Zerocyde

First off, what I found and what I did...

Without disconnecting the ESC it showed what I believe is about 8* (point of farthest left "V") After disconnecting the ESC it showed about 6* retardation. I hadn't checked timing after replacing my head gaskets a few months ago, so the bad setting wasn't that big of a shock.

I adjusted it to about 4* advanced and gave it a test run. It seemed a little more sluggish than usual on takeoff. Weird that it seemed to run better in first at 6* retardation.

I then adjusted it to 6* and it felt about the same as -6*. Then I set it to 8* and it felt better than ever. Little more response in first and second, way more response and power in third and fourth.

Here are the oddities that I'm not sure about...

First off, the idle in neutral seems to be related to my speed. Is that normal? Like, if I'm cruising at about 35 and put it in nutral, it settles at a little under 2k rpms. If I just keep coasting, the rpms will slowly lower along with the speed. Sitting still, parked, the idle seems just as normal as ever. Is this normal? Also, when I first turn the car on it seems to act as if I gave it a quick tap to the gas pedal right after it turnes over. Last thing, with the ESC attached now that I've set the timing to 8*, it shows way to the left of the last "V".

So, that's the weird stuff, unless it's not weird, heh. One question, how will I know if I need to bump up to a higher fuel grade?

Thanks for any help!

JakeJr

Based on what you wrote, I'm wondering if you're mis-reading "advance" and "retard". Explain to me where you're standing and what you see when you're checking/adjusting the ignition.

My second concern is whether the outer ring of your damper has moved. If that has happened, then the timing will always seem to be off.

Of course you probably already know, that to correctly set the ignition base timing, the timing connector (tan wire with black stripe) must be disconnected. Then, once set, the battery must be disconnected for around 30 seconds (which will clear the stored code), the timing connector re-connected and the engine re-fired.

Once that's done, at idle, the timing should be at 20-22 degrees advanced BTDC.

Jake

Zerocyde

First off, Standing at the front bumper of the car looking towards the firewall I read retard as to the right of the indicator, and advanced to the left of the indicator.
Basically, I'm going off of this photo: https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/atta...iminglight.jpg

Secondly, how important is clearing the code to observing the results? After my first two adjustments (to 4* adv and then to 6* adv) I would just turn the car off, reattach the ESC (brown cable thingy) and then go test it, without ever clearing the code. Are you saying that clearing the code THEN reattaching the ESC would have given me different results? For the final adjustment (to 8* adv) I pluged the ESC back in, test drove it, then when I got home I cleared the code.

Thanks again for any help.

henryd3

iTrader: (128)

You have advance and retard backwards

Damon

No, you got it right. Left of zero is advanced (as seen standing in front of the vehicle), to the right of zero is retarded.

I never cleared the codes after checking timing. It just stores the code, doesn't affect how it runs after the next start. Might take a little while for the ECM to figure out how to trim the engine tune with the newly advanced timing, but nothing it won't learn it's way out of in a few minutes of driving.

A little rev-up on start is normal before settling back down. When it's overnight cold it'll hold a higher idle for even longer until the engine temp comes up a bit.

Don't recall if I ever popped it into neutral while rolling to observe the idle speed but that sounds like something GM would program in. As long as it drops back down to idle speed again as you come to a stop I'd say it's normal.

Will you need to use higher octane gas? Really that's a try it and see thing. All of the TBI engines I've played with will tolerate a bump of 4* over stock spec (from 0* to 4* BTDC) without needing better gas. Beyond that it's a try-it-and-see thing. Some yes, some no.

henryd3

iTrader: (128)

OOPS, I apologize, I wasn't paying enough attention and should never have said anything in a distracted state. Sorry, will try and not do it again

windowrattler

iTrader: (3)

Doesn't the computer control the timing anyway? I was under the impression that adjusting the base timing would do very little throughout the rpm range.