Outdoor Power Equipment and Small Engines - dead chainsaw

Last night I spent over two hours reading through a whole bunch of posts on this forum and concluded that my benched chainsaw might not be dead but just dormant. So this morning I took it all apart, cleaned the carb, poured the rancid smelling old oil in the combustion chamber out, cleaned the gas line, etc., went to the store and bought some good 2-cycle oil, mixed up some 50:1 (although it says right on the saw to use 16:1), fooled around with the idle as well as the H and L screws and this afternoon, I was the proud owner of a chainsaw that runs better than when I first got it. What great forum this is, guys!!!!!!!!!!

when adjusting the H(High)rpms you want to be sure to have a little flutter sound from the engine. if you adjust it til it is running very smooth it may be running to fast, its called leaning it out, and leaning a saw out can blow the engine very fast, also 16:1 to 50:1 seems a little to lean on the mixture i would not go any leaner than 321. have a good day. < Mastertektn >

Hello hukre!

I agree with mastertekTN...about the adj. screws and the oil mixture. If it calls for 16:1, then 50:1 may well be far leaner than it is intended for. (unless using synthetic oil...in which case, you MAY be ok to use 50:1).

I'm glad you were able to get it going! Nothing like bringing an old piece of equipment back to life!

Hello: hukre

Use caution when adjusting the carb and altering the fuel to oil ratios. An overly lean mixture will allow the engine to appear to run better than it did when new. But will not run long that way.

Excessively lean mixtures of fuel and or oil mixtures or both will allow the engine to obtain excessively high engine speeds and also run excessively hot. Both will drastically and dramatically reduce engine life.

2 cycle engines do not have engine speed govenors. 2 cycle engines rely on the fuel mixture of both the volume and the fuel to oil mixture ratio to govern the engine speed and help with cooling the engine.

Altering the oil to fuel mixture or incorrectly adjusting either or both the fuel adjustment settings will have negative effects on the engine. Both low and high speed fuel systems within the carb are used at above idle speeds to fuel the engine.

Proper adjustment is slightly fuel rich for both the low & high speeds. Especially the high speed adjustment, which is used when the engine is under heavy loads during the cutting process.

Regards, Small Engine Forum Host & Multiple Topic Moderator.
TCB4U2B2B.....Company Enterprises.
Fast...Fair...Friendly & Highly Proficient Services....:D
"Accurate Power Equipment Company."
Small Engine Repairs and Diagnostics Service Technician.

Thanks to all of you with your assistance.
I followed your advice, reduced the mixture to 32:1 and adjusted the H and L screws again. The chainsaw runs great and I used it today for several hours and it got a good workout.