advancing timeing...

[aussiegen3]

hey guys,
ive hered that advancing the timing a few degrees may give you a tiny increase in power, so my question is how do you do it what did i adjust and by how much my car is a 89Si (aussie version).

also with adjusting the timing will that have any effect on engine idle speed or anything else?

[shepherd79]

advancing the timing you do nothing but allow spark to ignite early. which can be good in small amounts, but if you do too much it may start backfirring.
just keep the stock timing, it is there for a reason.

[Justin86]

you will only see some gain with a built up engine.

[300700'88lx-i]

I had my timing advanced a few degrees when we put my ground cam in, and ever since then I've been meaning to retard it back to stock. It doesn't idle very smoothly, especially with cheap gas, and it seems that some of the low end has been killed (some of this may have been in part from the ground cam, though). I'd say it's not worth it for everyday driving.

[k-roy]

I agree. Don't mess with it unless you understand what you are doing.
If you mess it up it can leat to detonation.
Detonation = very bad.

[BootMachine]

Advancing your timing is a great way of getting power but you gotta run high octane fuel...like 93 Octane fuel!

I could get into why but it takes a lot of explaining to do. Just trust me......if your going to advance your timing...use expensive gas and you will see a diff.

[BootMachine]

you will only see some gain with a built up engine.

I beg to differ!

[BensAccordLxi]

Most car companies set the ignition timing for emissions and gas milage. Some cars show great increases with advancing the timing. On an Sr20, that the first thing any true Sr20 tuner will tell you to do. My 88 hatch had a vacume advance on it that cause a bit of a problem at first. After the timing was advanced, I shaved a good amount of time off my 1/4 mile time. The best part is, it was free power. Now, it does work alot better on high octane. I run 91 on the street and a combo of 91 and 100 octane on the strip. The gain was ok with 91 but alot better with the combo.

[Kevin]

If you have more than a short ram intake, header, and exhaust it would not hurt to advance your timeing. Now, I also have been "tuning" my car for a while and i know how it feels and how it sounds!! If you dont know your moter that well you wont know what it will sound like if you advance too much!! I tuned mine at the track, so it is marked where i get the most topend power!!

[smufguy]

i would not advance the timing more than 2 deg. With advanced timing u do feel the throttle response under acceleration. My timing is soo fucked up and since i do not have a timing light and lazy ass i am to take it to my mechanic, i am running on 93 octane which fetches me around 15 bux for 10 gallons and i am not complaining, but yeah u need to have good octane gas like mentioned and better volume of fuel into the cylinders via a modified fuel system to feel those cylinders with enough gas that would eliminate any bad effects. and high octane gas does help u a lot if ur in doubt of bad timing.

[Kevin]

I know where to put my distributor to get the best top end, and i know how where to put it back to when im on the bottle!!! I dont use a timeing light either or 93 octane,but my car doesnt ping!! Why dont you just retard a little?
:werd:

[rjudgey]

tricky one if stock run std spec timing.
The higher octane fuel burns slower hence why you can advance the ignition timing, lower octane burns faster and if timing is too advance it will ignite before the piston finishes pushing back upto the top forcing it to impact on the piston, crank, bearings worst case scenario you end up with bent crank, knackered con rod, melted piston and stuffed bearings on mains and rods, best case scenario you loose a bearing if caught quickly and you'll have to drop sump and take piston out and replace.
I know this as i've had lots of problems with high CR ratios, gas octane levels and ignition advance with and without vac advance attached.
worse with vac advance as this really hikes up the ignition advance and if you increase by 5 degrees the total is way too high!! Even at part throttle!! That Tinking noise you get when you advance toomuch and when you go to put your foot down in too tall a gear is the engine smashing itself up!! Nice!! But you can't allways hear it and it can happy slowly and gradually over a few hundred to a thousand miles before you notice!!
Anyways Advancing is not always best sometimes if you retard you'll get better low down pull and more torque less mpg though but not much advancing will loose low end pull but increase top rpm but as a stock A20 gets rather lame after 5K it's not really worth it bit like flogging a dead horse!!
So basically a stock engine with just a few tweaks leave alone, a modded engine with head and chamber work, big cam, big exhaust and intake yeah worth it but then most of us then go onto some kind of aftermarket ignition setup anyway!!