If you depend on the saw, use OEM. If working on saws is more of a hobby sure give AM a try for fun. My “Huztl” saw keeps chugging along, right now as a loaner saw being used by a pro as I build his. All good points guys but we have to come to reality whether the saw is used for occassional use or as a full time income earning saw.
Been lots of talk lately of aftermarket parts, specifically cylinders and pistons and honestly some pretty bad pictures of junk! We all see posts of failed stuff and hear some of great experiences. Since joining this site years ago, like most you for some advise, I realized that the market didn’t hold much promise of good quality aftermarket stuff until here lately. Most re-brand the parts, box them up and send them out as there own…. even thought they are made in the same factory to the same spec! You need to know that quality in some are horrible and pretty darn good in others and it’s really about the grade of that quality that is presented to you in the reflection of the price…PERIOD! Pay for lesser quality and receive a lower grade of junk…. some will say.
Putting a cheap rebuild kit on a Stihl is kinda dumb in my opinion. Your better off just buying a complete china saw on ebay and beat the crap out of that.
I would be interested to know if the material used in OEM and Meteor piston is the same as in the cheap farmertech pistons. I recently used a cross performance kit in a Stihl 076 and the piston and cylinder were of excellent quality and the cylinder port timings were great, however the piston window casting size was almost half the size of OEM and would have strangled the saws power without a lot of grinding. I also recently used a Hyway MS660 top end kit and it was great quality but the cylinder port timings were way off OEM.Ran good though.
I know cleaning up the oem cylinder is the best bet, but when i bought the ms660, it had an aftermarket cylinder on it, so i dont have the oem cylinder. Our cylinder assembly is NiSiC coated with ductile iron piston rings to make it durable and the cylinder assembly of for Husqvarna chainsaw parts includes piston, rings, piston pin, circlips and cylinder. The Stihl 361 – MS361 Chainsaw piston and cylinder rebuild kit features a brand new Meteor piston and Nikasil plated cylinder for the Stihl MS361 chainsaw.