Aftermarket Stihl Saws/Parts

[Lumberjack84]

Has anyone had experience with non OEM Stihl saws? (Specifically the MS660)  I've noticed there seems to be an over abundance of aftermarket built saws, case halves/ complete motors,  etc. on Ebay. They are shipped from China or Hong Kong, which tells me that is where they're produced. Are they worth buying, or are they Chinese junk that won't take the abuse of a genuine 'Made in Germany' version?
Thank you.

[clww]

Two words: Garbage and Junk!

[Magicman]

When I am in the need for such, I contact our Sponsor, Scott

[Lumberjack84]

Thank you both!   I had the feeling they were not worth buying.  The only parts I use not OEM are the dual port muffler, and BB kits.  NWP makes a decent product in that regard (the cylinders need some port work, however).  I would like to build a competition saw but was extremely leary about anything not genuine German made. 

[weimedog]

OK.. I'll bite, as I hate generalizations. My personal experience is limited on the 660 parts as first I'm not a real Stihl person and really don't know much about them to have a real valid opinion... but I have built saws using aftermarket parts AND I'm currently evaluating some of those parts you are in fact asking about. To this point I haven't put enough time on them to build a solid opinion. I do have some "first impressions" though.

For some applications it really makes sense to use aftermarket parts. I have some customers with 660's  that have lived a hard life and they need a few cosmetic parts and might need a few hard parts to extend their life. After market parts make sense there.

You building a competition saw? Actually it might make sense to use aftermarket parts for some R&D work as OEM parts are real expensive.

If you are a logger with one saw, maybe two to feed your family with?? Aftermarket makes no sense for hard parts and critical parts. But might for covers and plastic after accidents crush them and you need to get back in the woods for as little money as possible...

And.... BTW, here is one saw with a LOT of Aftermarket parts that's now in testing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX0Xf0_hGos



As a follow on.... two things:

At this point in time the concept of "performance" aftermarket parts hasn't happened in the saw world as has in other motorsports. I predict that will change. SO at this point in time OEM is almost always going to be the best performing and lowest risk for fit and finish along with reliability. As time goes on and the state of the art increases with AM parts my above started premises will change. I see that happening right now...some of these companies are in fact increasing their quality and at some point in time will in fact match and might even exceed OEM performance... time will tell.

[johndamps]

I always keep my saws stock ,im buying a husky 365 saterday, but wont make a 372 out of it, I would have bought the 372, I have many chainsaws and I figure the manufacture spends millions on R and D just buy the saw you need, I have an echo 680, everybody wanted me to modify it, I like to keep them stock and if I have a problem its there problem,when I ran snowmobiles I hade Polaris 800 and thundercat 1000 everybody with a 600cc wanted to race because they put 1000s dollors in aftermarket parts to go fast, they never beat me,i know some chainsaw mods are good but to each their own,im not going to turn my echo cs 400 into a 50cc saw, I have a husky 455, and so on, any how you have a nice site here I hope I can learn a lot, been running chainsaws  from 1973,1st saw was jonsred,