Chainsaw Repair

Husqvarna - Stihl - Poulan - Jonsered - Dolmar chainsaws and more => Dolmar Makita => Topic started by: 660magnum on March 23, 2013, 06:19:21 pm

Title: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on March 23, 2013, 06:19:21 pm
Well, I now have a Dolmar 6800. It looks pretty nice and is a low time chainsaw. It has a new OEM 6800 cylinder and a new Meteor 6800 piston and Caber rings.
(http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g289/doemaster789/166/6000idolmar002.jpg)

I've owned the chainsaw three years. It started life as a Dolmar 6000iH. A local casual firewood guy was the original owner. It is a 1997  model but I think it set on the shelf in the store a couple years. Along about five years ago, it started running bad so he traded it in on a new red top Dolmar 6400. So again the Dolmar 6000iH sat on the shelf for over a year until I bought it. The Dolmar dealer said it came in with a bad impulse hose. Only thing is, the 6000 doesn't have a impulse hose. The impulse path is though the insulator block. So I assume it was the fuel line??? Anyway, it has always run perfect for me.

It has a 20" replaceable tip bar and a Stihl RSC chain. And is just a sweetheart.

(http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g289/doemaster789/166/6000idolmar001.jpg)

I've had the itch all along to change it into a 6800 by changing the cylinder and piston. I've put it off and finally decided I was going to do it. So I went to the dealer to buy a Cylinder and piston set. He said that the distributor, Central Power in Columbus, OH said it was NLA. So I tried Edge and Engine who have Atlantic Power as their distributor. They took my money but then contacted me the next day that the Cylinder and Piston was NLA. So then I went to Randy the engine man on Ebay and he said he had ten of them for $100 higher price than what the dealers wanted. The next day, he also, said they were no longer available. I tried a place in San Diego and another in Salt Lake and they also said NLA a day later.

Looking on Google, there was a "Dolmar Head" that came up on Ebay $100 with some off the wall part number that didn't match any cylinders I could find on a parts list. But the picture was was of a 6800 cylinder and he said it was 49mm bore which is correct.  So I bought it. It came from Oregon across the country in 3 days. I then bought a Meteor piston from the the guy in Israel $35 including shipping and it took three weeks to get here.

Cut4fun has been against me changing the saw because it was very nice as a 60cc chainsaw heated handles and all. He had taken all these pictures of it.

(http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g289/doemaster789/166/6000idolmar003.jpg)

Today was a nice day so I changed it over. The old 60cc cylinder was not a Mahle but I think it is a Kolbenschmidt? Anyway, the  old cylinder and piston looked brand new on the inside except for smut on the combustion chamber. The hone marks are stihl in the cylinder and the lathe marks are stihl on the piston skirt.

The change over was uneventful except for the wrist pin clips were the plain "C" type and were very hard to get seated in place.

The chainsaw started right up like nothing ever happened. It looks and runs the same as it always did.

(http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g289/doemaster789/166/6000idolmar005.jpg)
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: Cut4fun . on March 23, 2013, 06:40:52 pm
I was impressed with it being a 6000 and the torque it had. Wonder how she will feel now in the cuts.  What is it 8cc more?
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on March 23, 2013, 06:43:14 pm
Dolmar 116Si and 120SI

The Dolmar 116S and 120S are the same bore and stroke as the Dolmar 6000 and 6800 respectively.

In later years, Dolmar sold the same piston and cylinder for both types. The 116S and 6000 were 60cc and the 120S and 6800 were 68cc.

Actually the early cylinders didn't have any fins at all behind the spark plug and the later cylinders had fins all around the spark plug but only a tiny fin below the exhaust port.

Most everything else on the early and late chainsaws is different.

Yes, my chainsaw is 8cc more now.
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: rms61moparman on March 23, 2013, 06:57:56 pm


I certainly hope it brings you as much joy as my 120SI has given me!!!
They are the startingest scoundrels I've ever seen.
If you start it more than once a month, it will fire on the first pull almost every time!


Mike
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on March 24, 2013, 01:04:39 am
The piston sat around here a day before I put it in the chainsaw.

To study the porting/timing layout, there is little hop up that you can do to it especially when using the Meteor piston as this piston has angle reliefs on the lower corners of the skirt that will free port if you do anything to adjust the squish. The skirts on either piston are only wide enough to effectively cover the port openings.

There's not much you could do even with a OEM piston except squish.

The exhaust bolt holes are too close together to widen the exhaust yet the exhaust port is as wide as the practical skirt width.

The narrow skirt width is not wasteful as the relieved area is utilized for the intake transfers.

There is no meat around the transfers so only a minimum amount of widening can be done maybe towards the back of the outlets?

It is a closed port cylinder of the upper and lower window in the cylinder wall type. The distance between the top of the piston and the beginning of the window is exactly the same as the distance between the bottom of the top transfer outlet and the top of the bottom transfer inlet. This ring land area of the piston fits exactly in the transfer intermediate space at bottom dead center. At top dead center, the entire upper and lower transfer openings and all in between are exposed as part of the interior crankcase volume.

The intake port is just completely open at top dead center and the tip of the uvula that sticks down in the center of the intake barely covers the bottom ring at bottom dead center. The width of the intake takes up the practical skirt width.

As is typical German, the interrelationships of all the ports, distances, piston dimensions are extremely well thought out.

To fully port this cylinder, the ports would stihl not be as large as the stock ports on a 372 cylinder.

Yet this chainsaw is a true sweetheart whether a 60cc 116S/6000 or a 68 cc 120S/6800.

Just for the record there are older plain 120's floating around that are only 61cc but I'm sure they make a good showing for their displacement?
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on March 24, 2013, 01:15:03 am


I certainly hope it brings you as much joy as my 120SI has given me!!!
They are the startingest scoundrels I've ever seen.
If you start it more than once a month, it will fire on the first pull almost every time!



Mike
There is a secret to this very important statement.

The secret is the "i" which stands for "injection" on the Tillotson carburetor. It is not a running fuel injection system but a starting primer injection system. The Dolmar "i" chainsaws will start up with the choke lever "on". You turn the choke off after they start. In cold weather you have to leave the coke on a little bit. Other than the starting primer, the Tillotson carburetor works just like a regular Walbro or Zama carburetor.
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: Old Iron Logging on March 24, 2013, 11:45:41 am
Have to agree on the starting of the "I" series Dolmars. Best starting saws I ever had. And the 116, 120 si models more than held there own in terms of power with anything out in the same time frame.
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on March 24, 2013, 03:41:40 pm
Cut4fun and I were out running 3 cube Huskies today and out in the open fields, the steady wind blowing will get you at 32 degrees. Where we were cutting was in the deep woods though and there was little wind.

When I got to my house, I had to get the 6800 out and do a little cutting with it. All I can say is . . . . oh my! How nice.
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on March 24, 2013, 03:58:46 pm
On a day when the wind is not steady at 18 mph I want to get that 6800 all heated up - jerk the covers and recheck all the bolts with the chainsaw hot.
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: Cut4fun on March 24, 2013, 04:13:10 pm
Next trip lets take the 6800 and this old 702 I have.  http://www.acresinternet.com/cscc.nsf/ed1d619968136da688256af40002b8f7/b802b7aceee6125e88256d0d001e6622?OpenDocument

Let me know if you are going to put a 7 or 8 with 3/8 and I'll do the same.  I'm only going 20"  though.
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on March 24, 2013, 04:29:54 pm
My 6800 has a 20" X 3/8" RSC and a 7 pin rim. The bar looks like a Oregon Power Match - little angled oil holes and all but it says Dolmar. I assume it is original but I didn't know they had the tiny angled oil holes in the late 90's? The bar is not the current Dolmar graphics with the little square design that fades away at the tip like on my 7900's and 5105's.

The 6800 is 49mm bore X 36mm stroke

The bar is small mount Husky.
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: Cut4fun on March 24, 2013, 04:45:23 pm

The 6800 is 49mm bore X 36mm stroke

The bar is small mount Husky.

I think the 702 is 50mm bore x 36mm stroke horizontal cyl though.  D176 or D009 work on it.
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on March 29, 2013, 03:59:24 pm
To go along with what RMS61Moparman and Old Iron Logging said about the starting characteristics of the Dolmar "i" series chainsaws . . .

I went to start my 6800 this morning around 9:30 with the temperature around 35F and it started 1st pull and had not been run in 4 days.

After it had run 5 seconds or so I turned the choke and the fast idle off.
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on March 30, 2013, 03:09:01 am
Cut4fun and I ran the Dolmar 6800 on Friday afternoon. It didn't start first pull when cold but started the 3rd pull.

Cut4fun wanted to see how it compared with his Echo 702. The 702 has a one mm larger bore. It is a older torque engine and runs a 8 pin rim.

So one would have to take the torque factor into consideration when comparing a Dolmar 6800 with a Echo 702..

The Dolmar held a pretty high rpm in the cut. But to watch the saws while cutting, I think they cut about the same even though the Dolmar sounded faster.
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: farmboy on March 30, 2013, 08:47:28 am
Just for info I have a couple of NOS 6800 pistons.
Shep
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on March 30, 2013, 09:59:03 am
Now you tell me.  But I guess I didn't ask?

The Meteor was $35 shipped and a beautiful piston except the lower corners of the skirts were cut off (never there - as cast) at an angle. Stock configuration it didn't hurt anything.

The 6800 sure runs good.

I know where there is another OEM NOS bare Cylinder for $100.
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on May 06, 2013, 08:02:52 am
Used the 6800 Dolmar to drop a diseased Black Ash (emerald ash borer) that was about 18" DBH and 50' high. The drop went flawless. Was guided by a 7/16" Dacron polyester double braid rope attached to my 4WD truck due to being adjacent to the triplex electric service drop. The wind was in my favor for the drop. The top quarter of the tree was dead and shattered in hundreds of pieces when the tree hit the ground. The faller had a safety helmet because of the dead limbs, chaps, and gloves. I did the truck.

Went to do the stump and the Dolmar quit on me about 1/4 through when I backed off the throttle. Couldn't get it restarted readily so I finished the stump with a Husqvarna 365 Special - I have CAD.

Cut4fun stopped by and cut up the trunk with the Husqvarna 365.

After everything was cleaned up, the Dolmar 6800iH started up 1st pull with the choke off so it must have been flooded?

The limbs were mostly done with my Dolmar 111i W/3/8" X 16" that I put the Brison model airplane engine cylinder and Meteor domed piston in. I also had a Stihl ported 026 W/3/8" X 16 and Stihl 025 four port, MM'd, W/.325" X 16" that I personally used just to give the saws a little use.


Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: Cut4fun on May 06, 2013, 12:28:35 pm
Thanks for the ash tree  8). That will make some good test wood and bonfire in the future.
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: Cut4fun . on October 15, 2013, 02:25:15 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi0tSF5fY8M
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on October 15, 2013, 03:07:28 pm
The 6800iH is a 1997 model that was originally a 6000iH. It was purchased at the local dealer by a firewood guy. After a few years, he traded it in on a new 6400. After the saw sat around a year or so at the dealer, I bought it and eventually found a new 6800 cylinder and with a new Meteor piston/Caber ring, made a 6800 out of it. It is low time and has the original bar. In the video it had a square ground Stihl RS33 chain. Otherwise it is completely original.

The 6800 was only sold some 4 years. It is a 120S with a different brake. The piston/cylinder are the same as on a 120S. The bar mount comes from the factory with the small husky mount studs but you can still get larger studs for the bar mount to use the large Husky bar like on a 372 or 7900 or a Stihl bar like on the 026-066.

The cylinder is closed port with windowed single transfers. The piston is a window piston. Due to the layout of the muffler bolt holes, the port positions, and the piston skirt width, these saws do not lend themselves to a lot of porting. But they run pretty good the way they are.
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: fordfairlane78 on October 19, 2013, 05:52:05 am
Magnum, I believe I have read that you have quite a few Dolmars, including a 6400. How does this saw compare to the 6400?
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on October 19, 2013, 09:45:08 am
I have a couple 7900's they are obviously more powerful than the 6800.

The 6400 has very generous open porting and they run pretty good. I believe that the 6400/7900 is a little heavier than the 6000/6800.

The porting in the 6800 is with the lower transfers (a square window) in the lower cylinder sidewall with a windowed piston. The 116Si/120Si Dolmars are almost identical to the 6000i/6800i except for the chain cover.
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: SawTroll on October 27, 2013, 08:19:26 pm
......

The porting in the 6800 is with the lower transfers (a square window) in the lower cylinder sidewall with a windowed piston. The 116Si/120Si Dolmars are almost identical to the 6000i/6800i except for the chain cover.

I don't think there are much doubt that those are pretty much the same saws!  ;D
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on October 27, 2013, 08:32:37 pm
Yes, The 6800 has a EPA inertia brake design instead of one just activated by the handle.

The old 116Si / 120Si & 6000i / 6800i certainly are likable chainsaws in the woods.

If you start counting up statistics of dimension, weight, balance, rpm, and power, they will not add up like a modern day chainsaw but they are still nice to use in the woods.

New factory parts are getting scarce though.
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: gmax on November 02, 2013, 12:42:08 am
I like my Dolmar 120si , I made a video comparison against a husky 371XP, the Dolmar is no slouch   :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9_6eUCIHwM
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on November 02, 2013, 12:52:54 am
Two very good running chainsaws there
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on November 02, 2013, 12:58:42 am
This is my 6800 with Nick from the Cincinnati area running it at a GTG. It warmed up in the second cut.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi0tSF5fY8M
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: gmax on November 02, 2013, 01:14:36 am
That's a nice strong runner  :)
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: SawTroll on November 03, 2013, 02:53:42 am
Yes, The 6800 has a EPA inertia brake design instead of one just activated by the handle.

......

I fail to see the connection between the chain brake and the EPA, sounds more like ANSI related?  ???
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on November 03, 2013, 08:17:10 am
You're probably right for it is not emissions related but a safety matter?

Government bureaucrats anyway!
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on November 13, 2013, 04:51:42 pm
I was at the local Dolmar/Echo dealer today and he had a customer's 6800 in the shop. It had a hole burned through the oil tank.

With the 6800, the oil tank is part of the plastic rear handle - gas tank assembly. I have not had my 6800 tank off and had never noticed this?

The hole burned in the oil tank is the same story as always - The muffler retention bolt area of the muffler was bad and allowed the muffler to leak out the bottom seam.

So this saw is going to need a muffler and a tank assembly if they can find them.
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: Cut4fun . on November 13, 2013, 05:00:38 pm
Your 6000i / 6800i has the same plastic tank set up?  If so I never noticed it when looking it over. 
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on November 13, 2013, 05:28:11 pm
You know, I had never noticed but that's the way all the 6000/6800's are made with the oil tank included with the handle. They must have had a few burn through with the two piece muffler?

The replacement model 6400/7300/7900 chainsaw handle assembly, terminates at the front AV spring. The oil tank is with the crankcase.
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: Cut4fun . on November 13, 2013, 05:45:02 pm
I mean was yours plastic? I never noticed that.  I knew about the dolmar oil / fuel tank deal.

Here is a dolmar 166 metal oil / fuel tank I had to split to repair.

(http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g289/doemaster789/166/166repairtank.jpg) (http://s59.photobucket.com/user/doemaster789/media/166/166repairtank.jpg.html)
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on November 13, 2013, 06:00:45 pm
I went out to the shop and looked. Sure enough, the oil tank is part of the PLASTIC handle/gas tank assembly. It is sort of tucked in behind the starter cover and not noticeable that it is separate from the crankcase.
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: Cut4fun . on November 13, 2013, 06:02:59 pm
I went out to the shop and looked. Sure enough, the oil tank is part of the handle/gas tank assembly. It is sort of tucked in behind the starter cover and not noticeable that it is separate from the crankcase.

Plastic or Metal?  Thats all I was trying to see. Being I never noticed it being plastic.
Title: Re: DOLMAR 6800
Post by: 660magnum on November 13, 2013, 06:04:04 pm
Yes, it is plastic