stihl 441 carnage twice what am i doing wrong?

[Ed Penney]

I'm old enough to to remember when Japanese quality was the same way. It took them a short time to excel on their quality control. It's been a long time coming for the Chinese, but it just isn't happening. I bought what was suppose to be a OEM Zama, it was even a Zama in the picture posted. I complained to Ebay. They removed the pictures and gave me a refund. Ebay and Amazon are a buffer zone between China and the US consumer. Couldn't hurt to try for a credit or a refund.

 

[lone wolf]

I have to wonder. How many times would someone have to buy aftermarket parts, have them fail, and only then realize they should have bought OEM to begin with? Even if you could buy three top ends at half the price of OEM, what’s your time worth? Frustration? Stress?

Once or twice and never again here.

 

[Ed Penney]

Once or twice and never again here.

1st time their fault, second time your fault. Old saying and it wasn't Confucius. LOL, oh the irony

 

[Ed Penney]

Just a thought, they might have stamped the arrow 180 degrees out...

 

[J D]

Just a thought, they might have stamped the arrow 180 degrees out...

Nope, on this particular saw the piston isn’t symmetrical & the skirt area is different from the intake side to the exhaust side. Arrow was right, ring pins were wrong. If he'd realised & put the piston in backwards there would have been other issues.

 

[Maintenance supervisor]

hi guys just a little follow up on this saw . took advise from all involved in this thread bought a meteor jug and piston from wolf creek very fast shipping and service highly recommended, cleaned out crankcase and everything real well and saw runs great. the difference between parts was amazing. the ring locating pins were in the spots they were supposed to be,didnt have to dremel anything in the jug. the chinese jug looked like they used a drill bit to machine it. like most people have said be very careful with the chinese route or dont waste your time. must admit taking it apart and putting it together multiple times has improved my skills with the stihl 441. thanks again to all

3 years ago I put an 18$ BB kit on a 441 i got from the scrapyard for 23$ . It was a challenging saw to build and I enjoyed it.
The Farmertech cylinder kit looked like third graders cast it then punched the ports in with ice picks! Regardless I cleaned it up with a dremel and it's still cutting strong, I pulled the muffler last fall and the cylinder and piston are in like new conditions. I will stress that I almost always use Caber rings when I can get them , even with the crap builds.
Ive built a completely OEM 441C model since then amd have plans on doing an Arctic version, just one of the best stihls to cut all day with.

 

[Ed Penney]

Nope, on this particular saw the piston isn’t symmetrical & the skirt area is different from the intake side to the exhaust side. Arrow was right, ring pins were wrong. If he'd realised & put the piston in backwards there would have been other issues.

Like I said, just a thought. I got a so called deal on Dip Dong Zama clones, they were all f'ed up. Got one to work outta 3 but thru them all in the trash, they all had the mix needles screwed through the seats and all the springs were twisted out. I don't trust any of that garbage anymore. It's rebuild with OEM kits or new OEM carbs. I got a new OEM Walbro for a Husq. 455 and it was missing the spring and needle. Nothing surprises me anymore if it says Made by the C.H. INEE COMPANY. One good thing about Zama though, it's owned by Stihl I think, so a German can be cracking the whip on the quality control.

 

[huskihl]

Ring pins were actually in the correct locations on the other pistons. The lower ring end is on the recoil side of the exhaust port in a 441. Same as the 361, 461, 462, 500, 661…

If I had to guess I’d say that the exhaust port is too flat on the top or the bottom or there was no chamfer. Or the end of a chinese G clip broke off.

Here’s an oem 441 piston for reference

 

[Ed Penney]

Last time I used a cheap rebuild kit was on a customers 029. He wanted an economy rebuild. The pin retainers just didn't feel right. I looked at the ends of them and you can see the v notch cut from sidecutters. I kinda wonder if they are even spring tempered???

 

[jweier111]

Glad you got it worked out. I just finished an 046 rebuild after a hung ring. Luckily the cylinder was still OK (the piston not so much). Those Meteor kits are really good. I've got their pistons in 3 or 4 saws now with Caber rings and haven't had any problems. The Farmertec stuff seems to be "alright" if you are just getting started with modding and porting and don't want to waste an OEM cylinder on your first couple tries. If I were going to get into porting that's the route I would go at least (knowing full well how much cleanup will be required). If you are trying to rebuild reliably OEM, Meteor, or even Hyway seems to be the way to go. Plastic covers on the other hand...and even some rubber components; I'll save a few bucks on and go with the aftermarket. A Chinese cylinder shroud isn't going to blow up my saw.