Has anyone made a 201t unlimited?

Well I got my new 201t this weekend, seems very nice. I watched the one Brad modded on you tube. I plan on breaking it in some today. It seems like with the muff mod and timing advanced to be quite the little power house . So that's the first order of business for me after break in. I have just muff modded all my 200t's and they run great. I've took apart the 200t looking to port one, but things are pretty tight in there. One option also I was thinking is to muff mod it and leave the timing stock and do some porting. My concern is with it being limited that it will not unlock it full potential? So if anyone has made one unlimited can u please throw in you 2 cents. Thanks a million

First off..I've NOT run a 201T...

I don't think it's limited..?? What make you think it is..??

I doubt you could port if enough to make it worth the difference..!!

J2F

The 201T is limited and has to be tuned in the wood. I ported a 200T once. It's not worth it. They don't leave you enough meat to work with.

Thanks for the info..Brad..!!

J2F

Yeah that's basically what I've found as well. The only thing I saw that could be done is open up the piston windows a little bit. But other than that there's very little to work with. I use my 200t more than any saw on most days. I climb with it and do alot of bucket work with it as well. So I must have missed it but was there a thread on Modding the 201? I know about the muff mod and plastic bit. I'm just curious about the timing advance. How much to change it? Thanks a million...

pointless to be porting a 200T, they're strung-out as is, as a genuine work saw I wouldn't advance timing, port, of raise compression on one, that's for sure, it's an angry enough little mother with just the muffler opened. Porting a 200T would be like buying the latest R1 and complaining that 190 H.P. ain't enough . All you're gonna get is basically extra heat and noise for bugger-all. The 201 sounds to me like a deliberately "tamed" 200T that needs fiddling with if wanting to match the 200T's off-the-shelf performance

Stihl n Wood said:

So I must have missed it but was there a thread on Modding the 201?

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Yes there was a couple or three months ago..?? It was Brad Snelling doing the fix.

Carb modification and muffler mod..He does them for $50..with shipping both ways on you..!!

I tried the search...and couldn't find it...it's long.. multiple pages...

Maybe someone better at searching can post a link for you to read..??

J2F

Here it is, LINK.

blsnelling said:

Here it is, LINK.

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Much thanks Brad..!!

I tried everything I could think of.."modifying".."unlocking".."upgrading"..came back zero..

I will now save the thread..!!

J2F

Thanks Brad, I'm not complaining about the 200t at all. But I have about six in the bone pile at work and wanted to see about messing with one. But I never did. Although yes the 201 is stuffed up a bit for sure, and I agree it needs help to stick with a 200. But on the other hand with a muff mod and timing advance it seems to be a ballsy little saw. And we can't do much but mess with it!! I love porting saws and makhing them crank. Its my new hobby for sure. I'm doing more and more saws and learning every time something a little different. Don't get me wrong the 200t is a legendary little beast right along with the 440 and many others....

A muffler mod and retuning will make it run right with a MMd 200. Once you advance the ignition timing, it pulls ahead, with great throttle response to boot. I've not had the jug off one to see if there are any gains there. I was simply interested in showing whether or not it could run with a 200, after all the negative stuff I read about it.

method of limitation on the 201T?

blsnelling said:

The 201T is limited and has to be tuned in the wood. I ported a 200T once. It's not worth it. They don't leave you enough meat to work with.

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I asked Stihl if the 201T had a limited coil. They said it did not, but said it was limited by the carb?! I did not ask further questions about it. I'm wondering if they have used a governor of some sort. When you tune in the wood, are you likely going to be up against the limiter when free revving?

SCHallenger said:

I asked Stihl if the 201T had a limited coil. They said it did not, but said it was limited by the carb?! I did not ask further questions about it. I'm wondering if they have used a governor of some sort. When you tune in the wood, are you likely going to be up against the limiter when free revving?

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It is most definately not the carb. It's the ignition coil. Put a tach on it and you can watch it hit the limiter and the reading will go crazy, as with any limited coil.

So I've started in on making mods to the 201, I haven't yet advanced the timing but have modded the muffler. This has definitely made improvements far over the saw in stock form. By advancing the timing is there any sacrifice in longevity? Or chance or overheating and such? All of my ported saws are at stock timing. So I haven't really messed with timing much at all. I'm always looking to learn something new and move forward in the Modding world of saws..thanks..

blsnelling said:

It is most definately not the carb. It's the ignition coil. Put a tach on it and you can watch it hit the limiter and the reading will go crazy, as with any limited coil.

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Yup. And as far as the OP is concerned, a limited coil makes it a pain to tune, but will do nothing to hurt performance seeing as those rpm's are never seen when in the wood.

oscar4883 said:

Yup. And as far as the OP is concerned, a limited coil makes it a pain to tune, but will do nothing to hurt performance seeing as those rpm's are never seen when in the wood.

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How does one tune a limited saw? I know it must be done "in the wood", i.e. under load, but what is the procedure? What are you listening for? Do you just adjust for the highest speed while under load or is it more subtle or more complex than that?

-Eric

I'm not on the bandwagon with changing out limited coils, if you have to run the saw at 15000rpm to make power you did something wrong IMO.

As for tuning, it's not a matter of sound, it's trying to find the power. Some saws get the power right at the edge of lean seizing, another may seem rich but gets more power when you richen it up a hair more.
Put it in some wood and cut with it, richen it up some, did it pull better? Did it feel stronger? Try leaning it out a little, same questions. Somewhere in there the saw will get happy, cut faster and pull harder than the other settings.

Eric106 said:

How does one tune a limited saw? I know it must be done "in the wood", i.e. under load, but what is the procedure? What are you listening for? Do you just adjust for the highest speed while under load or is it more subtle or more complex than that?

-Eric

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Warm the saw up real well and make sure it it plenty rich and no where near the limiter. Stick it in some wood and lean it out till it clears up. Fine tune for good power from there. For a climbing saw I er pretty good on the rich side of things. For a saw of there cc range they get used in much bigger wood than they should for the most part. A top handle is nice to tune because you can dog in and cut, while leaning it out so it cleans up at the same time. Then make your final adjustments.

sawinredneck said:

I'm not on the bandwagon with changing out limited coils, if you have to run the saw at 15000rpm to make power you did something wrong IMO.

As for tuning, it's not a matter of sound, it's trying to find the power. Some saws get the power right at the edge of lean seizing, another may seem rich but gets more power when you richen it up a hair more.
Put it in some wood and cut with it, richen it up some, did it pull better? Did it feel stronger? Try leaning it out a little, same questions. Somewhere in there the saw will get happy, cut faster and pull harder than the other settings.

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It has nothing to do with the saw having to turn those RPMs to make power. A saw is typically tuned at WOT with no load. There is no saw that makes it's most power at WOT, yet it needs to be able to turn those RPMs in order to be able to tune it by ear. Tuning by ear will always get you very close. The rev limited coils make this method impossible, especially on a ported saw.

Additionally, when tuning in the cut with a rev limited coil, it's very easy to mistake the rev limiter as 4-stroking, ending up with a lean saw.

To say that it has nothing to do with sound, is to take away your easiest indicator that your saw is out of tune, or in tune for that matter. Relying on torque alone is highly subjective, and therefore, highly prone to error. With the absense of a rev limiter, the sound of 4-stroking, or 2-stroking is difficult to miss, once you know that sound.

Well so far here's what I think of the saw, I'm a full time arborist so its going to get a work out. I put four tanks through it today alone. I've made the mod to the muffler which helped alot, and of still course tuned it to the mod. I still have not advanced the timing though. I think I will do that tomorrow morning before work or maybe blow through a few more tanks first and do it tomorrow night. So far I really like the saw. It most definitely likes to get buried in its work, which I favor over the 200t. Because alot of times I wont switch saws until the bar can't handle the size of the wood. And this is where the 201 really shines the most, and has no problems with the smaller stuff at all. I'm really considering takin the jug off at some point and taking a look. Even if there's no room for porting if the jugs off I will at least clean up what flaws I see and maybe take a little here and there. But its not my main prospective right now. I want to get the timing done and tune it again and fully break it in. I still have and love my 200t's though. The 201 is a nice saw you just have to unlock its full potential.