New MS880 looks like bad news for modder's

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Beer Gut

A Fine Pilsner
Joined
Nov 16, 2011
Messages
785
Reaction score
299
Location
Northeastern Wisconsin
There were some treads bouncing around about the new MS 880 design with new style muffler, coil, and flywheel. Here's a pic of the muffler..View attachment 212211
The question was about weather this saw could be modded besides dual porting the muffler because the new coil is Rev. Limited and appeared to have a different bolt pattern so the old 088 Non Rev. Limited coil might not bolt up. I emailed Stihl directly and asked if they made a unlimited coil for special applications here was the responce.

We are in receipt of and thank you for your email. We do not
offer a coil that will fit or do what you are requiring. Thank you again
for your email and if we can be of any further assistance please feel
free to contact us again.

Best regards,
Technical Support and Customer Support Lead


Maybe there is a possiblity that the 088 coil will fit and they don't make it anymore, or both the flywheel and coil can be changed over to the old style. There is a pic of the new coil I believe in a thread called (MS 881). Either way it looks like if you want to port and get those crazy RPM's out of your 880 buy an older model with the cast muffler..
 
We have pretty much covered all this before ,and although stihl tells us its not do-able ,thats BS,anything can be modded,just depends on how hard you try and how much money ya throw at it;)
 
that muffler actually looks very easy to mod. alot easier than alot of them , when your cutting u shouldnt get anywhere close to your max rpm's so if it were me I would mod the crap out of it:laugh: and not worry about the coil , just my .02
 
Bsnelling posted on this in an earlier thread. I am pretty sure he said you could swap parts around to get the 880 unlimited.
I'm sure he will pop in here shortly.
 
There were some treads bouncing around about the new MS 880 design with new style muffler, coil, and flywheel. Here's a pic of the muffler..View attachment 212211
The question was about weather this saw could be modded besides dual porting the muffler because the new coil is Rev. Limited and appeared to have a different bolt pattern so the old 088 Non Rev. Limited coil might not bolt up. I emailed Stihl directly and asked if they made a unlimited coil for special applications here was the responce.

We are in receipt of and thank you for your email. We do not
offer a coil that will fit or do what you are requiring. Thank you again
for your email and if we can be of any further assistance please feel
free to contact us again.

Best regards,
Technical Support and Customer Support Lead


Maybe there is a possiblity that the 088 coil will fit and they don't make it anymore, or both the flywheel and coil can be changed over to the old style. There is a pic of the new coil I believe in a thread called (MS 881). Either way it looks like if you want to port and get those crazy RPM's out of your 880 buy an older model with the cast muffler..
The MS880 has always been rev limited, not just the newest version. Until these most recent changes, an 088 coil could be swapped out to make it an unlimited saw. This coil is still available from your local Stihl dealer for about $100. The question is whether or not it will bolt to the new case design and work with the new flywheel. I would have expected nothing different from Stihl's response to your email. No way are they going to give info allowing you to make your limited saw unlimited. They can't even let their dealer make any kind of mod. So that email is definately not proof that the 088 coil will not work. With that said, I won't be surprised if it will not.

After several PMs with the OP, it sounds like this newest version of the MS880 is rev limited at 12,000. If so, then that's plenty high enough to support a ported cylinder. You'll just have to tune the H in the cut.

3120 vs 880 stock - YouTube

Text below video says both saws are rev limited.
This video sheds no light at all on this thread. The ignition on the new MS880 is totally different from the MS880 in this vid, as it's a few years old now.
 
Last edited:
I believe most stihl non-limited coils will work, if you can bolt it in the right timing position, or make a plate so it's in the correct postion. I've switched out bad 084 coils with older 064 coils on races@ws many times.
 
Last edited:
We have pretty much covered all this before ,and although stihl tells us its not do-able ,thats BS,anything can be modded,just depends on how hard you try and how much money ya throw at it;)

Thank you Split- You have given me a new signature addition....

Dang, How many Cubic Dollars is that saw?

Rep
 
There were some treads bouncing around about the new MS 880 design with new style muffler, coil, and flywheel. Here's a pic of the muffler..View attachment 212211
The question was about weather this saw could be modded besides dual porting the muffler because the new coil is Rev. Limited and appeared to have a different bolt pattern so the old 088 Non Rev. Limited coil might not bolt up. I emailed Stihl directly and asked if they made a unlimited coil for special applications here was the responce.

We are in receipt of and thank you for your email. We do not
offer a coil that will fit or do what you are requiring. Thank you again
for your email and if we can be of any further assistance please feel
free to contact us again.

Best regards,
Technical Support and Customer Support Lead


Maybe there is a possiblity that the 088 coil will fit and they don't make it anymore, or both the flywheel and coil can be changed over to the old style. There is a pic of the new coil I believe in a thread called (MS 881). Either way it looks like if you want to port and get those crazy RPM's out of your 880 buy an older model with the cast muffler..

HAHAHA you thought that Stihl would help you modify one of their products!
 
The saws in the vid were just for example of rev limited saws. As for Stihl yah I did think they would help didn't think they would care what I do with my saw and since they hold the Timber Sports and sponser other events maybe they would tell me something, oh well can't hurt to try. I tached my new saw a little and it was hitting about 12K hot after cutting I'm happy with that but I would like to squeak out a little more. Muffler will be really easy to mod all the room in the world to attach anything to either side.

Just thought I would keep the topic going with this thread since other treads on this topic left some ? unanswered.

From looking at pics of old 088 coil and my saw the bolt pattern is not the same, but with the comment above sounds like a adaptor plate could be made or possibly something else.
 
From looking at pics of old 088 coil and my saw the bolt pattern is not the same, but with the comment above sounds like a adaptor plate could be made or possibly something else.

I wouldn't waste my timing jury rigging another coil to your saw. You don't need any more than 12K for a woods ported saw. The only hastle is that you have to tune it in the wood.
 
Any way you could switch the laminate out between unlimited 088 coil and the new 880?
 
I tached my new saw a little and it was hitting about 12K hot after cutting I'm happy with that but I would like to squeak out a little more.

Hey Beer Gut,can you give me the part number off your coil,reason for asking is, i have tachoed my new 880 and 11,000 rpm WOT is it and the tacho goes haywire,this is also what the stihl manual says max RPM is supposed to be ,
me very curious if theres a different coil available.
Also been doing some cross reffing and it looks like the new and old 880 share the same crank and piston assemblies
and recoil starter,jeez i reckon the older flywheel is a direct bolt on and who knows maybe the coil as well
 
Last edited:
Back
Top