3 Saws Won't Run??

[JDeere]

If anybody has an idea as to what is going on with my saws I would appreciate any help. Specifically, I have a Husky 346XP, Husky 455 and a Jonsered 2156 that will start on choke and then act like they are not getting enough fuel to rev up. The 346XP has been in the shop 3 times and the tech is at a loss. My guess is it has something to do with the fuel, but we have a Husky 372XP, Stihl 044 and an Echo that all work from the same fuel can and they run fine. The saws ride in the back of the pickup to the job and we work in many days below or near zero.

[clww]

Check the plugs and wires, check the gas and consider going to a different shop if the first 2 don't work out for you.

[shinnlinger]

I recently had 2 saws that did just what you describe and with a few folks from here encouragement and advice, I rebuilt the carbs for about 7 bucks each with kits from Chainsawr and they run great now.

Supposedly the new ethanol gas is hard on the diaphragms in the carbs and they no longer pump enough fuel to run after any period of time.  Of course I don't think you have ethanol gas in Canada, so maybe that is not the cause, but for the money I would give it a go and check/replace your fuel line and filter while you are at it....

Good luck.

[weimedog]

You have diesel in cans? How about kerosene? Had a situation once where I was on the west coast and had been away from home for a week. Got this call from the wife..kids motorcycles and the lawn mower all just quit today....

[clww]

I have to say ethanol SUCKS!

[sablatnic]

All three types are prone to cracking the fuel line. That could be the problem.

[lumberjack48]

Try a little dash of heet [ de-icer] in the gas, I've had this happen with saws.

[JDeere]

Thanks for all the advice. We may have figured out the problem today. I will know shortly. We have done all the normal things, filters, gas line, spark plug, air filter, etc. etc. What we now suspect it that snow dust is freezing the vents. Yesterday I took off the gas line to the carb and nothing came out until I opened the gas cap. My saws, until just last weekend, were transported in the open back of the pickup. We also work in a very cold area along the Northern New Hampshire-Western Maine border where is seems to snow every 12 hours. We are going to try to slightly modify the vents so they won't freeze over so easily. I will post next week to let you all know if that is the problem. Has anyone else ever had this happen?

[lumberjack48]

I always bolted a pole behind the cab, i could stick 6 saws across it, this way they weren't bouncing around in the box.
I've hauled them at -40, snow blowing, never had a problem

You don't have to modify anything, put heet in the gas and your good to go.

[justincase]

I had same problem with Jonsered 2152 for past couple weeks only on cold mornings. Same as you my saw stays out in cold which I figure cuts down on condensation. Very frustrating when I couldn't get saw to run well enough to cut a two inch limb. Mechanic told me there is a very small screen in carb that the smallest amount of water will freeze to it and not let gas in. If I warmed saw in truck for a couple minutes it ran fine rest of the day but the next morning same thing. Mechanic gave me small white bottle of gasoline medic. Haven't had problem since and it was 15 below this morning. Maybe coincidence maybe not.

[JDeere]

luberjack4, Justincase,  Thanks for your thoughts on this. I did just start adding some fuel treatment call K-100. It is supposed to remove water from the fuel. It was actually in the saw on Thursday when the Jonsered stated doing the same thing as the Huskys. It was about -12*F that day and the saw had been in the back of the truck for days. Maybe it is the Maine air causing the problem. I'll try it on the NH side next week and see if there is any difference. Thanks again for your help!

[lumberjack48]

I had a crew logging next to me, a friend of mine, it was -30 , about 11am he came over and told me all 3 of his Huskys would not run, i was running 044 Stihls, i told him he had to get a real saw to work in these conditions, i had him convinced, then i told him to put some heet in the gas. He came back with a big smile, saws were running good, this was over by Sucker bay, on leech lake. 1994 :D

Hope your troubles end  jdeere

[Old Iron nut]

I've been running 100 octane Av gas with 16 to 1 two cycle oil mix in my P41 and P52 Pioneers and found that they start easier, idle properly, and give excellent performance. That ethanol in regular gas isn't worth a *DanG in two cycle engines or old gas tractors. That crap we have up here in Canada fouls the plugs. It also seems to attract water. Another thing some of you fellows may want to try is reverse flushing your gas filter in the chainsaw tanks with straight gas. Some of the guys around here have found that the filters are becoming restricted with either oil residue or something in the gas. After doing this, we've found that things improved.

[John Mc]

I've been running 100 octane Av gas with 16 to 1 two cycle oil mix in my P41 and P52 Pioneers and found that they start easier, idle properly, and give excellent performance.

There is a huge amount of tetraethyl lead in AvGas. That's a particularly nasty, toxic form of lead. (When my wife was pregnant with our kids, we would not let her fuel the plane or sump the tanks to reduce her exposure to it.) I spend enough time around it with my flying, I sure don't want to breath it when I'm cutting.

If you do use 100LL AvGas, be aware tat if you are in the habit of letting your saw idle for extended periods, you can get lead fouling. The tendency is even worse if your idle mixture is set to the rich side. (basically, the colder and richer you run, the more chance of lead fouling). If it's bad, it can be really tough to clean out of the plug. If the saw still runs, you can usually burn it out by a some good hard full-throttle operations. The fuel has some additives to help scavenge the lead, but they don't work well at lower engine temperatures.

[9shooter]

I just replaced the dry rotted fuel line on my 385xp and am still trying to get the saw to run right. One guy mentioned that some of the vents have a little copper screen in them that has a propensity to clog up. He said he switched to an "aspirin vent" and has had no more problems. With all three saws not working I would defiantly think the common denominator is the fuel. I understand that av gas has more lead in it that the old leaded gasoline. I run nothing but premium non ethanol gas in my saws.  I talked to the local saw shop guys last week and they said that with all the anti pollution changes to the saws that there is a very narrow window for variations in the fuel/oil mix. They stated that they are rebuilding carbs at a much higher rate than with the older saws. Hope this helps.

[John Mc]

I run nothing but premium non ethanol gas in my saws...

You're lucky you can still get it. That's all I used to run, but you just can't get it in Vermont anymore.

They are working on an unleaded aviation fuel (100LL will probably be phased out as soon as they come up with a workable alternative - probably a good 5 years away from commercial production). That might be a good alternative for 2 cycle engines when it becomes available.