Well, I am happy to report that the 353 & 346 are still doing just fine, I used them for most of the cutting all summer.
I normally do not use a 20'' bar on a 50cc saw but I did on this 346 to make it work hard, it bucked up a lot of 18-20'' red oak then ripped the 22'' long pieces twice.
I was surprised at how strong this saw was, 12 or 15 tanks thru it now, compression is 158.
The 353 with a 16'' bar was used for the smaller top of the trees 15'' on down, probably the same amount of fuel thru it as the 346, not nearly the power of the 346, I could have turned it up some more but it was such a jewel to run, always one pull start when warm always idled well, always ready to work, it made me smile.
Both of these pistons had been scored at the ex. port about an inch wide, I cleaned up the ring grooves, put in new rings, smoothed the scoreing, cleaned alum. out of the cyl.. Looks like it worked out.