Woods porting

[Timbercruiser]

Sorry im new to all this but I see alot of guys talking about ''Woods porting" or porting there saws. I just bought a new stihl 362 pro saw and wondered if I can do anthing to make it breath and have more power. Any info will be a big help thanks

[NCFarmboy]

A muffler mod is the easiest and cheapest hp increase you can do.  Most are severly restricted.  It is like putting a set of headers on the old hot rods.  On your saw it will run cooler and make more power.  Will need to retune carb after modding the muffler.  The warranty will be voided if muff. is modded.  Some buy an extra muff. to put back on saw in case of warranty claim.  However, with a MM it will run cooler so it shouldn't be an issue.
Shep

[John Mc]

If you are not up to doing a muffler mod yourself, often just swapping in a non-catalytic muffler will help it breathe better and run noticeably cooler (assuming it came with a catalytic one). Just as with a muffler mod, you'll need to re-tune after the swap.

[Timbercruiser]

What do I do to my stock muffler to make it run better. I see stihl puts some type of fancy lock nuts on to make it hard to open up

[John Mc]

There are others on here who know a LOT more about this than I do, but the basic idea is opening up the exhaust outlet in the muffler a bit (a drill or dremel tool can work wonders here). If the muffler has a lot of internal restrictions, you may want to remove or modify them as well. NOTE: some catalytic mufflers have some nasty metals inside that you do NOT want to inhale. Take appropriate precautions if you are working on one of them.

Try searching on   muffler mod   for more information.

[AdkStihl]

I know of a few guys on another forum who would love to give your 362 a massage If youre interested just send me PM and I'll head ya in the right direction.
Most saw builders/porters typically charge $250-300 depending on what type of performance youre looking for. Price usually includes shipping back to you.

[SwampDonkey]

On our Stihl FS550's (57 cc brush saw) we take the finer mesh screen out. It plugs solid in the first day of use. Anyone that says otherwise has never run one a straight 8 hr day. So we put in a courser screen, never touch it again, except daily air filter cleaning. 

[Al_Smith]

  Now how pray tell would 98 percent of us know about a brush saw Swamp ? You and half a dozen people on the planet are the only people that operate the things .

[Al_Smith]

Brush saws aside generally speaking a little work on the muffler and obviously retuning the carb will satisfy most saw users .

Now of course they make a big deal about "woods porting" and choose up sides on internet forums and all the hullabaloo over little of nothing .Then brag up the builder --until they get out ran by a stock saw at some saw GTG then the guy goes from hero to zero .

It's just much nonsense on forums ,nothing more .Believe what you want though ,it's still somewhat of a free country .

[SwampDonkey]

Al, by the sounds of it they've been reading too many posts over there from Tobiquers. If they say they cut 5 acres a week, you can divide that by 2 and come out about right. I didn't make that up as I have had 4 working for me at once, so I know. 

[Al_Smith]

Not me ,you must have someone else in mind .Like I've said a million times I've never even seen a brush saw  let alone read up on one .

Fact you are my only source of information about one .I have no idea who this Tobiquers is or  where over there is .

Where is over there ? Is that the same as over yonder ?

[SwampDonkey]

No, not you. You need to read more carefully. As far as over there, everyone is always talking about some other forum, so it's over there.

A Tobiquer, an inhabitant of a small region of NB along the Tobique River. Well known for stretching the truth.

[AdkStihl]

On our Stihl FS550's (57 cc brush saw) we take the finer mesh screen out. It plugs solid in the first day of use. Anyone that says otherwise has never run one a straight 8 hr day. So we put in a courser screen, never touch it again, except daily air filter cleaning. 

Plugs solid in a day?? That aint right. What are you running for mix?
Outboard/Marine mix @ 16:1    Holy shart.
The FS550 is pretty much a glorified weedwacker with a skil saw blade.
Brush hogs are much more efficient

[SwampDonkey]

I'd like to put some of you bush hoggers on a tractor in the ground I thin. Won't be much left of tractor or bush hog in short order.  Brush saws are for thinning, hogs are for mowing. You've obviously never ran a 550.

[AdkStihl]

I'd like to put some of you bush hoggers on a tractor in the ground I thin. Won't be much left of tractor or bush hog in short order.  Brush saws are for thinning, hogs are for mowing. You've obviously never ran a 550.

Youre right. Cant say I have. But then again, never felt the need for one either.
Whats up with your screens plugging in a 8 hour day? I just picked up another 10mm 044 very low hour saw with screen still intact and not a sign of any carbon constriction whatsoever.

[SwampDonkey]

Brush saws are a different beast. Even the Husqvarna brush saws get a muffler modification before use or they do the same thing.  These saws are much higher sped as well.

The need we have is that thousands of acres need thinned each year to keep up on the silviculture. It would be nice to sit it out in a cabbed machine, and they have experimented with this, but it's never worked and very poor results. They even used them to make trails, but instead of making trails in the thickets they go in the light places. Then the trails, no matter where they are, are full of spears to fall down and poke a lung or but cheek on. No dice to that.

[Tramp Bushler]

Back to the original ? . Porting a saw does help most of the time . But hands down the most important modification there is is a truely sharp , properly jointed well oiled chain in a good straight well maintained bar .

 Until youve cut with a properly chisel ground or filed chain , you really don't understand the difference .

As has been said here . A dual ported ,muffler on a saw with a properly adjusted carb does bump up the proformance like 5% . A perfectly chisel ground chain will bump the preformance 25-30% .

[Tramp Bushler]

 A Silvey SwingArm grinder from Madsen's costs about the same as a new 362 Stihl . But if you take care of it , it will last 25 years or more and grind litterly miles of chain .
 No round grinder can compare to a chisel grinder so please lets not even go there .

In the long run a chisel grinder is no more than and can be less expensive than round fileing .

[lumberjack48]

I knew loggers that logged all their life, they had no idea how to sharpen a chain properly. When they wanted to cut faster, they'd buy a bigger saw an cut the rakers lower.

Its just like a grinder, its only as good as its operator.

I've heard so many guys say, i wish that my saw cut as good as it did when it was new. Just by that statement i knew they don't know how to tune or file a saw.
I had a 444SE/SG Husqvarna, this was a factory ported 44, that i'd bought just to cut plantation Jack Pine with. It sounded like a model airplane, i cut & limbed 200 Jack an Norway trees a day with it. I would fall about a 6" Jack, while it was falling i'd cut 3, 4 pieces out of it in mid air. it was fun to run.

 

 

[Al_Smith]

  ,   I would fall about a 6" Jack, while it was falling i'd cut 3, 4 pieces out of it in mid air. it was fun to run.

 ]

Say what you cut up pecker poles like a Japanese chef with a ginsu knife .In mid air no less ?