Well, last summer I decided that this sable palm in my back yard was more ugly than anything else, so I went to the Lowes about a kilometer from my house and purchased a chain saw.
This is a Poulan P3314, which means that it has a 33 cc 2stroke engine, and a 14 inch bar. I know a little bit about yard appliances, and the Poulan name is NOT the best, but since I figured that beyond the 22 inch-wide palm and the occasional coconut cluster....I'd probably not use the thing much. Walk into your local Lowes, and look for a green chainsaw. This is the unit I'm talking about.
Well, it took care of the sable palm in a big hurry. Of course, that's not saying much, since a sable palm is basically a giant celery. There is no "wood" in a palm tree- they are basically fibers and pulp. The chain died quickly- I've since learned that chain sharpening is literally a black art. Take it to a shop, or just replace the chain each time you cut down a tree.
Last week I took it to an investment house we bought in Fort Lauderdale, and used it to cut down two small black olive trees that were wrecked by the hurricane and in no hurry to re-create themselves. I tried to cut the first down, and nothing happened but smoke. Back to Lowes I went, where I bought a new chain: Suddenly, the formidable wood turned to balsa and the saw went through it in seconds. I was 75% done with the second when the saw ran out of gas.
Or so I thought...
I let it cool 10 minutes, and then filled the tank. Then I spent 30 minutes working my right arm pulling that starter again and again, to no avail. I figured that I'd just flooded it. I tried it the next day- same thing. I changed the plug, drained the gas, tried it again. Nothing doing, it wont start.
Ominous: When it was new, you definitely had to use your foot on the handle to hold it down when you used the pull starter, as the compression was very high. Suddenly it was much less, about the same as my 4-cycle weed-whip.
I finally got pissed off and took it all apart, down to the crankshaft. This is what I found, in the picture below. It looks like sand has gotten into the combustion chamber, though I don't know how that could be possible. I checked the filter, a simple piece of felt mesh about 1/4 inch wide, and it was installed properly. What's more, there was no dirt flying while I was chopping the trees.
-What I wonder about is my fuel. I took an empty 1 gallon container that looked clean and added a gallon of fresh gasoline. I then poured 3.2 ounces of the 2-cycle oil that came with the chainsaw into the fuel as directed.
I did NOT shake up the gas-oil mix. I swirled it around, and then tossed it in the back of my Aerostar van for the trip to the other house. When I got there, I fueled the chainsaw, and then started work. It ran for probably 25 minutes on this fuel before it quit.
What happened? I can't figure out how the piston shown below got so badly scored. The ring is literally gouged into the piston!
$109 down the drain...
N!
