit a bit bigger. There are baffels inside. Start small and see where you find the sweet spot for your saw.

Hal

 

[bajafx4]

Well the MS391 has been getting a workout for about 2 weeks now. In addition to dropping all these trees, it's been cutting up the majority of them... only leaving the smaller stuff for the smaller saws. Here's some pics of what it's been doing. I had so many "noodles" on the ground that I had to rake them in a pile so I wouldn't keep tripping through them.

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I mentioned earlier in this thread that I thought about getting a larger pro saw. I'm pretty sure I've decided on a M-Tronic 441. Someone recommended a Dolmar 7900 and it looks like an excellent saw and the price looks great too, but the local Stihl dealer availability is too hard to pass on.

Also, here's a video of the noodling I was talking about earlier. I'm sure you guys know what it looks like, but I uploaded the video to email to a friend so I thought I may as well share it here too.

Stihl MS391 Noodling - YouTube