Stihl Kart Engines and 090 10 cube Chainsaw .......................

I'm trying to gather more info on this rather unique model from Stihl.

As far as i know very very few were made possibly less than 24 as i believe 12 were sent to Australia for evaluation and the rest to the States.

The one to your right belongs to Wayne Sutton from Washington USA and it was one of the 090's that was sent to Australia.

By Wayne Sutton ( North/West Area Manager for Stihl Chainsaws ),

There are some 10 cube 90's around. I have heard a variety of stories explaining their existence.
I have one that I bought in a box. It had came from Australia and the owner said that about 10-12 were distributed in the US and about the same number in Australia. They were all sucked up by the racers and so the results of the "test" were not sufficient to support full production.

In other accounts I have heard that STIHL did not have anything to do with them and that they are a mule created by the racing boys.

They have a removable head and the transfer ports align with the channels that are in the bottom end of all 090's. That alignment tells me that they are real and some part of the STIHL testing and development. I would guess that the reason it did not end up as a standard item is that with a piston of that diameter it is real easy to stick an engine from over speed. And, as everyone knows, most end users like to lean out their saws and get every thing out of them that they can.

I have a picture here of the "10 cube" 090 that is in my collection. They are actually 159cc. Which is slightly less than a full 10 cubic inches. As you can see, the Compression realease is in a different location and in this case the top cover is plugged with a silver colored plug where the standard release was located. I know this is not a pretty machine but an odd one never the less.