CS-550p Echo

[1957hd5]

It has the original bar. It came with .325 . I was surprised at the number of links also but that is what the book calls for. I was going to switch it to 3/8 but doesn't seem to be an option on that saw.
I cleaned the bar and used a wire and air nozzle on the oiler holes. I have used the saw carefully, allowing it to idle 3 minutes, just like you advised me back in July or August. Haven't pinched it,ran it in the ground or any of the stuff I sometimes do....
I've ran saws for forty years and not had this problem before. I will look at the bar tomorrow and make sure the store didn't put the wrong bar on. It was brand new, but assembled sitting above the box.
I was always taught to snug the chain up then hold the tip of the bar up and make sure the tension was still right then tighten the bar nuts. Is this right?

[Luffydog]

Don't tighten a chain while it is hot allow it to cool off first then tighten. If it is tighten while it is hot the has heated up and expanded and when you tighten it up hot it is over tightened and can cause damage to bar and chain.

[bgsengine]

Luffy is right - tension chain cold, what we do is you have bar nuts just barely snug enough to hold the bar "up" then loosen them til it drops, tension chain and turn by hand a few times, to line it up straight, then put bottom of bar on a block of wood to hold it up while you tension chain , tension til you can pull up on chain just far enough that bottom of drive link tang will almost, but not quite clear the bar groove, and torque bar nuts - usually does not take much more than 1/4-1/2 of a turn on the nuts to have them torqued down.

Too much tension and it'll be too tight. Also the above adjustment applies to *sprocket nose* bars - hardnose bars, you run them a bit looser - and on most saws, if, when idling , the chain hangs down a little bit from the bar but not entirely out of the groove, after a couple cuts, your tension is about right - chain should run through and able to turn freely.

The CS-550P does come standard with .325 chain, but can easily be converted to 3/8 Standard chain by changing out the sprocket rim and bar - and a 20" bar 3/8 Standard chain will be 70 drive link count (which is why I asked if it is all original bar,chain,sprocket)

Usually the oiler will be sufficient to oil a 20" bar - and cutting your bar oil with diesel is usually only something you do with summer weight SAE30 bar oil when using in extreme cold weather (They do make a 10 weight low temp bar oil) Regular oil (and oil thinned with diesel) can easily sling off, and may not even be obvious that it is doing so - a smoking chain or bar means something is getting too hot, and that is usually either lack of oil, or tension is too tight - Try running it with chain a bit loose and see if it starts oiling again.

have yet to see an oiler failure, other than one where they got fishing line wrapped up in the clutch (dont ask me how - I have no idea!) but it is not unheard of - cutting bar oil with diesel may cause problems if the diesel gets hot enough to evaporate, it can vapor lock your oiler. bar oil also cools and lubricates the oiler itself - if it happens to separate the diesel and bar oil (it will if it sets long enough) the oiler drive worm gear can melt down and strip.

Would be better to just use straight bar oil without trying to thin it out.

[1957hd5]

It has the correct bar, I didn't have a chance to run it without bar and chain yet.
How hard is it to replace a oiler if that is the problem. Can't imagine it being bad on a brand new saw.
Thanks for the help.

[Luffydog]

on youtube stihl has some real good info on the saws and how to tighten chains and some good info other things as well. i know it might not be your same saw but general info on saws goes along ways on some of the other saws you might work on. i always flip my bar over ever few times of tighten up chain that way it keeps things even on both sides of bar and seems to run the bar an extended life as long as it is properly oil. check out the videos on youtube great help along with some good general advice.

[1957hd5]

Think the oiler is fine, ran it without bar and it was pouring out pretty good. It even dripped oil when I spun clutch by hand.
I cleaned the oil ports on the bar real good and will see what it does tomorrow. The original chain is now toast. Was cutting a log up and found one of those big brown insulators the hard way...was completely inside the log.

[harwester]

I know I have mentioned here that I have several chainsaws, but I was in a farm store and saw a saw marked down from 520.00 to 239.00 and couldn't help myself.
It is brand new I haven't even started it yet. The last new saw I bought was a dolmar 5100 and it never ran right until I pulled the limit caps and gave it more fuel. I intend to do the same since I have read a lot about echo saws being way to lean from the factory and have a tendency to do a meltdown.

Pure myth - that's just people that like Stihl or Husky bashing the machine - I have yet to see *any* of the machines we sold - chainsaw or otherwise - melt down - saws are supposed to be serviced and set up before delivery to the customer - if your HD store did not do that, they are not following good practices. Very rarely do they need any tweaking when properly serviced and fueled to begin with - We have 3 case studies on that over 3 years - 2 professional users, one with 2 550's and one with 1 - The guy with the 2 550's buys "whatever is cheap" 2-cycle oil at the hardware store and cheapest gas they can find at gas station - some of that oil they were using was 6 years old Homelite 32:1 mix oil.. They had endless problems with their 2 saws they kept bringing them in to be 'readjusted" because they were too lean - 9 times out of 10 a new fuel filter, dumping out the old gas and fresh shop mix (89 octane, Echo Power Blend 2 stroke oil) resolved the problem.. for a few months.. then they'd be back again - In frustration I replaced the standard fuel filter with a bigger surface area Husky 503-443201 filter, and tweaked the carbs rich so they were about 10% off their proper power band - then things lasted them much longer.

The other guy - buys only Echo Power Blend mix oil from us, buys the *recommended* 89 octane gas, and runs his saw hard every day - and has never , EVER needed a re-adjustment of the carburetor - brings it in every year for a tune up (plug and filters, replace lines after 2 years) - and has never had a problem - in all 3 saws they are used daily, all day (firewood cutter and logger) - and even with them being "lean" , they never yet melted down

Also, the carb adjustment on these particular saws is *very* different from your ordinary run-of-the-mill carburetor - Got to set the mixture screws much different, MUST have an accurate tachometer, and be properly warmed up - they do need to run a few minutes before they warm up to develop full power, but tweaking them rich results in carbon problems at the exhaust ports.

I suppose that would void the five year warranty?

Absolutely.

And is that five warranty for real anyway?

Absolutely - In fact, we just replaced a customer's saw with a whole new one 2 1/2 years later - they overtightened the bar nuts and pulled the bar studs out of the crankcase housing - even though it was really sort of their fault, Echo approved the warranty anyway.
Not to mention, the ignition module is a LIFETIME warranty (and for trimmers/brushcutters, the drive shaft is as well lifetime warranty)

Following the procedures by the book, we have never had a warranty claim denied yet, so far have never yet seen a blown echo (but several huskys and stihls burned up meantime by the same owners.)

This is an old post, but it's really helped to me. Thanks for this good post.