Husky 340, 345, 350 Stingy Oiler?

SteveSr · Oct 11, 2022

Hello,

I have a 2007 vintage Husky 345 E-series (whatever that means) that seems to be pretty stingy with bar oil. Was out cutting a large blowdown 20" dia. so that bar was buried. It looked like it used less than 1/2 tank of oil to about 2/3 tank of gas.

It has a brand new 16" Oregon B&C on it. The chain stretched noticeably and/or the new bar wore in during this time. As part of the rebuild the pump was rebuilt and cleaned and the output rubber was replaced so there are no leaks or blockages. I was surprised that this model had no oil pickup hose or strainer

Is this typical of this series of saws? Anything that can be done to improve this situation without replacing a lot of relatively expensive parts? It looks like some other versions of this chassis had an adjustable oiler but don't know extensive (and expensive) converting would be.

Thanks,
Steve

old guy · Oct 11, 2022

I have a pile of 350s, they all have adjustable oilers.

Pioneer · Oct 11, 2022

Sounds about the right amount of consumption, my 353 uses about the same with the oiler turned to max. A thinner bar oil will flow faster, some people use winter oil year-round.
The chain will stretch a lot in the first half hour, you have to keep on top of it as it might need adjusting several times.

The parts diagram shows a screen for the oil pump.

https://www.partstree.com/models/345-husqvarna-chainsaw-2001-09/crankcase-5/

SteveSr · Oct 12, 2022

old guy said:
I have a pile of 350s, they all have adjustable oilers.

Correct. All of these variants are contained in the same IPL. It looks like the 350 came with the adjustable oil pump.

SteveSr · Oct 12, 2022

Pioneer said:
Sounds about the right amount of consumption, my 353 uses about the same with the oiler turned to max. A thinner bar oil will flow faster, some people use winter oil year-round.

So it looks like this oil flow is common with this series and there is no advantage to converting to an adjustable oiler.

Pioneer said:
The chain will stretch a lot in the first half hour, you have to keep on top of it as it might need adjusting several times.

Yes, it definitely needed adjusting at the end of the session. This is why I was concerned about it not getting enough oil.

When I got the saw it had the bar groove worn out so that is why it got a new bar. I also suspect that the previous user did a significant amount of cutting with a less than sharp chain. The saw was caked in fine sawdust.