Is a stihl 038 a good saw and what's it worth?

[Tinman204]

I have to unbolt the jug and see. Can I easily remove the jug or is it a pain?

You dont have to unbolt the jug to measure the bore.

The word "pain" is a relative term I guess. I enjoy working on saws so it's never really a "pain" to me lol!

Like posted above, take a t27 torx, undo the 4 bolts that hold the muffler on, pull over the engine slowly until the piston is blow the exhaust port, stick the straw into the cylinder until it touches the intake side of the cylinder and then turn the engine until the piston squashes the straw.

Pull out the straw and measure.

If you are an auto mechanic like I think you posted above then you should have zero problems removing the jug.

Anything you arent sure of you can figure out via youtube or this forum, theres so much info out there, that its pretty hard to get in a bind.

I've rebuilt a couple saws now and honestly once you dig into them they are pretty simple and easy to work on, especially if you are mechanically inclined.

To answer your question about pulling the jug, pull the muffler, carb, fuel line and then 4 bolts that hold on the cylinder and off the jug comes. Probably a 15 or 20 min procedure.

 

[Mad Professor]

Who and where should I order the piston and cylinder from at $70 I looked on the internet real briefly on saw it again and it was like $89

Read over things again. It's really more like $80, for an OEM piston/rings $62 , and gasket set $17. That is at a Stihl dealer.

If your cylinder is toast , it's Chi-Com ($ ??) or OEM (~ $240) for a P/C kit.

In that case I'd look for good used OEM cyl and get a piston (non-Chi-Com).

If you go Chi-Com all might be good ? But it sure won't last another 30 years like OEM did.

 

[August76]

Read over things again. It's really more like $80, for an OEM piston/rings $62 , and gasket set $17. That is at a Stihl dealer.

If your cylinder is toast , it's Chi-Com ($ ??) or OEM (~ $240) for a P/C kit.

In that case I'd look for good used OEM cyl and get a piston (non-Chi-Com).

If you go Chi-Com all might be good ? But it sure won't last another 30 years like OEM did.

I'll see if we have any straws in the house somewhere I have a bore gauge but I'm going to pull it off of there I did see the farmer Tech on eBay for $24 that's kind of tempting

 

[August76]

The cylinder looks pretty bad from looking inside the muffler just try any little grooves everywhere evenly across the piston and the cylinder walls and rings

 

[August76]

I'm gunna pull it right now. Just took off muffler again. More pics
Lots of carbon in muffler

 

[August76]

It looks like it has a boar slightly bigger than 2 in or exactly 2 in but I have to find my micrometer or a metric tape measure

 

[Tinman204]

I'll see if we have any straws in the house somewhere I have a bore gauge but I'm going to pull it off of there I did see the farmer Tech on eBay for $24 that's kind of tempting

First off I'd pull the jug and see if it can be saved before I order anything but that's just me.

I had 1 ms260 this spring that the piston was badly and I mean badly scored and the cylinder cleaned right up. I ended up throwing a farmertec piston in that one and it's been cutting wood ever since with zero issues.

As for farmertech cylinders, I'm not so convinced about those. Last one I saw looked good and was of acceptable quality.

I just received a farmertec Ms260 jug a couple weeks ago that not only did it have several broken fins from being dropped but the ports/castings look terrible. The exhaust port looks to be about 1/4 smaller then an OEM jug. Also the chamfers on the ports are almost non existant.

Still waiting on whether I'm getting this jug replaced under warranty or what. I bought it as it was the only economical way to get this particular saw running again and I was going to port it anyhow so no biggie but I'd be scared to run it as is, pretty sure it will catch a ring and or have little power.

 

[Tinman204]

It looks like it has a boar slightly bigger than 2 in or exactly 2 in but I have to find my micrometer or a metric tape measure

52mm = 2.047"

 

[August76]

52mm = 2.047"

I used a popsicle stick since it's rigid wiggle it around in there to make sure and measured it and it was 2 in or a little bit more that's just kind of redneck measuring I'm taking the jug off right now

 

[Mad Professor]

You dont have to unbolt the jug to measure the bore.

The word "pain" is a relative term I guess. I enjoy working on saws so it's never really a "pain" to me lol!

Like posted above, take a t27 torx, undo the 4 bolts that hold the muffler on, pull over the engine slowly until the piston is blow the exhaust port, stick the straw into the cylinder until it touches the intake side of the cylinder and then turn the engine until the piston squashes the straw.

Pull out the straw and measure.

If you are an auto mechanic like I think you posted above then you should have zero problems removing the jug.

Anything you arent sure of you can figure out via youtube or this forum, theres so much info out there, that its pretty hard to get in a bind.

I've rebuilt a couple saws now and honestly once you dig into them they are pretty simple and easy to work on, especially if you are mechanically inclined.

To answer your question about pulling the jug, pull the muffler, carb, fuel line and then 4 bolts that hold on the cylinder and off the jug comes. Probably a 15 or 20 min procedure.

Well put.

I used to teach and some students , won't listen, no matter how hard you try.............

But it's more than 20 minutes unless you're one watches offal fall inside the cases. A crusty old saw takes about an hour for me to clean as I take it apart so 30 years of sludge won't go inside the cases.

Assuming the in sides are O.K. I usually pull the flywheel and clutch first , so I can use a piston stop (e.g. rope) while the jug is still on.

Here is a 038S:
A super for free but seized . Misc parts are from another saw


It's pretty clean already. But then I strip it down and clean....

Now I'll take off the jug, and find this




That piston was damm HUNGRY!!! It ate something? Yes a piece of bearing..........

So now it's a saw I can put a crank in or have LOTS of clean spare parts....LOL

BTW I have OEM cranks and new 038M P/C. When I fix my camera maybe I'll put it together for you all to see.

 

[August76]

Boy I don't think I have a long enough torx to remove the jug. I might have to weld a bit onto a old screwdriver to do this

 

[August76]

T25 or t27 torx?

 

[August76]

Looks like I don't have to make one I found a Torx screwdriver in my toolbox I didn't know I had

 

[August76]

Cleaning as I go along

 

[Mad Professor]

P.S. Here is some more pictures of the carnage. The bearing material came up the intake side.




If you looked through the ex port, prior to take down, the P/C looked nearly new...........LOL

 

[Mad Professor]

52mm = 2.047"

25.4 mm = 1.00"

 

[August76]

Jug off.

 

[August76]

Piston is worse than jug. Jug feels worse near the lower of intake port

 

[August76]

What do you guys use to try to clean up the jug. Maybe it's just piston metal smeared in? The ring I pulled isnt to bad like I had expected

 

[August76]

This is how I like to measure stuff but I'm noticing that this thing is not very accurate or it's not exactly 52 mm