Salvage cylinder or not on old Stihl 064?

[Daniel Haglund]

Recently I happened to get an old Stihl 064 parts saw. I figured it would be good to have some spares for my 066. But then I reconsidered and now I would like to try to make the 064 roar again. It is missing the carburetor and air filter assembly. I know nothing of its history. I tried to start it by pouring a little gas directly into the cylinder and pulled the rope. It started almost right away and made a cloud of smoke in my garage. Fortunately it stopped as quickly as it started! I looked at the piston on the intake side. It looked ok. Then I looked at the exhaust side, it did not look ok. So I pulled the cylinder. It was a foolish move to start it. Later I found metal filings in the transfer. Most likely someone tried to sand the piston down and didn't clean things properly.

I attached some pictures. I don't know if I can salvage the cylinder or not. What do you think? I already have a Meteor piston and rings kit on order as the current piston is toast.

I do realize that this will never be a professional saw again and I have another saw for the forest and yet another for the sawmill. I just thought it would be fun to have an 064 for woodcutting a few hours a year.

 

[traffic903]

I think it looks like it will clean up fine Daniel. Even that piston looks good enough to me (may just look good in the pictures). I would clean both up and put on the Cabers which will come with the meteor piston and run it. Make sure you set your squish at about 18-20 thou to wake her up a bit. Have fun.

 

[pioneerguy600]

Something just doesn`t add up with that piston and cylinder. Is it an aftermarket set? What are the markings on the cylinder base, manufacturers name ect.

 

[Deleted member 117362]

Clean them both up, use new rings and run it.

 

[traffic903]

Something just doesn`t add up with that piston and cylinder. Is it an aftermarket set? What are the markings on the cylinder base, manufacturers name ect.

It is very "clean"!! I definitely don't know enough about these saws to comment on its authenticity though.

 

[cus_deluxe]

It is very "clean"!! I definitely don't know enough about these saws to comment on its authenticity though.

Post a pic of the cylinder base flange, easy enough to tell if its aftermarket or OEM.

 

[cus_deluxe]

That combustion chamber looks as though its seen almost no use

 

[pioneerguy600]

Its too clean, not used enough to sustain that damage from wear, straight gas maybe. The piston crown has no carbon on it and the marking doesn`t look like OEM.

 

[Daniel Haglund]

Something just doesn`t add up with that piston and cylinder. Is it an aftermarket set? What are the markings on the cylinder base, manufacturers name ect.

Sure looks OEM to me.

 

[Daniel Haglund]

Its too clean, not used enough to sustain that damage from wear, straight gas maybe. The piston crown has no carbon on it and the marking doesn`t look like OEM.

I did a quick wipe of the cylinder and piston using a rag. I agree, the piston dome and combustion chamber are very clean. Looks like new. The exhaust port had no carbon deposits, none. Also the cylinder wall is very smooth despite the failure. The piston is not smooth though.

I got this saw when I bought an old Logosol Sawmill. This saw was almost certainly sold new with that sawmill. The sawmill looked like it had seen little use. So it is possible that this 064 has not been used that much. Given that it most likely failed when being used for milling I would guess heat buildup due to poor gas mixture or lean running would be the most likely causes of this failure.

 

[Daniel Haglund]

I think it looks like it will clean up fine Daniel. Even that piston looks good enough to me (may just look good in the pictures). I would clean both up and put on the Cabers which will come with the meteor piston and run it. Make sure you set your squish at about 18-20 thou to wake her up a bit. Have fun.

Would there be any benefit to cleaning up and reusing the old piston? I mean, I have a new Meteor piston in the mail and it seems like more work to reuse the old piston.

 

[traffic903]

Would there be any benefit to cleaning up and reusing the old piston? I mean, I have a new Meteor piston in the mail and it seems like more work to reuse the old piston.

Depends whether you want to stay OEM or not, AND if it is salvageable. Only you will be able to tell that as pictures only tell part of the story. If it has been straight gassed (does look that way) then the piston is probably toast. The Meteor will serve you well, so if you are happy with that then put it in and run it.

 

[pioneerguy600]

Sure looks OEM to me.
View attachment 607800

Yes that is an OEM cylinder, the ports did look like they were OEM factory. With so little carbon on any of the common places such as the cylinder head, exhaust port and the piston crown it appears the saw had very little run time on it. The damage done must have been from over lean mix or straight gassing and if the saw was milling at the time then it would tear up the piston quickly.
Clean up the cylinder good and run the new Meteor piston and rings, mix the fuel at a 40 - 1 ratio and run it, they are a good powerful saw.

 

[blsnelling]

Install the new piston and make sure the cylinder is 100% cleaned up.

 

[Bobby Kirbos]

It's toast. Send it to me for proper recycling and Haz-Mat disposal.

 

[Daniel Haglund]

Thanks to all of you for your advice! I will run the new Meteor piston and Caber rings with the stock cylinder.

I cleaned out the cylinder using a 60 mm 3M 320 grit flap brush and my power drill. It cleaned it out in a few seconds even when running at low rpm. The only problem was that the flap brush took off a bit too much on the right side of the ports. A 50 mm flap brush would have been great for a 52 mm cylinder. Now I had to compress the brush to get it into the cylinder and this pressure made it take off a bit too much. After that I used red and then gray(fine) Scotch-Brite to make it super smooth. There are still some minor scratching that I can't remove. Basically there is only one scratch that I can actually feel when running my nail over it. I doubt that it will affect the performance much. All of this was 30 minutes of work. Now I have to clean the debris out.

Have a look at the result and let me know what you think of it!

 

[pioneerguy600]

Looks good, I would run it in one of my own saws with a little bit of extra oil in the mix for the first couple of tanks, then go with regular mix, some say 32 to 1 for milling but I always run 40 to 1 and havn`t ever cooked a piston.

 

[blsnelling]

The only problem was that the flap brush took off a bit too much on the right side of the ports.

This is why I still recommend removing transfer by hand. It's more work but is more controlled and safer. Nevertheless, your cylinder should be fine.

 

[Daniel Haglund]

It's alive!!! Comment on how you think it runs.


I would like to take a moment to thank everyone that gave me good advice in this thread and actually all contributors in the whole forum. I have read many posts from people that share their knowledge and advice with more novice users as myself. Thanks for taking the time to do so. There is a wealth of good information at this site.

I rebuilt the saw a while back but haven't had the opportunity to really make it work hard. But now I have, so I made a simple video of it. The saw is mostly OEM except for a few things. The piston and rings are Meteor and Caber. The carburetor and everything behind it is Chinese-stuff. Even though I prefer to buy OEM I just couldn't justify buying a carburetor, air filter base, air filter and cover from Stihl. It would cost me more than the saw would be worth and I could get similar parts from China for peanuts.

 

[pioneerguy600]

The saw sounds very good Daniel. The tune is just what I like to hear in a heavy work saw.