the clone chinese stihl or huskys.

[philipxxx]

The clone chinese  saws/ they sell clone engines for stilh  and husky/  plus many parts/  are these engines good/ or crap

[Air Lad]

I have had a decent run out of a Chinese knock off
With all respect only recreational use
You get what you pay for
Depends on how much you depend on it I guess
Cheers

[Somewhat Handy]

Look up weimedog on this Forum or Youtube. He's posted up a lot of info regarding clones and builds with OEM parts mixed in.

[joe_indi]

There are fully assembled engine blocks available for Ms460; crankcase with crankshaft, cylinder and piston (choice of stock 52mm or Big bore 54mm).
Add the old flywheel, coil, starter, oil pump, clutch, muffler and other bit, fit it onto the old tank and the rebuild is finished. But how would it run and how long would last are the unanswered questions.
We intend to import a few units for field trials. If the trial were to answer these questions, well, at the price they are offered, it's worth a try
Husky 365 and 575 clones are available here. The 365 once the carb is replaced with a Walbro performs quite decently, except for the AV spring in the front, the plastic portion separates in a week.
The 575 is best avoided, within a month it seems to lose the will to start.

[weimedog]

Some are better than others, so there is a few "generic" answers to the OP.

First....depending on the brand / model patterned, some are intrinsically better than others.
Second .. even within in a give model there are variations in the quality of parts so it tough to say something like "Farmertec 660's" are good and "372's" are bad as there is a bit of variation there as well.

Bottom line for me on the subject is this:
If you are questioning if they are good or bad in a "blank or white" mentality...go buy OEM and don't even consider entering the AM crap shoot.
If the success or failure of your business or operations depends on the long term reliability of a saw...GO OEM, and don't waste time with AM
For those who see these as projects and expect to have to work around issues, in fact see that as entertainment...these things are a blast. JUST make certain you have a solid OEM saw for backup should you decide to put these to work in a real situation.

I have been able to develop a few of these models and individual saws within the given models to a useful working saw. Not everyone has the time, patience, skills, resources to do so. And if that scares you when evaluating the concept of AM....or you are looking for a cheap way to bypass OEM prices and dealers...you are making a mistake. GO OEM! The effort in time and parts to get to where I did was close to OEM cost anyway....so there was no real cost saving to be had...and most tree related business's don't have the bandwidth to take that tangent anyway....get the drift??

Some of the saws are "firewood" ready with very little effort...but how long will they last? The Clone 365 (G372) and 660 certainly are. Looks like some of the Zenoah clones might be. Time will tell. There are a bunch of "power head & parts kit" offerings that are NOT ready even for firewood operations though. I have a few video's that show that. I haven't seen all the models and don't have desire or time to check them all out, but there are a pile of folks who will. I'm certain YouTube video's will follow the pattern of documenting real experience as well.

BUT I had a lot of fun beating the odds. It was a challenge and a bit of an "in your face" to the die "hard know it all's" who champion one brand or another, to work one of those underdogs against all odds into a useful saw even for a pro. Message being there are a LOT of ways to get to a good saw, and a LOT of good saws from a variety of places & brands out there. "best" is a relative thing that varies from situation to situation and from person to person. If that's where you are..these things are a steal. I've had reasonable luck blending better OEM and AM parts to work 660 clones into really capable and now proving to be reliable saws. But the net cost when you factor in time approaches OEM so there is NO rational reason to follow my path. Looks like the 372 class saws are a mine field but can also with time research and patience follow suite. I just don't know if I want to go there again. I'm now retro back to Jonsered's and built to my requirement 372's for fun. But the Farmer Jones" 660 is a poke in the eye to all who say you can't make these clone saws a real useful machine... And it's going to be in my work saw rotation for a while as I LIKE it. No other reason.

My experiences good and bad, real time is documented on YouTube. Just video'ed as it happened without time to think or over analyse. And despite what some think, I'm not trying to sell anything, be it a modification concept or saw brand. Just living life and sharing real time. Learned a LOT about Stihl's, Really like the 066/660's is my net take away after a few years. Someday I want to restore one to new condition as a project...NOT modded. Stock. OEM.