.325 on a 359?

[konrad695]

I just picked up a 2004 Husky 359 to replace the Solo 651SP I sold.  The guy I bought it from said he needed something bigger.  I don't think he hardly ever used.  It came with a 20 laminate bar and three Vanguard chains.  One chain is 1/3 used the other two are almost new.  From past threads it looks like most people prefer LP and RS chain.  I still have my powermatch bar and three 20LP chains from my Solo.  I plan on opening up the muffler on the 359.  Is it worth running the 20LP on it?  Will the chain hold up?  Any ideas from about what provides a good balance on this saw.  Most wood will be medium sized.  My background is .325 pitch on the Solo and 72 LP/CL on a 266XP. Any help before I get rid of the wrong stuff would be helpful.  Thank you, Konrad

[sawguy21]

The 20LP  chains will work fine although you may need to cut and splice to fit the 359 bar. The question is why would you? We sell that saw with 73LP and it has plenty of power. Open up the muffler, tweak the carb and it will eat the competition's lunch.

[Don K]

I have a new 359 that I've run about six tanks thru and I keep hearing people talk about modifying the muffler to get more power. I have a 20" bar on it and it does a impressive job already. I have been using saws since I was a teenager, but beyond sharpening chain, sparkplugs and like maint. I know very little about tuning a saw. Could someone shed a little more light on the mod?

[konrad695]

The simplest mods I know of are this.  This is my work on a Homelite 23AV (cheap enough to throw away).  Take muffler off.  Take out or drill holes in internal bafffle.  This is sheet metal inside muffler that air has to travel around or through to escape.  Then open exhaust port, the area that air finally exits muffler.  This reduces the back pressure on engine to move it's burnt fuel/air from engine to muffler to outside.  Less pressure means less resistance to air/fuel coming into engine.  This is the small part.  It is your job to now adjust the carb. mixture (throttle/low/high) to make the saw run at full power.  If you don't get it right, then all gains could be lost and you might burn up saw from too lean a mixture.  My Homelite 23Av (38cc  2.3ci) gained about 300RPM on throttle and 5 or 600 RPM on top speed.  These were measured with a tachometer with bar and chain instaled.  This saw now cuts in my opinion like a good saw.  I am guessing that this saw will not hold up that long do to quality grade of saw.  I'm not saying that Homelites are bad, just that some other brands are built to better/tougher standards or higher grade alloy metals.  If you want to mod a saw,  start with something that will not hurt you in the pocket book too much.  If I muffler mod a saw that's great.  If I want to port a saw NO WAY.  Realize your expertise and stay there until you work up to it.  Do a search for "359 muffler" or "359 mods" or "muffler mods".  That should give you some more insight.  There is intensive discussion about mods if you look around.  My origional question was is a "muffler moded 359" o.k. with .325 chain and is there any gains over .375 chain, although I worded this probably wrong.  Do some looking around, maybe we can compare notes.  Konrad695

Please understand these  are coments from a novice that doesn't know any better. My landscaper friend once told me  "HEY Konrad, the enginers spent more than a six-pack designing that snow blower".   Which means- Just because I can grow tomatoes doesn't mean I can redesign the Space Shuttle.  Even though "I think I can". 

[saw_nut]

Every new 357/359 here comes with 7 tooth rim and .325 chain. I don't know why. I change mine over to 3/8 setup. If I were to use .325 I would run a 8 tooth rim.

[SawTroll]

"Interpolating" a bit here, but my guess is that .325x8 and 3/8x7 will be about equal in smaller wood, maybe with a slight edge to the .325, provided that the .325 chain is Stihl RS or RSC.

The 3/8 will probably take over when the added friction from more teeth and/or problems with chip clearanse overtakes the .325.
When that will happen depends on several factors........

I regard .325x7 as out of the question on such a saw, as it will cut slower than it need to.


I would follow the KISS rule, and use 3/8" all the way.