The previous owners did a good job of wiping out the exhaust threads on the side of the cylinder. One previous owner had rigged the exhaust ring to be held on with four small springs that also attach to the cylinder fins. The ring is held in place but since there isn't much left of the threads, it does leak some exhaust gas. How bad is this for running since most of what I will be doing is slow speed? Are there any short term fixes and what is the best long term fix? Thanks for any help on this. Jim

Maybe this will help you. Scroll down, to the bottom of the page, there is a exhaust thread repair insert.

http://ossaplanet.com/partspage.html

Richard