Flood!

rockettree · Sep 12, 2013

Suffered some flooding at the yard last night and several saws were completely submerged. I was planning on pulling the plugs and blowing out the cylinders, putting some lubricant in there and letting em sit for a day or so. Anybody out there have anything to add or look out for?

Thanks

TC · Sep 12, 2013

I once had a ms200t and a ms260 completely submerged in my pickup (flash flood). The pickup has one of those plastic load liners and was facing downhill so the rain filled up fast in about 5 mins and I didn't find the saws until a few hours later.

Just did the same as you're suggesting, I used the 2 stroke engine oil as lubricant, the ms200t was fine after a few pull starts, the ms260 took a bit longer to work again (about 30 pull starts)

Happened about 3 years ago, both saws are still fine and have been working daily since they were flooded.

The saws were in here -

ehp · Sep 14, 2013

drain all fluids , try and get all the water/crap out of the motor , you will have to pull sparkplug out and clean plug , put fresh new chainsaw gas and bar oil in saw and start the saw and make sure you run it enough to get it warm enough to dry the water out of the crank bearings , if you donot the crank bearing will rust and trash the motor , becare using compressed air as it its to strong you can blow the crank seals out ,

rockettree · Sep 15, 2013

So far so good, thanks for all the advice. I got all 12 saws and three blowers running and idled them for 10 to 15 minutes. Most of them were completely submerged overnight. The 395's gushed out several huge geysers of water when I started purging them.

I sprayed air and lubricants liberally all day long and each piece of equipment started up just about normally. I had a little trouble with one of the blowers, it took forever to start and puffed out white smoke for a few minutes.

All told I think we came out of it looking pretty good. Thanks again.

Treespotter · Sep 15, 2013

Why all the fuss! The machines where not running when dipped.
Let all the water drain from the machine by turning it over in all directions.
Take off the air filter and blow it dry.
Put the filter back on.
Leave the start/stop button at "stop"!
Pull the starter cord 10 times so most if not all the water gets out of the cavities.
Engage the choke.
Pull the starter cord another 5 times.
Set the stop/start button at start and go for it.

Tom Dunlap · Sep 15, 2013

Water damage isn't likely to be an issue. The silt and other crud in the water might be though.

This stuff might be an issue further down the road. It can make trouble in electrical connections.

One thing we have going for is is that all of our electrical connections are thoroughly covered with lots of oil!

rockettree · Sep 15, 2013

It's all about being safe instead of sorry, those saws have a huge replacement value.

ehp · Sep 17, 2013

the water will ruin the crank and rod bearings if not dried out proper , I have seen more than my fair share of chainsaws that got water in them and left or not heated up by running them as soon as you can pretty much , most times they end up being junk cause they cost more to fix then what there worth , time you pay for a new crank and bearing and have some one split the case and put the new crank in its cheaper to buy a new saw