I have a Stihl 029 Super that I bought new approximately 15 years ago. I have cut A LOT of wood with this saw. I've never cut the saw any slack. I've been threatening to do a muffler mod on it for a few years now and today I finally got around to doing it. I removed the limiters on the carb so that I could do a proper tune after the muffler was opened up.
The first thing I did was remove the spark arrestor cover and subsequently the spark arrestor screen. I immediately noticed that there was NO CARBON on the screen. I attribute this to the fact that I have always ran good gas (no ethanol), fuel stabilizer, and synthetic oil (either Amsoil or Stihl Ultra). Of course the next thing I did was throw the spark arrestor screen away, lol.
I pulled the muffler off and looked at the piston. I halfway expected to see some wear just based on the amount of wood this saw has cut over the years. Alas, there was nothing visible. Looks great inside! This is a case for each and every one of you to use the synthetic mix oil.
I did some work on the muffler with a dremel and carbide cutter as well as a drill. I stayed out of the middle section because I did not want to bypass the baffle. I didn't want it to be stupid loud. I also cut back the opening on the spark arrestor cover plate. I put the saw back together and tuned the carb. Two things surprised me....First of all, it didn't need much richening on the carb to get it to "2 stroke" under no load. I expected I would have to adjust more than I did. The other surprising thing was the saw really wasn't that much louder. It sounds really good.
I didn't have anything to cut at the house. I have three decent sized trees to cut down later this week so I will give it the test then and make final carb adjustments. I expect a decent increase in power just based on what others have reported. I would love to hear what experiences any of you have had in muffler modding similar saws. Did you get much power increase? I attached a few pics to show what I did.
The first thing I did was remove the spark arrestor cover and subsequently the spark arrestor screen. I immediately noticed that there was NO CARBON on the screen. I attribute this to the fact that I have always ran good gas (no ethanol), fuel stabilizer, and synthetic oil (either Amsoil or Stihl Ultra). Of course the next thing I did was throw the spark arrestor screen away, lol.
I pulled the muffler off and looked at the piston. I halfway expected to see some wear just based on the amount of wood this saw has cut over the years. Alas, there was nothing visible. Looks great inside! This is a case for each and every one of you to use the synthetic mix oil.
I did some work on the muffler with a dremel and carbide cutter as well as a drill. I stayed out of the middle section because I did not want to bypass the baffle. I didn't want it to be stupid loud. I also cut back the opening on the spark arrestor cover plate. I put the saw back together and tuned the carb. Two things surprised me....First of all, it didn't need much richening on the carb to get it to "2 stroke" under no load. I expected I would have to adjust more than I did. The other surprising thing was the saw really wasn't that much louder. It sounds really good.
I didn't have anything to cut at the house. I have three decent sized trees to cut down later this week so I will give it the test then and make final carb adjustments. I expect a decent increase in power just based on what others have reported. I would love to hear what experiences any of you have had in muffler modding similar saws. Did you get much power increase? I attached a few pics to show what I did.
