The Forestry Forum

My Stihl MS 660 has a little bit of junk/trash in the chain oil tank. (The occasional bits of sawdust and a few pieces of plastic from caps shattering on me in the past.) I've tried everything I can think of to get the stuff out. (But with not much success.)

Does this damage anything if it gets sucked in? The oil tank (unlike the gas tank) has no filter.

Stihl saws do in fact have a pickup filter of sorts at the end of the oil pickup hose. The parts list calls it a pickup body. More of a screen than a filter. It is nothing like as efficient as the fuel filter, but it keeps debris out of the pump.

If you would like to thoroughly clean the tank, drain as much of the chain lube as possible, then fill the oil tank about 1/4 full of fuel mix. Put the cap on and shake vigorously. Then drain it out. If that doesn't get it all, repeat. When you are all done, drain all of the fuel mix, then refill with chain lube.

Thanks blueberrymuzik. Wasn't sure how good that screen was/is on the oil tank so I thought I'd ask.

Also a trick is: Put some diesel in the tank and run it 2 minutes, cleans tank, pickup, pump,...