exhaust leak mysterry... 338XPT

[Altissimus]

...said it a thousand times , what is mildly annoying on the ground is F'n infuriating up in the tree. Right hand being burned, checked mufffler, bolts , gasket... cannot find what to fix... left it off at dealer. Wonder where it is leaking from as the saw runs great otherwise....

 

[Altissimus]

Yeah ... mystery if the head was cracked it wouldn't run good... got out light and glasses to inspect muffler and gasket... no evidence of blow by or even pinhole perforation in the muffler. happy I have extra climb saw for work... tag fell off this may be the pre model to the 338... I have had the saw for years awhile back the drive shaft broke and I put the half the value back into it for repair... exhaust has to be coming from somewhere

 

[rskybiz]

If you find it needs a replacement Dave let me know I'll send you one.

 

[Altissimus]

Thanks Joel.... definitely something unusual afoot. These are great little saws, some starter issues when the model was introduced other than that , champs ... the reason I sold my 020T really

 

[HolmenTree]

I mufflered modded mine and have burnt holes though several pairs of safety pants, gonna have to change that exhaust outlet because I'm worried about melting my climb line one day, I'll just have to get a new muffer cut off the deflector double- triple the hole size and weld larger cover on.
Being a right handed on the side muffler the 338 throws lots of heat. Stihl designed their muffler the right way being under the saw wrapping over to the side.

 

[Altissimus]

Thanks for the input! ... sounds like we should be able to order high perormance mufflers I say

 

[Al Smith]

If it's like the 335 the one complaint I've heard was it was a hand warmer .The 3 335's I have in the shed nary a one has the muffler guard that came with them .

 

[Burnham]

Design flaw, then?

 

[cory]

Not to be rude but those 338s are junk imo. I've run alot of them cuz just like you said, when they run right they are a great saw. But after not too long a while, yes, they will infuriate you. But there is a solution. Sell them or run them over and don't buy new ones.

 

[Tucker943]

The newer ones seem to be miles better then previous ones Cory.

 

[cory]

Maybe, but why this current thread.

 

[Tucker943]

Ahhhh, every saw is prone to act up at some point. Ive never had a 200T that didn't act up once or twice on me.

 

[cory]

I loves me some husky 372s and 395s but I wouldn't even think of buying another 338 for another 5 years minimum in hopes of them working out more glitches in the meantime.

 

[HolmenTree]

The newer ones seem to be miles better then previous ones Cory.

Your right Chris my 2 yr old 338 is still going strong. A little history lesson goes like this, the 334 / 335 / 338 like the 394/395 design is over 20 years old now.
When the 334XPT first came out in the early '90s the Stihl 020 was still the old square box design from the 1971 era basically almost unchanged in appearance. The Husky was state of the art at the time and it took Stihl a few years to catch up and upgrade the 020 similar to what we know of the MS200 today.
Now we have the MS201 and still waiting for the next state of art Husky T450XP which should be here this summer.

Dave you must have a piece of the plastic grill over the muffler missing to get a warm right hand. I looked at mine today and see the outlet deflector blows up wards and the air current from the flywheel going through the cylinder will blow that exhaust flow outwards through the large hole in the grill [good design BTW] But looking closer the muffler does wrap around and under the cylinder like the MS200, but the only difference Stihl made their muffler out of aluminum [white metal?] which greatly transfers heat versus the red hot steel 338 muffler.

 

[Al Smith]

The reason I have the three 335s' in the shed is because the oilers failed on all of them .The guys who owned them became disgusted with them .They never complained other than the hot mufflers . Again though none of them have the guards in place .

I had one of them running after I fixed the oiler and really it wasn't a bad little cutter .I mean it certainly wasn't a 200T but not too bad for a little saw .

 

[Altissimus]

...just checked, the one in the shop is m 335... my 338 is still running fine. Bought the 335 when model was introduced... like saw so much that when the shaft broke at the clutch I authorized the expensive repair. Considering the size my dealer should be able to locate leak

 

[Tucker943]

I ran a 201T today with a 12" bar. No siree, not for me. That saw was a turd. I wis Husky would shit out this new saw. My dealer has clear instructions to have me one as soon as he can.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Damn! It sucked, even with a puny 12" bar? I like to run 16's!

 

[Tucker943]

Me too!

 

[Al Smith]

I've got a brand new 16" plus a new chain for the 200 but I've never as yet used it .
I'm not even sure where it's at at the moment .

 

[Tucker943]

For banging out removals I always ran a 16 on my 200T's.