New to me 350b

[Brennan]

Well it struck again, found another saw at a dirt cheap price. This time something I’ve never seen and can scarcely find mentioned anywhere except on acres. I present to you the homelite 350b. I think the b stands for bow saw but I could be wrong, it has a funny clutch cover and some clearencing on the body itself. Obligatory pictures:




Now on to the ugly. The saw is 98% complete but has some issues. When picked it up I was told that the saw had “ate” the intake boot so I thought it had just collapsed in and closed it off but it literally ate the boot and has smeared it all over the skirt of the piston and some on the cylinder walls



I would assume this would merit a complete tear down and de gooping instead of just running it and burning it out
I’m also having trouble finding a boot for it as the part number the ipl references looks nothing like what identifiable piece was left of the boot

It appears to work similarly to a 330 where the bottom of the carburetor seals directly on it. My guess is at some point they changed it to the same as the 360 boot and I’m going to need some extra parts. Here’s what the base plate looks like

I also have some concern for the hv coil as the epoxy appears to have cracked at some point but it was supposed to be running with that so we will see

If it still works I will probably put it in some rice and bake it at like 100 to drive off the moisture and then seal it up with some superglue and epoxy

Overall I think I did pretty good for 10$ and I’ve now got all the 300 series saws I want. I may put a bow on it if I can find a good deal but they are few and far between in Portland and when they do pop up they are are rather pricy

[blythkd]

It looks salvageable. I would've gave $10 for it. The drive side cover looks normal for a 350.

Sounds like you're on the right track. It's so easy to remove the cylinder, you'd just as well take it off and see if you can take all that gunk off with some solvent.

Then switch the intake over to the 360 style. It takes the 12048 boot plus the updated carb adapter plate and the little steel flanged plate with the carb gasket on it that pushes down into the top of the boot. If you can find the update kit it's 70246 and will have everything you need. You can look it all up in the 360 IPL.

And be sure to seal the intake manifold gasket to the cylinder. The old 2 screw style manifold used on the 350 needs all the help it can get. Over-tightening the screws really doesn't help as you just crush the gasket and warp the plastic manifold, maybe even crack it. They updated to a 4 screw design on the 360.

I'm betting there's a carb kit, fuel lines and fuel filter in your future, too.

Good luck!

[Brennan]

How does the cylinder seal to the crankcase? It isn’t immediately obvious if it uses a gasket or some sort of silicone like smaller stihl saws.
I plan on making my own gasket for the two bolt flange since a new one is a little pricy for something I know I’m going to have apart again.
Just ordered all the conversion parts from Leon and a new boot and bulk fuel line from feebay so maybe Friday it’s going to get reassembled. If I need to get silicone I’ll probably go to the stihl stealership and get some since I know it will hold up.

[blythkd]

Silicone on the cylinder flange. No gasket. I think some of them had some kind of gasket maker on them but I've always used silicone with no issues.