Chainsaw Repair

When we first started out the weather wasn't all that bad with the temperature around 19F with the wind SW 4 mph and hazy.

Honestly I couldn't tell much difference in power between the 550 and the 346XP NE.

The 550, which had little more than a tank of gas through it, was rather cold natured on start up.  (I'm not used to the new style switch yet.)
After a little warm up which amounted to walking to the wood pile with the saw running, the 550 ran just fine mixture wise in the cuts. No lean out, rich flutter or anything. This saw had the 3/8  RSC X 60DL X 16" Power Match bar.

I played with pressure and feel versus cutting speed while in the old silver maple. The 550 cut very well to let it more or less feed itself. If you pushed much, it would slow and the clutch would slip. But to ease up, it cut very fast. Overall it was pleasant to use.

The 346XP NE responded almost identical in the wood with the same bar and chain.

What I did notice about the 346 was that it started up cold with the choke on. It was 19F outside air temperature. I flicked the choke off and let it run at a moderate speed until I got to the wood pile. We checked the RPM and it was 14,000 (No limiter on the coil). In the cut the feel of the torque, cutting speed and cutting action were not enough different from the 550 to notice.

I had the impression that the 346 had gone a little lean as the engine temperature built up for to lift up on the saw in the cut, it would scream beyond 14,000. It needed to be richened up for the cold outside air temperature?

This makes you appreciate the newer 550 with its Auto tune feature. There were no mixture events with the 550.

Then cut4fun got out the Poulan 3450 Bad Boy. It was lean too but with the stops still on the carb, all he could do was put the needle as rich as it would go against the stop. Before the cut the 3450 seemed to be very healthy as I think it has the same carb and boot as the Poulan 3750? In the cut the mixture was OK.

The 3450 though it is 5 cc bigger than the 550 and 346, did not have the RPM in the cut that the Huskies did. It was noticeably slower though still a nice chainsaw. We would have thought it great if we were not following the newer Husqvarna chainsaws with it.

While running the 3450, the wind picked up and made it miserable out at the wood pile. So we wrapped things up and I went home.