Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Chainsaw Guys...Chain Oil Question

I've never had the need to own a chainsaw, but helping mom and dad clean up their shop yesterday I stumbled upon an old Echo CS440 saw that was probably 15 years old. It hadn't been started in at least 10 years dad said. I brought it home, cleaned it up as good as I could, put some Echo oil in it, filled it with TruFuel 50:1, flipped the switch off of Stop, choked it a few pulls, pushed the choke in, gave it a couple more pulls and it fired right up. I couldn't believe it. The chain appears to be adequate, but not what I'd call real sharp. I read through the manual online, and came to the chain oil adjustment section. I went out and sprayed a stream on the concrete (see picture). I don't know what it is supposed to look like, how much it is supposed to use, etc but for whatever reason this stream seems to me to indicate that it is using an excessive amount of oil but I don't have a clue. Problem is, the screw adjustment is in as far as it will go, and the only adjustment left is to use more oil. What do you experienced guys think? I appreciate the help.

Thats a pretty good amount of oil.

Better than not enough.....

Sometimes those automatic oilers need replacing.

Just keep an eye on it so it won't run out when you are cutting.

I use a very heavy oil in mine. Viscosity of honey...

You can get Tractor Supply chain oil. It's heavy.

JG:
Good afternoon to you sir, I hope the day's as fair and bright down in Texas as it is up here across the medicine line.

Might I ask approximately how long you ran the saw on the left to make that much oil and then how much longer on the right?

On both my saws - Stihl 170 and Husky 372 - if I were to run them about 20-30 seconds I'd have the amount on the left - more or less.

If that's more or less where you're at, then you should be fine.

Hope that helped sir, good luck with the saw and all the best to you all.

Dwayne

PS;
There's some decent youtube videos out there regarding sharpening.

If you're interested I could put one up that makes sense to me.

Stay well sir.

Run it. After you run it thru a tree, do that again and make sure it is still oiling the bar. Just a lubricant for the bar and chain links.

Run it that way, looks good!

You may have put mixing oil in the chain oil reservoir. May just need sticky oil made for bar and chain.

As long as it's flinging oil out I call it good. Heat will really affect the viscosity on the bar oil. If I peg the throttle and don't get a line of oil on a piece of cardboard, concrete, plywood scrap I adjust till I do. Better to have a little much than a little to little.

Thanks for the help. For the record I put in Echo Premium bar and chain oil. Does anyone use like straight 30 wt motor oil?

Better to use bar oil, its sticky. I have used regular motor oil in a pinch, but the sticky stuff is better.

BillyGoatGruff;
Good afternoon to you sir, I hope the day is a good one down in your part of Montana and you all are well.

I'm totally on the same page as you are - I'd rather have a bit much oil than the opposite. As long as the saw isn't running out of oil a lot faster than gas, I'm happy and keep on using it.

A few years back I started using this stuff.



It's supposedly some sort of canola or soybean oil, though I'm not super clear on what it is made from. What I do know is that it's really "clingy" in all weather from 80°F to below freezing, so that's nice.

Anyway sir, mostly I just wanted to say hello as well and I hope you all are well.

All the best to you folks.

Dwayne

I have only ever used Bar and Chain oil, Stihl, Husky, store brand. I'd think 30 wt would be too thin for anything down at your latitude. I could see it if a guy was running a saw in super cold temps maybe.

The other thing to do is to run it cutting wood and monitor the bar oil versus fuel. You always want to run out of fuel before you run out of bar oil.

Howdy Dwayne,

Happy Mother's day to you and your kin up across the 49th parallel.

One lessen I remember as a young buck with not much experience but a lot of energy not being able to figure out why the hell I couldn't cut a damned log off a particular 5 strand barbed wire fence I was trying to fix. The chain was sharp. I ran that poor thing till the bar was discolored and the chain as well. Ruined both. My retarded self didn't know any better and the hole to allow the oil to flow into the bar was plugged. I ran that damned thing dry as a bone. As foolish as I felt, since then I've always kept the mindset better to buy more oil than burn the damned thing up running lean.

I use Stihl bar and chain oil too.

I wouldn't worry a bit. Better too much oil than too little.

I use a fall winter oil then later a spring summer oil, I think they say two tanks of gas for every tank of oil.

Thanks Dwayne, always good to visit with you. I probably ran those tests for about 10-15 seconds at a high speed, if that helps. I'm going to use this to clear some old roadbeds that got overgrown with mesquites at our mule deer place if that matters.

FWIW I think you are good to go. Make sure you don't run out of chain oil. Mesquite will give your saw a pretty good shakedown cruise.

Use bar oil or you will be replacing your bars sooner than need be,if you have rollers on the tip,sooner than that..In a pinch only,you can use really heavy duty motor oil...