I emailed Stihl maybe 6 yrs ago with my serial number and they told me it was too old and has no history to it ? Is the serial number tool accurate ?
the stihl 038 magnum thread
- Thread starter dougfirfirewood
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It is accurate, owner got it from his saw. Also if it’s not, the website will tell you it’s invalid. My saw is a lot older around 10 years and it shows everything. Yours is a Brazilian made too?
Is there a link you can provide to the serial number site. Here is mine.
Very nice saw, I only know one site that can read your serial number. Workshoppist.com
Is it a thing with mag 2 with red lever? I’ve seen 2 of them already. Must be from the same years. 1 is currently for sale.
Now my question is what the difference? It has to be something cuz the triple port came out later?
Triple port was an option I believe , mainly ordered in PNW. Never seen a factory one.
I open up but not remove the baffle on a dual port, and open up the existing two ports. That seems to work fine.
There’s a west German mag II in my shop right now with triple port muffler. Have no idea if it was installed from factory or at time of purchase. Has our sticker on it as well so we sold it back in the day. I’ve seen a handful of west German mag II’s with triple port mufflers, have no clue as to why or how. Was it an option? Was it luck of the draw? I don’t know. Believe some of the early Brazil saws came with tripple port mufflers as well. I removed the inner baffle on one of my 038 mags and added a third port on flywheel side. On my other 038 mag I got lucky and found a Brazil market muffler without baffle. Both run very well, that inner baffle really does choke them down.
Here’s one I modified.
Factory “triple port” with baffle.
This is a non baffled Brazil market rear half with WCS outlet.
That makes me thinking. Maybe early mag 2 didn’t come with triple port or triple port wasn’t available at the time. I mean mag 1 was introduced in 1984 that makes 1986 mag 2 is an early production. If that’s the case then what’s the difference between mag 1 and early mag 2? I don’t wanna dissect them to find out what it is.
It may serve a purpose like on a bike muffler to resonate back some of the charge that would get puked out exhaust and get wasted. I just opened up the existing holes to 5/16-3/8 "? can't remember size of existing holes? and added two 3/8" to top. Left baffle in place.
Check the serial number of that one and let us know what year it was made please!
Will do. I’ll check tomorrow morning at work.
My mag 2 was idling high. Just tuned it down. I also have my mag 1 idling video. Are they normal? Feel like the mag 1 is so relaxing while the mag 2 is a bit hyper. Mag 1 since I thought it I haven’t touched nothing.
Looked up that serial number today, got nothing on Stihl website. It’s black lever, assuming it (the lever) hasn’t been replaced at some point, I would say it’s 1989 or 1990 model year maybe? I’ll look into it further when I have time. Not sure when the US market 038 mags switched from German to Brazil manufacture but I assume it was around 1992 give or take?
Run the serial number on this site, no need to share it if you don’t want to Workshoppist.com just let us know the year and the origin. Black lever is likely a German made.
I’ll give it a go, saw is definitely German serial number begins with 1.
