livewakesnow

Talked to a guy today that told me that if i changed the timing on my distributor i could get more a little bit more acceleration. tell me how this works and how to do it? he said there was a dial you spin at the bottom of the distributor. help please i need more accel

jfairladyz

Just advance your timing a few degrees and you should see a small boost in power. I think stock is 8degrees BTDC. I immediately noticed the difference when I changed the timing. As far as the dial, I think not. You just loosen the adjustment screw and turn the distributor (using a timing light). If you cant get enough advance that way, you can pull the distributor and there an adjustment screw on the underside where it mounts to the base. Adjusting this will give you a little more room to play with if you need it. I did, my distributor was rotated as far as it would go and the timing was retarded. So I had to pull mine to get it right.

jfairladyz

Oh and thats for NA, a turbo engine runs something like 20degreesBTDC. And I don't think you can change the timing at the distributor on the turbo cars anyways. Oh and if you got a 79 like it says in your sig. then it should be at 10degrees stock.

livewakesnow

could you give me a little more detail on how to do this please? i leave for boot camp tomorrow and want to get this done

Pistolio

warm the car up, make sure it idles properly at about 800rpm in neutral, use a timing light to check the timimg of the first cylinder, as jfairladyz said it should be at 10 degrees. to either advance or retard the timing loosen the bolt securing the distributer and turn it either clockwise (advance) or anti-clockwise (retard).

u might have to play with it a little to make sure u get it correctly advanced for maximum gains just try it and go for a hoon untill u think i can feel any gains. (which could be bearly noticable)

oh yeh, when u advance the timing, the idea is that there is more time for the fuel to burn within each cylinder thus u get a better 'bang' so you will need to run a higher octance fuel than standard, i run either 95 or 98 depending on what the prices are looking like at the time. i also find that the higher the octance the better my motor runs and the longer a tank lasts me so there are benefits of the higher fuel other than the price hehe

just outa curiosity, hey jfairladyz what is ur timing set at now u have adjusted it???

jfairladyz

Good question Pistolio. I can't recall what I set it at. It's been a while. It's not advanced so far that 91 octane prevents any detonation. Most of my power gain came from the fact that my distributor was so far retarded. Almost 30degrees retarded!!!. But Yeah, I can't recall what I ended up setting it at. I took it a few degrees advanced over stock (81). If I still had my timing light, I'd check it but a chunk of my tools were sold before I moved leaving me with just the basic handtools til I can get my collection built back up. And Pistolio is absolutely right on raising the octane. A couple degrees and you can still run on 87, but the higher you climb the higher the octane has to be or you might end up with a hole in the top of one of your pistons.

Pistolio

the lowest fuel octane that we can get here is 92 i think and i have my timing advanced somewhat over stock. i find that 92 runs fine with the timing as it is but the higher i go the better it seems to run, i also find that 98 octane lasts me longer than 95 and 95 longer than 92. even when i fill up with say $50 ill put less 98 in than 92 but the tank still lasts longer.......well guess i shouldnt complain

Dorifto

... and another reason I want to move to Australia. Around my area, all we have to fill up wish is 87, 89, and 91. We get the occasional 85 at the pump as well. Pisswater, I say. Though, there's a pump about 10 miles from my place that has 115-octane Chevron unleaded at the pump, for $4.15 a gallon ...

jfairladyz

The price one pays to have high performance. It costs more to drive the cars now then it does to build them up. It's rediculous. I got my car back on the road today after rigging a few things up due to lack of parts (and funds) and after filling up I realized I'm not going to be able to do much driving in my gas guzzler anymore , and I'm already tired of driving the Protege. I'll still cruise on the back roads around here but I can't afford to drive her into town everyday anymore. Suck. But hey, I got a business to get started so I'm penny pinching .

Heat Rave R

Don't forget, most other countries do not use the same (MON+RON)/2 rating for their octane levels that we Americans do. Frequently they use just the RON(or was it the MON?) rating, which is generally a higher number but is often pretty equivalent to US gasolines.

jfairladyz

And most other countries don't use gallons either. On a trip through western Canada once I thought I was getting a really good deal on gas until it took a lot more to fill up my tank then it should've. That's when I realized that they weren't dispensing in US gallons. Bummer.