new short block

[Skioutty]

I recently acquired a Sthil MS290 
Thinking it was frozen I gave her a pull and and it did turn over,
I pulled the carb and took it apart and cleaned the jet, added new fuel but nothing. 
I then pulled the muffler and the piston is trashed. 
So where is the best place to buy a new short block. 

[dougand3]

OEM - used on ebay. New at dealer.
AM - ebay or amazon.
You can put a 49mm MS390 topend or whole engine in the chassis.

[motzingg]

Hutzl/ Farmertec has the complete 390 shortblock for about 30 bucks plus shipping from china which will probably come out to about 50

if you're gonna do it, figure might as well upgrade to the 390. I just ordered the P&C because i figured my stock stihl crank is going to be better than china AM.  The Hutzl piston and cylinder looks pretty good to me. 

i'm upgrading mine to a 390 if you want to buy a clean used 290 p&c and rebuild it.  Once you get down to the shortblock its basically all apart anyhow since the tie rods that hold the cylinder/case together also have to be removed to get it out of the the saw. 

shoot me a PM or email me at motzingg (a) gmail if you want my take off parts, i don't have them out of the saw yet but i could probably get it done this weekend and put them in the mail. 

The china pistons and cylinders are pretty good, rings are hit and miss, i have had cracking and infant mortality in china bearings, wristpin and big end on similar stuff, also the metallurgy and heat treat of the china cranks can be iffy.  I've seen odd failures like having the threads snap off or strip from china cranks, so i'm a big fan of sticking with ze germans. 

[Mad Professor]

I'd look for good used OEM and avoid parts made of Chinesium