Just got the Husqvarna 61 Rancher up and running. It was bought off of E-Bay, a 1983 model.
The piston/ring/jug were messed up a bit. Aside from one very minor scratch in the lowest portion of the jug on the exhaust side, the jug cleaned up fine, as did the piston. I bought a new Husqvarna ring for it, prepped the cylinder walls and kitted the carburetor.
I couldn't resist the opportuninty to do some minor port work, which included the intake manifold, intake elbow, and replacing the throttle and choke flap screws with smaller headed screws. The muffler is still stock, other than removing the divider/screen.
I widened the exhaust port some, and the intake a bit less. Basically just a smoothing up/blending of all the surfaces. The compression came WAY up on the saw, and it idles and runs flawlessly.
The power level is increased, as it should have been since the compression was WAY down before I made the repairs. It's difficult to evaluate the port work, since it didn't have much power before the changes.
At least is doesn't appear that I messed up the timing or anything, idles great, throttle response is fine, plenty of "grunt" when cutting. It doesn't have nearly the power of my 268XPS, at any rpm, and runs much slower in rpm's at peak power. Overall, it really doesn't cut any faster, if as fast as my muffler modded 55. It seems to have a bit more mid-range torque, but the chain speed is noticably slower, and the engine just doesn't SCREAM up to the high rpm's I'm used to from my other Husqvarna saws?
I'm just guessing, but the 268 (and probably the 55) must have considerably different porting to the jug, or is a different design altogether? In any case, the 61 will just sit most of the time, until I can obtain and intake for it, and upgrade to a 268/272 piston/jug......Cliff
The piston/ring/jug were messed up a bit. Aside from one very minor scratch in the lowest portion of the jug on the exhaust side, the jug cleaned up fine, as did the piston. I bought a new Husqvarna ring for it, prepped the cylinder walls and kitted the carburetor.
I couldn't resist the opportuninty to do some minor port work, which included the intake manifold, intake elbow, and replacing the throttle and choke flap screws with smaller headed screws. The muffler is still stock, other than removing the divider/screen.
I widened the exhaust port some, and the intake a bit less. Basically just a smoothing up/blending of all the surfaces. The compression came WAY up on the saw, and it idles and runs flawlessly.
The power level is increased, as it should have been since the compression was WAY down before I made the repairs. It's difficult to evaluate the port work, since it didn't have much power before the changes.
At least is doesn't appear that I messed up the timing or anything, idles great, throttle response is fine, plenty of "grunt" when cutting. It doesn't have nearly the power of my 268XPS, at any rpm, and runs much slower in rpm's at peak power. Overall, it really doesn't cut any faster, if as fast as my muffler modded 55. It seems to have a bit more mid-range torque, but the chain speed is noticably slower, and the engine just doesn't SCREAM up to the high rpm's I'm used to from my other Husqvarna saws?
I'm just guessing, but the 268 (and probably the 55) must have considerably different porting to the jug, or is a different design altogether? In any case, the 61 will just sit most of the time, until I can obtain and intake for it, and upgrade to a 268/272 piston/jug......Cliff
) I can get it with a 10% discount.
