Bogie's MS661 chainsaw build
 

So, as mentioned in the what did you buy thread, i picked up a stihl ms661 (90+cc saw) for free with a blown up top end... still waiting for some of the parts to show up, but starting this anyways....piston and jug were trashed, bottom end seems fine... stout saw this is... gonna add pics once i get home from work...

So, this saw (thank you stihl for overcomplicating a chainsaw with computer technology) came from a tree service and had 1274 sucsessful starts totaling 104 hrs ov operation, with a broken piston and scored cylinder, i aquired it as a box of parts...heres the main body, and the piston...

I am going the route of performance for cheap on this saw, found a clearance piston and cylinder kit thats based off of one of the premier saw porting wizards work, in precast form, instead of a poor imitation of the stock cyl.

When i got it in there were some questionable bits in the transfer intake and the intake port, so i busted out the carbide cutters and die grinder and went to town... here you can see the stock port size vs the ported size... i could habe opened it up a bit more, but i am new to cleaningup/porting cylinders, and dont want to mess it up so mostly just cleaned up the rough castings and mold markings to smooth out flow

Gonna be waiting a week or 2 for the new rubber intake boot to arrive, once thats in, i am gonna swap in a new carb kit and maybe a new fuel line and pulse line as well... then everything goes back together and we make smoke and woodchips!

So, threw the ole jug and slug in today and for giggles compression tested... mind you this is with new, unseated rings in a fresh honed bore, not something run in... this saw is gonna be a freaking beast...

You are going to hurt your arm !

:lmao: if you had ever seen me, you wouldnt say that.... had my coworker try pulling it over, hes 6'2", 185#... he got one thump out of it.... i grab it and pull it over like its a little ms170... im 6'3", 285#, and a lot more muscle than people think i have.... the last place i worked, i garnered the nickname Squatch....

Holy cow! As I recall, you're quite the guitarist? You must make a Les Paul look like a Uke!

You must be one of the 7 people subscribed to my youtube channel :hehe: i wouldnt say i am quite the guitarist... i have been playing around with guitar for about 25 yearhough, had a few stints in local worship bands as rythym/acoustic, currently just a noodler...LOL

On the MS 661 front, got my intake boot in today, initial run, its snappy.... more so than a stocker, and i hqvent even muffler modded it yet, muffler is all stock so far... need to get a few heat cycles on it, and find some wood to cut...LOL as soon as i can find wood to cut, there *might* be a vid of chips flying (if i remember my tripod LOL)

Never saw your channel but I recall us chatting about it years ago and posting a few pics of Git-Fiddles. I noodle also but truth be told, I'm a percussionist, who wishes he was out front with you guys!

Been playing lately with a gal here in Volcano. She's quite the talent. Plays guitar and writes all her own tunes. We've decided to go completely acoustic, so she plays her own stuff on a resonator and I use a cajon with roto-toms and a symbol. There are "guitar/bass/drum/vocal bands everywhere here. We wanted to be something completely different for the locals. Time will tell.....

I think i can call this build a success.... put a half gallon thru it today at my friends place (pays to know tree guys LOL)

https://youtu.be/L7QQRECF6JQ?si=0sl7zxjRquC9CbIp

You've used a chainsaw once or twice.

Once or twice....LOL i am a certified Stihl tech, i would hope i know how to run the dang things...LOL :p

Sounds like my neighborhood!....minus the friendly fire in the background!

Oh yeah. That saw will burn through a half gallon pretty quick. :)

I rolled the 250 smoker out for a heat cycle yesterday since we are back in the 60s. Still under 2 hours on the thing. Holy crap what fun! These engines were made to make wood chips and throw dirt! In a good lightweight motorcycle frame, it just wants to jump and it's hard to keep the front tire on the ground!!! :tup:

Yes, yes it will....LOL

also ran my freshly ported 044 yesterday, its equally as strong.... and equally as thirsty, just goes to show how much more efficient the newer scavenged engines are... the 90cc classed saw vs 70cc classed saw, 90 is a delayed scavenge ( longer transfers to help prevent reversion and charge loss) and the 70 is standard old style short window ported... the 044 also has a chain that was originally cut/sharpened for the 661...so its a bit aggressive....LOL

https://youtu.be/ncQhrsJcB-0?si=kkF5FS0Bm5iWnqcB

I have an MS660 clone saw (Holz G660). I put a 24" bar on it, but it should be longer! After numerous heat cycles mid-Winter at 25:1, I dropped to 30:1 and begin using it a year and a half ago. It is amazing (oregon bar and chain). The thing has remarkable compression. I use that compression release button!
Attachment 30742
In fact, I was so amazed, I bought a 70cc class Husqvarna clonesaw- the Holz G372XP Pro. I don't have many hours on it yet, but It was so easy to tune these saws and they start easily and rip through wood. The top quality bar and chains do help ;)
Attachment 30743

So I got a little arborist Joncutter CSG 2500 25cc clone for under $100. :wtf: The thing is balls of fire, easy one handed limbing from a ladder. It came with a bar and chain!
Attachment 30744

When I need to refresh the top end on these saws, I will do some porting, but for now, I have RANGE!

@Thumper the clone saws are decent, keep an eye on the fuel lines and intake boots though, they are known to dry out rather quickly...

as for range, i also have a stihl MS170, MS280, an old mccullugh Mac 1-10, and a poulan 1800 top handle... i got range too...LOL

That MS280 looks like a versatile saw. I had the equivalent Husqvarna Rancher. It was difficult to deal with the three-staged on/off/choke lever, was hard to start. The rubber mounting was way too soft and flexible, so the bar would bounce, even with a good sharp chain! I got $300 for it (with couple of new chains) and it paid for the 372 clone powerhead. That bar certainly does not bounce, but it is a bigger and heavier saw. I am left with no 50cc saw/16" bar! The 372 and teeny 2500 will have to do for now.

for its size, the MS280 can hit way above its pay grade, with a simple muffler mod it can pull a full chisel 3/8 chain on a 20" bar... not quite as fast as the 044 does, but it works...LOL not sure i am gonna keep the ms280 though, because why wouldn't i run the ported 044 now? LOL i currently have an 18" .325 bar on it, but it has almost no use...LOL the downsides to the saw are its a "homeowner" saw, and its case is half plastic, vs the pro saws from stihl being full cast magnesium, for more strength, and light weight... its also hard to get parts for, as it was a fairly short run saw, with mostly proprietary parts... and no aftermarket support... most all of the pro saws have some aftermarket support, upto and including complete kits...LOL

Got to run the 661 again this past week, figured go big or go home now... fabbed a bark box style muffler cover, and threw the .404 skip tooth square ground full chisel chain on it... (thats stihl 46RSLF if anyones wondering) and set it into some wood again... easy logs to get to were spruce this time...

https://youtu.be/yoECL8jzQsc?si=TfE8-uaP-7OYAW8T

As happenstance would have it, i aquired one of the bucket list saws today to complete out my saws... tree guy mildly blew up a low hr ms194t, and gave it to me, as the RIGHT way to fix it is a new jug and slug, totalling about $375 with labor, for a $450 saw...

However, the RIGHT way and the BOGIE way are 2 different things... so the damage to the saw is that the piston. Ring snapped and lodged in/gouged out one of the transfer ports... put a chip in the wall/plating, as well as chipped a tiny spot on the piston crown... smooth out the chips and get every thing back round, and now you have one transfer port with slightly longer duration than stock...LOL slap a new ring (from a chinese bore kit i had for another saw model that used the same size rings) and stick it all back together... and she runs!

Aaaaaand it stayed stock precisely 23 hrs in my posession....LOL muffler mod and a 6° timing advance really open this thing up.... its pulling a 3/8 low profile chain, full chisel with a nasty hook filed in it for more bite... according to stihl, this saw isnt supposed to have this chain because it cant pull it.... hehehe
https://youtu.be/sh1Ad9jVYlg?si=AxA9ZJ1V3HmmwaJI

Ran the 661 a few weeks ago agin, this time with 3/8 full chisel standard (not skip) and bumped the spur sproket to an 8 pin over the standard 7.... i think it liked that....and i think its getting better powerwise as the rings get seated...

https://youtu.be/XTcfc9i_hl0?si=mrHi2H6GmUQVqjhR

A quick update to this thread, have added an ms261cm and an ms362 to the fold, 50 and 60ccs respectively, will have some videos of those coming soon... both came to me blown up, but salvageable, so they got new pistons and the cylinders honed. No port work has been done as of yet, but that may change soon as well...LOL ms362 is running now, but need to install a new wiring harness so i can shut it down, ms261 needs a muffler yet, which has me undecided about a stock muffler, or putting an expansion chamber on that one... hehe

I got a couple of cords of maple cut and split along with a bunch of splits for smoking. Yet another 20 acres of mature forest/bird habitat were cleared just a mile away for yet more development (next to 2 brand new gas stations), so the wood was free. It's all stacked up in the sheds and in fact already cured enough for this Winter. It's all we need for our milder and milder Winters here in the MidWest these days. We don't get big cold snows like we used to. But it's the Summers that are getting just unbearably hot... Some folks say global warming is a hoax/conspiracy. Not enough evidence for them I guess.

I got a couple of hours on the G372XP clonesaw after starting the work with the G660 clonesaw. Just a few trips with the trailer to bring home the logs and broke them in two (splitter) before stacking it up to let them start drying out. Unusually high temps here in Kansas City this Spring was pretty effective! The 660 was not breaking a sweat at all on the maple (20-30" diameter), but I wanted to get some time on the 372. I need to prepare the saws for storage. The log splitter went to the storage already. Too much stuff around for this little house!

Besides draining the fuel tank, is there anything else to do for storage??

I did test the maple in the offset (ribs only). Fantastic results. I like maple better than oak for ribs now :tup:

It is post #7 here:

https://www.chinariders.net/showthread.php?t=34324

@Thumper i usually drain fuel, start and let idle til it dies, then choke and restart if its gonna sit more than a month or 2, but between using a good oil with a stabilizer like Stihls HP ultra, and ethanol free fuel, i have left fuel in machines (specifically my br600 blower and my fs130 string trimmer) for up to 2 years that still started 4th or 5th pull... so good fuel and oil with a stabalizer goes a long way...

Yup... Ethanol free 91 is best I can find here, but I have been using echo 2 stroke oil. I had left them with fuel last Winter and they all started right up this Spring. I won't take that chance this Winter.

Hadn't thought about running the carb dry. Good idea.

On running the carb dry, it can be very suprising how long a chainsaw can run on the amount of fuel in 4-6" of 1/8" fuel line and in the fuel chamber of the diaphragm.... i have had smaller displacement saws run almost 5 min idling on that fuel alone....now my fuel hungry 044 and 661, those tend to run dry in under a minute at idle...LOL


If all goes well, i will have some video of the stock(ish, havent checked squish height with the aftermarket piston, just know with the stock gasket it turns over and runs....LOL) ms362 monday night, going to the wood pile to run this saw and a customers ms271... there may or may not be a video of a race involved...LOL we shall see....