Shindaiwa 488

jim40 · Sep 30, 2002

Went to my local dealer this past saturday....They had the Shindaiwa 488 on sale for $295.00....I thought that was a mighty good price...so I went back home and got the little S300 Shindaiwa and traded it in on the 488.....had to pay $200.00 difference. Installed a.325 Stihl RS chain on it. My question is....what kind of performance gains can be had if i send it to Ken or Dennis? I have done a search on that saw here....and saw that Dennis modified one for rbtree....but couldnt find any final conclusions and results...and that rich hoffman had a walkerized version that he likes. Would like to get comments from Dennis,Ken, Roger...and Rich...and any others on the performance gains on the 488, so i'll know whether to get it modified or not....Thanks in advance...Jim

Dennis · Sep 30, 2002

Rogers 488 is on the way home to him as we speak....

rbtree · Sep 30, 2002

right arm...

...farm out!!! :blob2:

rahtreelimbs · Sep 30, 2002

Jim40

I run stock Shindaiwa 488's. To me they are fine stock ( for now )

Rich.

Treehugger101 · Oct 1, 2002

I have put many 1000's of hours on stock 488's and they have been the most bulletproof saws in our tree business. I had a new one Walkerized this Spring and have been very happy with it, it is much smoother and has better throttle response as well as more power.
However it is not the powerhouse my Walkerized 346xp is . . . Walker's dynoed my 488 at 3.01 hp after they modified it. The 346xp Walker's modified for me dynoed at 3.63 hp when they were done (they dynoed a stock 371xp at about 3.7hp!). But stock the 346xp was good for 2.48hp so the modified shindaiwa is still pretty good (they forgot to dyno my 488 before they modified it). Also, the shindaiwa has been very slow to break in (2 thick rings?) whereas the 346xp seems to have almost no break in, so maybe the shindaiwa will close the gap. . .
In my opinion the 488 is definitely worth modifying, but you'd better be sure you like the overall package, because you will have it for a very long time . . .

rbtree · Oct 1, 2002

Hey Steve,

Any snow in them thar hills yit??? I saw some freshies from somewhere in montana over at powdermag.com

It's getting cool here finally, and a smattering of rain has fallen.

that 346 XP-G is one mean li'l machine, fer sure!!!