Homelite trimmers - Bob Is The Oil Guy

I rarely ever log in here, so rarely in fact that I'd forgotten my PW but heregoes

I have one of theses cheepie little red trimmers, and I was amazed to learn that there is no air filter on them when they come from the factory, none! I emailed them about this and I received a "the screen should be sufficient" reply. Yah right fellas. I had some foam that's about the same consistency as the eggcrate stuff but flat and cut a filter to go in the cover that has a place for a filter.

I also took the muffler off and removed the wiry, brillo pad looking emissions junk. I can only guess this is some kind of a catalytic converter because the exhaust smelt ozone-y before I removed it. I tore out the spark arrestor screen as well seeing as how I do not live in a fire prone area.

I would bet a lot of the problems are related to the fact that they can't even be bothered to include an air filter. For shame. How's the carburettor supposed to work when it's full of dirt?

I gutted out the muffler to keep it flowing decently, that is to say I am trying to prevent it from getting plugged up.

Ripped the limiter caps off with diagonal cutters and richened it up a bit, too.

After my little tweaks it pop-pop-pop at idle the way a minibike does. It's a great noise. Homelites are the king of the "buy low, mod high" mentality.

It has to be said "Warranty?? What Warranty? What's a Warranty?!" heh :p

I got this thing because the Weed Eater SST25 I had before was losing compression because *cough* family members put straight gas in it It wasn't fixable without an expensive rebuild so I gave her a proper send off. More straight gas and WOT until it got so hot it seized up. I prefer them to go out with a bang, rather than a wimper.