With your camshaft and heads and everything in your signature.....your guess is as good as mine.
WOW! Timing makes a BIG difference!
- Thread starter Ike83
- Start date
With your camshaft and heads and everything in your signature.....your guess is as good as mine.
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25thmustang
Mustang Master
I adjusted my timing on the dyno with 89 octane in the car. My car didn't ping even with 20 degrees, and made the most power at 18. I didn't just play with timing and guess, I did it on the dyno, and also run 89 octane because thats what I had in it that day, I could probably run 87 and be fine!
I FINALLY checked my timing last night.......2 degrees. I couldn't believe I've been running 8-10 degrees retarded for this long. In any event, I reset it back to 10 degrees and the thing feels like a whole new monster. Throttle response is back AND my car doesn't backfire in the low rpms anymore.
I can't wait to get off work so I can get back on the highway and let 'er rip. Now my car doesn't fall on its face in the high rpms. Matter of fact, feels like she'll make power all the way up to 5500. ****, she feels like she'll make power past that.
Oh well....I'm going to bump it up to 12-14 and see how she runs, hopefully she'll run even better.
I noticed when I was under the car that I have a Pro Street harmonic balancer. Is this a badass harmonic balancer or not?The ****ing thing had 3 sets of numbers. It took a minute to figure out which hash marks to use. What the hell are they all for?
I believe Dave set the timing on my Capri to 14. I'm all like...
... now... 
I believe Dave set the timing on my Capri to 14. I'm all like...
Are you runnin' the stock cam and stock heads?
So than it IS a good idea to bump the timing up to say 12-14?
You want to run as much timing as you can without detonation....so toss in some 93 octane, bump the timing by a degree and take it for a ride. If you don't hear any pinging, bump it another degree and go again.
Keep going until it pings and then back it down two degrees. Every car is different. Some cars can go to 16 degrees without pinging, while mine pings at 14 degrees.
Also keep in mind weather conditions can play a role, so you may find it still pings on really warm days requiring you to knock it down a degree again.
Basically whay i'm saying is you'll have to stay on top of it.
But I thought you didn't want to have to go to a higher octane when bumping the timing.....I thought you wanted to keep the octane low and the timing as high as possible without detonation?
Roland69
Sergeant Tangnet
I set mine at 13* and with 87 I had very little pinging...I run 81 and it runs fine. I might try foing up a few deg's with some 91 or 92 and see where it likes it
fiveohwblow
Official Member
- Jul 21, 2005
- 2,169
- 145
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Ummm......I believe it defeats the purpose to advance your timing to the point of having to run a higher octane. The theory behind it is to advance your timing enough, but not TOO much that you have to run a higher octane. If you have to run a higher octane (which is usually due to spark knock) than you're defeating the purpose. You shouldn't have to run a higher octane on a LOW compression car. Apparently, our engines weren't built to run a high octane. Matter of fact, higher octanes in a low compression car can sometimes lead to unburnt fuel on the cylinder walls and you simply don't want that.
As far as I know......11 to 12 degrees on 87 octane should be perfect....but I could be wrong.
Well that definitely makes sense, but I would think that increasing even further and running high octane would only improve in somewhat of a perpetual fashion. I know with increased timing and Underdrives I ran a 14.2 at 400 ft elevation. First time to ever drive a car down the quarter. Certainly helped me! Also, now that I have my S/C and chip I have to run higher octane, no choice. I know this is commonplace, but same engine and same internal components...
Well that definitely makes sense, but I would think that increasing even further and running high octane would only improve in somewhat of a perpetual fashion. I know with increased timing and Underdrives I ran a 14.2 at 400 ft elevation. First time to ever drive a car down the quarter. Certainly helped me! Also, now that I have my S/C and chip I have to run higher octane, no choice. I know this is commonplace, but same engine and same internal components...
Sounds good to me.
But I thought you didn't want to have to go to a higher octane when bumping the timing.....I thought you wanted to keep the octane low and the timing as high as possible without detonation?
That's like putting a fat girl on a treadmill and giving her milkshakes to drink.
You can try to stick with 87 octane, but i doubt you'll get much more than 11 or 12 degrees tops. Even that is borderline. Like i said, every car is different. Mine pings at 14 degrees with 93 octane.
You are only putting in the higher octane to take advantage of higher timing since in theory, the higher you go, the more HP you make. The higher octane is just a preventative thing against detonation.
So if you want to try to advance with 87 octane, that's fine. But if you run higher octane you can advance timing further and gain a few more ponies.
blackened88lx
Active Member
But I thought you didn't want to have to go to a higher octane when bumping the timing.....I thought you wanted to keep the octane low and the timing as high as possible without detonation?
No. Like Mustang5L5 said, you want to run as much timing as possible before detonation. I'm at 15* with 91 or 93 octane and it loves it. That's as far as I went and it's never pinged, I should try and push it a little more.
I set Frankenstang's up the same as my notch at 14* with stock heads/cam/ignition and running 91 octane. For most of the year, I don't get any pinging at all, but those days where it gets above 110* outside, it'll ping above 2/3 throttle and 3000+ RPM when it gets up to full operating temp - I just avoid getting into the throttle as much on those days, rather than retarding the timing back down.
I HATED driving around with my timing set down for a week when I was gearing up to get it smogged. It was bad enough to have my exhaust tone choked up by that cat'ed UPR X-pipe - I'm totally spoiled to my off-road X, now - but I cranked the timing down to 8* this time. I was trying to compensate for the fact that I haven't changed (or needed to) my plugs/wires/etc. for a year and a half; as it turned out, my numbers were significantly lower this year at 8* than they were the previous year at 10* with the same octane in the tank, same set of plugs and such, and a filthy paper FRAM air filter.
Of course, needless to say, the timing went back up to 14* and the off-road X-pipe went back on the next day after smog.
I HATED driving around with my timing set down for a week when I was gearing up to get it smogged. It was bad enough to have my exhaust tone choked up by that cat'ed UPR X-pipe - I'm totally spoiled to my off-road X, now - but I cranked the timing down to 8* this time. I was trying to compensate for the fact that I haven't changed (or needed to) my plugs/wires/etc. for a year and a half; as it turned out, my numbers were significantly lower this year at 8* than they were the previous year at 10* with the same octane in the tank, same set of plugs and such, and a filthy paper FRAM air filter.
Of course, needless to say, the timing went back up to 14* and the off-road X-pipe went back on the next day after smog.
pistonhead351
flim hunter
- May 1, 2005
- 75
- 0
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I always thought it had to do with 3 snorkels, a blueberry, a swing set, 4 crayons, 2 monkeys, and a beach ball.........
....but I could be wrong though.
