Need some quick advice for my 288xp

[DaddyFlip]

Happy Labor Day weekend everyone. I'm a homeowner, not a pro. I'm going to combine a couple of four year old historical threads into this new one. I wussed out and gave my 288 to a local Husqy dealer because it won't run like I want it to. He called and said he wanted to put a new carb and a bunch of gaskets on it for $175. His diagnosis was that the high set was about 10k RPM and it was running too rich, so he bumped the high to 12.5k and adjusted the low set and idle. He said it cut good, but that his adjustments wouldn't hold; like the carb was no good. I'm not sure that's the problem and here are the symptoms:

• Have to pull hard "1-2-3" about half the rope to get the compression out, let wind back up, then pull to crank. Takes 4-5 of these pulls to start it.
• It wants to bog down in big wood; chain (full comp H47) comes to a complete stop at full throttle sometimes and I have to back it out.
• When it gets hot, it doesn't want to stay running and it won't idle well.

In 2020, I cleaned up the carb, replaced all the gaskets, fuel line, fuel filter, air filter, replaced the base gasket, put on a new exhaust arrestor, and replaced the piston ring. The saw has set up for the last four years because I haven't needed the big one again until now. But it acted this way before. I'm wondering if I just need to clean the carb real good and run the saw hard to let the new ring break in? I use no-ethanol 91 octane and add Husqy oil at 40:1. I thought about sending it out to someone for a full tune and port job, but I need the saw now to finish processing this tree. I even thought about buying a new big saw AND sending this one out to make a hot saw. Thoughts?

What I did to the saw in Feb 2020

My big oak I saved for four years

When we cut the 10k pound strap in the big oak, it held up. I cut it down because I didn't want it to uproot and it was heading that way. Another tree in the backyard uprooted and I cut the whole thing in 9-inch rounds because a friend wanted short splits for his offset smoker. The 288 went through all those 24-inch rounds but it bogged down a lot and I had to crank it several times to finish.

 

[ballisticdoughnut]

Is the carb OEM or aftermarket? Has the saw ever been vac/pressure tested?

 

[DaddyFlip]

AFAIK the carb is OEM. I did a compression test four years ago and got 55psi, but I admit in that original post that it was my first time to run a compression test on a saw.

 

[Bob Hedgecutter]

AFAIK the carb is OEM. I did a compression test four years ago and got 55psi, but I admit in that original post that it was my first time to run a compression test on a saw.

Not compression- pressure- the first goes out the plug hole (and 55 psi is not a true reading), the other gets pushed in through the plug hole and you check to see if and where it is coming out.
You mention replacing a lot of parts- except the main crank seals- which will cause a lot of the issues you are experiencing.

 

[capetrees]

Quick advice?

Go get a MS 661 instead.

 

[capetrees]

https://www.arboristsite.com/threads/mmws-ms660.374881/

 

[DaddyFlip]

Stihl advice was TOO quick. I went and met the tech. He said plenty of compression and no leaks. I even took him two crank seals I had bought to do the job a few years ago but he said no need. So I'm reluctantly going with the carb replacement to see what happens. Probably could/should have pulled the carb apart and cleaned it real good myself and rebuilt it, I just wasn't in the mood to tinker with all this wood on the ground. Ironically, my 257 carb started acting up this week; sounds like something stopping up the low jet, so I'll have to pull and clean it out.

 

[kmcinms]

Stihl advice was TOO quick. I went and met the tech. He said plenty of compression and no leaks. I even took him two crank seals I had bought to do the job a few years ago but he said no need. So I'm reluctantly going with the carb replacement to see what happens. Probably could/should have pulled the carb apart and cleaned it real good myself and rebuilt it, I just wasn't in the mood to tinker with all this wood on the ground. Ironically, my 257 carb started acting up this week; sounds like something stopping up the low jet, so I'll have to pull and clean it out.

So what's the end story? Did he replace it with knock off carb or rebuild the factory carb? I've seen the fuel inlet tube leak before causing the symptoms you described. My 288 did some weird stuff one time years ago, ended up having a split in the fuel line. Even OEM fuel lines fail. Sometimes I wonder about OEM parts.

 

[DaddyFlip]

Thanks for asking; I had forgotten about my thread. He put on a brand new OE carb and replaced all the gaskets (took a look just to make sure and checked the model numbers). Runs great now and maintains idle. I can set it on the ground or park it on my hip and it just purrs along. I didn't look to see if the fuel line was replaced, but I had replaced it myself four years ago. I wanted to run a 32-inch bar for bucking oak and it pulls a C83S full skip just like I want. (BTW, I like the Husky X-Tough better than the Tsumura Premium Light, which is more flexy than the regular light; I have both). I should have asked for the old carb back and was still kicking myself for letting a dealer work on my saw, but after it ran so well, I forgot about it.

The 257 just needed more attention on the carb adjustments; somehow the low got too rich when I pulled the top and cleaned everything.

 

[kmcinms]

Thanks for asking; I had forgotten about my thread. He put on a brand new OE carb and replaced all the gaskets (took a look just to make sure and checked the model numbers). Runs great now and maintains idle. I can set it on the ground or park it on my hip and it just purrs along. I didn't look to see if the fuel line was replaced, but I had replaced it myself four years ago. I wanted to run a 32-inch bar for bucking oak and it pulls a C83S full skip just like I want. (BTW, I like the Husky X-Tough better than the Tsumura Premium Light, which is more flexy than the regular light; I have both). I should have asked for the old carb back and was still kicking myself for letting a dealer work on my saw, but after it ran so well, I forgot about it.

The 257 just needed more attention on the carb adjustments; somehow the low got too rich when I pulled the top and cleaned everything.

10-4, good deal. Bottom line, it's kicking butt again,! Heck, it's only been a couple of months, he probably still has your factory carb if you really wanted it. As far as I know mine is still all factory. I haven't touched it in over 2 years since a bad wrist/hand injury January '23 though. TTyTT, I didn't want to see a chainsaw for months going through the rehab period. Finally got back into it a little last fall, then went back into it this year with a weak left hand, but getting stronger. Still haven't picked up the 288 again. Love to hear that saw ripping.
My son and I are working on a couple of 350s now. He bought an OEM 346 top end for his. I have a couple tricks for mine, maybe I can keep up with him.

 

[DaddyFlip]

I'll share a funny story. The tech called me about a week after I dropped it off to confirm what I wanted done. And he asked me, "how do you start this thing; I can't pull it and I'm a big guy," (he was right; younger, bigger, stronger than me). I told him about pulling three pops of compression out of it, wind it back up, then pull. He got back to me and said, "Yeah, that worked." Now that I've got to run it a good bit, it's nowhere near as hard to start, but I still have to pull the compression out. I put a new ring in it back then and never got to seat it. It's getting better and better over time.