[Shop-talk] Chainsaw fuel pick up?

[Richard Beels]

yep, long & floppy is the way to go.  and you want the genuine 
ribbed, double-thick fuel line that costs dollars per inch.  most 
fuel lines won't work because the vacuum impulse on a 2 stroke can 
cause plain-jane fuel line to collapse on itself and starve the engine of fuel.

pro loggers who care about PM replace their fuel pickup every year - 
cheap insurance.  we homeowner hobbyist types can get by every 
"couple/few".  it's better to run saws dry at idle in the fall than 
leave them stored full over winter.  or, just use them year-round like i do.

and to forestall the next questions...

use the proper 2-stroke oil, pretty much everything is 50:1 - even 
older saws that needed a higher oil concentration were using crappy 
oil so the new stuff can go 50:1, but if you're scared, go no higher 
than 32:1 unless you know what you're doing and like breathing in 
oily-exhaust all day.  I use stabil all the time at double the 
regular dosage and it comes out of the gas portion of the mix (rather 
lean out the gas a little than dry out the oil).  use regular or 
marine (which is double-strength iirc and so, gets used regular 
dosage level), not the ethanol versions of stabil.  And don't use 
ethanol gas in 2 stroke if you can avoid it. But if you do, buy as 
little as possible and use it up - don't store it over the winter.

clean your air filter every once in a while, at least tap it out 
every few times you use it.
fill up the oil when you fill up with gas, oil should be around 1/4 
tank left when gas runs out.
purple cleaner is awesome for cleaning chainsaws but eats aluminum 
and magnesium so don't soak and make sure to rinse well



At 03/20/2014 at 15:00, Shakespearean monkeys danced on Eric J 
Russell's keyboard and said:
>Now that we know about chain saw bar oil, I have a question about 
>the fuel pick up in a chain saw.
>
>I hadn't used my Craftsman chain saw for a few years. I decided to 
>flush out the old gas/oil mix & replace the fuel lines. When I 
>dumped out the remnants of the old fuel the fuel pick up/filter 
>piece tumbled out. So I did not see how it was originally 
>positioned. I can either make the fuel line short so the pick 
>up/filter piece is sort of standing on its end or make the fuel line 
>longer so it'd be lying on its side (and perhaps be able to move 
>towards the lowest area of the tank if the saw is used in a position 
>other than with the chain vertical).
>
>Any ideas on which position is 'right'? Google didn't offer me an 
>answer so I am appealing to a greater authority...


Cheers!