MS361 Big Bore Kit Review

[THALL10326]

thank you, thank you very much!
(volks-man takes a bow)

you THE MAN, Mr. Hall.

Pleasure was all mine, thanks to you I got to tear into my one and only 361
and I found it to be quite fun, I hate those saws, rarely do they ever break down,LOL

 

[blackoak]

More 250's than 290's, homeowners leavem sit for months on in, old gas most times..

About 95% of the saws I wrench on have fuel related problems. First thing I always do is pop the gas cap and take a whiff. Most of the time I can tell that it's going to be fuel related by just looking at the guy that brings it in. They don't have grease under their nails and are wearing loafers.:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[volks-man]

Pleasure was all mine, thanks to you I got to tear into my one and only 361
and I found it to be quite fun, I hate those saws, rarely do they ever break down,LOL

staying slightly on snellings topic....

did you ever carve up the old p/c? what were your results, pray tell?

 

[THALL10326]

About 95% of the saws I wrench on have fuel related problems. First thing I always do is pop the gas cap and take a whiff. Most of the time I can tell that it's going to be fuel related by just looking at the guy that brings it in. They don't have grease under their nails and are wearing loafers.:hmm3grin2orange:

Hey I never thought of that. I'm gonna give that a try, seriously, I am.

Uh sir according to your finger nails there,hahaha

I'm gonna have me some fun,LOLOLOL

 

[THALL10326]

staying slightly on snellings topic....

did you ever carve up the old p/c? what were your results, pray tell?

Stihl told me to take your cylinder and piston on home, they didn't want it back. I grinded the exhaust port a mile too much and ruined it though. I went to put it together and sumthing went ouch, got hung up. You coulda drove a truck thur that exhaust post after I got done ruining it,LOL I still got your piston here though, may come in handly one day, never know....

 

[THALL10326]

Getting back on topic

I was thinking Brad, those BB kits. Seems since they are enlarging the bore I think they would go ahead and port them kits as well. Seems people buying them are thinking more power as well as saving cost over OEM. If I were the maker the ports would be done and advertised for a certain type of cutting. That would make them babies fly off the shelf...

 

[blsnelling]

Shouldn't be hard to do. That would make a lot of engine builders unhappy.

 

[Jacob J.]

Shouldn't be hard to do. That would make a lot of engine builders unhappy.

Nah. No cylinder manufacturer will ever be able to completely replicate all the little things an engine builder does...

 

[Lakeside53]

The 056M2 was ported by Stihl NW... and then made by Mahle to those specs You can see the tooling cutter marks where they rasied the exhaust port.

 

[windthrown]

I was thinking Brad, those BB kits. Seems since they are enlarging the bore I think they would go ahead and port them kits as well. Seems people buying them are thinking more power as well as saving cost over OEM. If I were the maker the ports would be done and advertised for a certain type of cutting. That would make them babies fly off the shelf...

Not a bad idea there Tommy. Must be a fat market in there someplace. I would buy a ported jug for one of my 361s.

The Shelby MS 361

 

[TimberMcPherson]

I can't agree with you there. Your parts prices must be very high, but a guy making a living with a saw is NOT the guy that should chance failure of any part of the saw, be it bar, chain, clutch, etc. At least bars and chains can be changed on the job, but a motor issue, and it's time to go home for the day! This is the guy that needs the best quality stuff he can get his hands on, and if you really can't make a living and afford to keep the saws running????

Might be time for a career change?

You wouldnt be saying this if YOU had to pay 3 time more for your parts and equipment and werent covered as well by warrentys. You wouldnt be a dealer by any chance would you?
So your vehicles only get serviced by the dealer and you insist on only genuine parts? Please answer that question.
I run my business and all my saws successfully. I do it by being smart about what I buy, how I buy and when I buy. I take risks with aftermarket parts all the time, and its well worth it, if I relied on stihl parts only I would be poorer, have less running saws (because I couldnt afford the parts) and probably have to have more echos and less stihls or huskys.

Stihl and Husky dont work by the idea of free market or open competition, they prefer tell us what we can buy, how much we have to pay and where we get it from. Unlike stihl and husky dealers I cant kick and scream until its organised so my customers have little choice but to get there tree services from my company locally or not at all.

Great posts Brad, keep it up, really interesting stuff, good to get such detailed info and insite. And THANK YOU BAILEYS! (if you need spare wood to test the 361 on I have plenty although its on steep ground)

 

[forestryworks]

that's a big tree and steep ground mcpherson, stay balanced!

 

[Grande Dog]

I can't agree with you there. Your parts prices must be very high, but a guy making a living with a saw is NOT the guy that should chance failure of any part of the saw, be it bar, chain, clutch, etc. At least bars and chains can be changed on the job, but a motor issue, and it's time to go home for the day! This is the guy that needs the best quality stuff he can get his hands on, and if you really can't make a living and afford to keep the saws running????

Might be time for a career change?

If you're putting food on the table with your chainsaw, and you only drag one to the woods with you, the setters will be calling you "slim" real quick.

 

[bigjake]

Just an observation... it amazes me that a company would spend the money to copy a piston/cylinder and still screw it up. Why would you make a prototype that doesn't have the decomp located corrrectly and a skirt a width that fits the crankcase (ignoring the oval issue)? It's not like this is the first time this has happened... (046BB, 066BB) sure, maybe not all Stihl cases are the same, but that's part of the copy process -get enough target samples to make something that works. The autoparts industry has "plug and play" down... Looks like AS users are beta testers again and again... Even Brad is only a sample of 1.

I have seen this in aftermarket blocks its due to cast shifts in the 3rd world
they still use lost sand and they are not very consistent .what i was told anyway.

 

[parrisw]

Originally Posted by Lakeside53 View Post
Just an observation... it amazes me that a company would spend the money to copy a piston/cylinder and still screw it up. Why would you make a prototype that doesn't have the decomp located corrrectly and a skirt a width that fits the crankcase (ignoring the oval issue)? It's not like this is the first time this has happened... (046BB, 066BB) sure, maybe not all Stihl cases are the same, but that's part of the copy process -get enough target samples to make something that works. The autoparts industry has "plug and play" down... Looks like AS users are beta testers again and again... Even Brad is only a sample of 1.

Maybe they copied it somewhat, but it is bigger bore?? So maybe thats the reason whey the clearance issues. Small deal to sort out.

 

[Lakeside53]

"Small details" just show sloppiness in manf, QA and QC, and willingness of the customer to accept that. QA/QC should be against a basic engineering spec covering all aspects of the design. The next 10 may be fine, but the 5 after that may not... Which will you get? Sure, Baileys is decent about replacing defective parts, but that's of little interest to me. Hey, I'll pay 50% more for assured quality in aftermarket part... Sure wish Tecomec would make parts for more models...


The case binding "fix" on the 066BB was to hack off (shorten) the piston skirt.. great...

IMO.. Ovalness is likely the result of incorrect heat treatment (or the lack thereof) of the raw casting prior to machining, or crappy alloy. Someone with the right tools should check a bunch of these over the entire bore.

Position of the decomp? That shouldn't change even if all they did make a dumb copy.

 

[parrisw]

"Small details" just show sloppiness in manf, QA and QC, and willingness of the customer to accept that. QA/QC should be against a basic engineering spec covering all aspects of the design. The next 10 may be fine, but the 5 after that may not... Which will you get? Sure, Baileys is decent about replacing defective parts, but that's of little interest to me. Hey, I'll pay 50% more for assured quality in aftermarket part... Sure wish Tecomec would make parts for more models...


The case binding "fix" on the 066BB was to hack off (shorten) the piston skirt.. great...

IMO.. Ovalness is likely the result of incorrect heat treatment (or the lack thereof) of the raw casting prior to machining, or crappy alloy. Someone with the right tools should check a bunch of these over the entire bore.

Position of the decomp? That shouldn't change even if all they did make a dumb copy.

Yes I agree about the QA/QC.

 

[Jacob J.]

The 056M2 was ported by Stihl NW... and then made by Mahle to those specs You can see the tooling cutter marks where they rasied the exhaust port.

Not a bad idea there Tommy. Must be a fat market in there someplace. I would buy a ported jug for one of my 361s.

The Shelby MS 361

The port timing is already slightly different on the other BB kits. I've done about 60 of them so far on various models and I've yet to see one that was dead-on to stock port timing. But then again no manufacturer could possibly account for all the subtle variations that go on with crankcase deck height and older crankcases vs. newer ones, etc.

 

[blsnelling]

Here's the 361BB. Unfortunately the rakers on the chain were too high and it wasn't getting a good bite. Towards the end of the video, I changed chains to the one that was on the 7900BB. Unfortunately, I screwed up with the camera and didn't get much more video of it. You also hear me turn the RPMs up at the end. It was still slightly 4-stroking at 15,200. When I pulled it out of the cut it was 15,500. O wouldn't want to go any leaner with it. I then turned it down to 14,600, It still raun good and seemed to have a little more torque. What really blew me away was when I got home and checked the compression. 185 PSI baby! I kid you not. This thing has more compression and turns more RPMs than my ported OEM P&C. I think this BB kit deserves a port job! It should be a really kick some butt. I'm going to run it just like it is for a while though. Hopefully I can get it to a GTG before I get too ansy with it. I'm way impressed with the performance of this kit.

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[RED-85-Z51]

15,500....Holy fark!

LONG LIVE THE AFTERMARKET!!! SUCK ON THAT STIHL!