About piston scoring.

[DHansen]

I visited the Northwoods Saw web site.  Lots of good stuff.

[CJ154SG]

My thoughts on cost of repairs. Or the value of the repair.  It is not if the dollar amount exceeds the value of the saw, but will I get that dollar value out of the saw from use.  So, putting $100.00 into a $100.00 saw to some may seem like a waste of money, but to me if I get a minimum of 10 tanks of fuel through that saw, then it paid for itself.  Anything above that is bonus time. Avoiding a bad discission like buying a poorly made part can really change the outcome. Quality is very important.  If I take care of it and maintain the saw, I will surely get more than that from my investment.  On top of that I enjoy working on them.  Now if I was using the saw for a business, lawn care, tree service or hired help, then old saws make no sense. I would not want the down time.  For me I'm on my own and if needed I set the troubled saw down and grab the next one.

I like your logic, Dave. Makes perfect sense for enthusiasts like most of us are on here, who tend to have more saws than we really "need". (Did I just say that? ) Most pros have a different set of criteria to consider.

[CJ154SG]

If we want to do a deep dive here, we can look at how the lines between AM and OEM are becoming blurred with replacement kits for older saws. Husky makes most of their own kits it Sweden for the current saws.

In Husky land.....272 top ends are now made by Kolbenschmidt Brazil. Still a nice looking kit, but not quite a Mahle. 372 kits at the time we retired were Gilardoni and really looked like a down grade from the Mahle. It more or less LOOKED like an AM kit, but sure wasn't priced like one
At that point, the picture is getting  cloudy, isn't it?

Let's factor in the reality that we are discussing rebuilding saws that are 20-30 or more Years old. A 40 or 50 dollar AM kit to keep a saw in service is about the cost of a new bar. These kits at these prices keep plenty of saws on the wood pile and off the scrap pile.   

Noticed the same thing with the 55 family, Spike. The plating got thinner towards the end of production, even on the Mahle top ends. Our cylinder-saving rate takes a hit on these saws when blown-up. That's taking into consideration that the typical 51/55 user in our area doesn't know the early-warning signs and so merrily keeps it pinned to the point of nuking the top end. Deep-six scoring results and it's probably 50/50 on saving the cylinder. For a $300 CAD saw (in our neck of the woods, anyways), a 4+ star $50 Scamazon kit gets them going again, with plating that is not far off the late-OEM level. I call that a win!