201 dissapointment

[spudulike]

The new 201 is classic step backwards would like to ask a Stihl rep to qualify why thay had to make such changes.

I am need a new climbing saw as a spare but won't be a 201 will now even more intrested in try the elusive husky top handle

 

 

 

The problem is that the world has gone Eco mad, the largest market for these saws is the US, they have a body called the EPA - Environmental Protection Agency and they deem two strokes to be dirty messy things.

 

In short, yes they are, they inherently dump unburnt fuel in to the atmosphere due to the design of the engine, the Strato engines are an attempt to meet current lesiglation by pumping air instead of fuel/air in to the transfer ports so you get exhaust and air pumped out of the saw instead of unburnt fuel.

 

The saw manufactures are putting all sorts of tech in to the saws to make them less dirty and unfortunately, some are making the saws tempremental and lacking in some areas.

 

In other areas, two strokes are being kicked out and four strokes replacing them - look at boat outboards and grand prix bikes - both are moving over to four stroke motors as are some brushcutters etc.

 

In reality, there are very few saws causing little damage to the environment compared to some of the things happenig in China and Russia etc but God bless the politicians - they know best:001_rolleyes:

 

The best route is usually to find a reliable way of taking out the bad bits of the saw to give it a fighting chance of doing OK but again, once the Eco guys have their way, they will put legislation in the way of this also.

 

I havent done much on the 201 but would guess the saws exhaust is restrictive, may have some sort of catalytic gauze in it and the carb tuned on the lean side from new!

 

By the way - I have nothing to do with Stihl - just service and tune saws as a sideline!

[mattplace]

I think thats just US saws.

 

You're right huck!

 

I was very disappointed with my 201 so I set about modding it.

 

There's good info on some American sites BUT.... Their saws are different to ours!! Their muffler is a different design, and the flywheel in the US had a woodruff key whereas ours is cast into the flywheel!

 

In the end, all i did was port the muffler and removed the limiter from the carb so it could be tuned to match.

And the result..... Hell of a difference! It is noisier and drinks more fuel, but it has so much torque and good pickup. It pee's all over my old 200t! :-)

 

If anyone's interested, I'll get some pics and a video up soon.

[vduben]

very interested matt, get them photos up