OK.....I need to get to the bottom of the Stihl coil interchange.......

[Jacob J.]

JJ is that why you made mention of the "self advancing" coil in the 044 I got from you? As I took it, it would "self advance", much similar to the 046 coil. Am I correct in this thinking?

The coil I used on your saw is a special animal and not for public consumption. If you want anymore info on it we'll have to take it to PMs.

Would that be a major problem with an 046 cylinder on my 044 and a little port work and muffler mod. I'm looking for more power and if a simple coil swap will help I'd like to try.

The issue lies in the fact that you're still using the aluminum flywheel. The cylinders make no difference. The poly flywheel has different characteristics under load than the aluminum flywheel does and that's why the ignitions are different. Now yes, I've swapped ignitions and I have good luck with them. If you have both ignitions in hand and want to try it, you may or may not like the results. If the timing gets too far advanced, what happens is you get a saw that absolutely screams at free rev but falls flat on its face in the cut and has no torque band at all. So that's the component you'd be fighting.

Modern saw ignition timing is pretty aggressive and in most cases, right on the edge of good performance.

 

[ironman_gq]

Gotcha. I might give it a go if one of these coils happens to find me and see what happens

 

[nanuk]

so what I'm hearing is..

The issue lies in the fact that you're still using the aluminum flywheel. The cylinders make no difference.
Modern saw ignition timing is pretty aggressive and in most cases, right on the edge of good performance.

If I put a 046 Jug/Slug in my 044, there's no advantage in swapping the coils.